Happy 20th birthday, Linux • Hacker News Board

Re: Happy 20th birthday, Linux

#21

Post by cpeterso » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 5:37 PM UTC

Is Linux a repeatable phenomenon? Is there a college student today whose hobby OS can snowball into such a dominant technology? If Linux started in 2011, I wonder what design decisions would have Linus made differently.

The Innovator's Dilemma suggests that a disruptive technology replace a dominant standard by working bottom-up: specialize in a corner of the market that is too small or unprofitable to be of interest to the dominant player, then add "cheap but good enough" features.

The economics of Linux might bend some of the Innovator's Dilemma assumptions, but it does seem like Linux is losing its focus as it tries to support servers and desktops and embedded devices. Perhaps a smaller, less capable kernel could capture some super-low-end devices (like cheap mobile devices or home automation).

Re: Happy 20th birthday, Linux

#22

Post by slowpoke » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 6:16 PM UTC

While I have only discovered the awesomeness that is GNU/Linux approximately a year ago, I feel at home like it's been forever.

Happy birthday, Linux, and cheers to the best kernel in the world!

Re: Happy 20th birthday, Linux

#23

Post by microtonal » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 6:18 PM UTC

charlieok wrote: post #16

microtonal wrote: post #9

It has been a fun ride! I started using Linux in 1994 when I was twelve with Slackware Linux. I remember having long fights with my younger brother about how to divide a 40MB hard disk between Linux and MS-DOS (for games). It is important to remember how Linux and the BSDs made it possible for a whole generation of tech enthusiasts to educate themselves. At that age, I could not afford to buy a compiler or books as m…

So your comment here just got inserted back into the story? I'm not sure if I've seen that happen before

Weird! :) Me neither.

Re: Happy 20th birthday, Linux

#24

Post by ktf » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 6:22 PM UTC

microtonal wrote: post #9

It has been a fun ride! I started using Linux in 1994 when I was twelve with Slackware Linux. I remember having long fights with my younger brother about how to divide a 40MB hard disk between Linux and MS-DOS (for games). It is important to remember how Linux and the BSDs made it possible for a whole generation of tech enthusiasts to educate themselves. At that age, I could not afford to buy a compiler or books as m…

I still remember the first time I commandeered our one and only phone line for an entire weekend to download the Slackware ISO. Version 7, if I remember correctly? My parents were pissed.

I was so excited to have a "real" C/C++ development environment for free, after years of using a pirated version of Visual Studio. I installed Slack, and within 45 minutes I had totally hosed the system and had to re-install. Then I did it again and again and again... those were the days :)

Re: Happy 20th birthday, Linux

#25

Post by ConstantineXVI » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 6:31 PM UTC

trafficlight wrote: post #13

microtonal wrote: post #9

It has been a fun ride! I started using Linux in 1994 when I was twelve with Slackware Linux. I remember having long fights with my younger brother about how to divide a 40MB hard disk between Linux and MS-DOS (for games). It is important to remember how Linux and the BSDs made it possible for a whole generation of tech enthusiasts to educate themselves. At that age, I could not afford to buy a compiler or books as m…

At 12 years old, how did you end up finding out about it so early?

(Not parent, but happens I found Linux at ~12 anyway, so here goes...)

First brush with Linux, a friend had actually bought (yep) Linux-Mandrake (want to say 7.2ish?), and I simply kept bugging him until he lent me the discs. After that Red Hat (came in a book), then Knoppix around 2003-4 ([ab]use of my HS computer lab's cable line). Got a laptop for b-day senior year, that got Ubuntu (abuse of neighbor's wifi).

Re: Happy 20th birthday, Linux

#26

Post by ConstantineXVI » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 6:33 PM UTC

stillinbeta wrote: post #14

The kernel is literally a day older than I am, and I use it every day. I wish I'd accomplished nearly as much as it had.

Start hacking on the kernel, maybe you will :).

Re: Happy 20th birthday, Linux

#27

Post by fcambus » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 6:42 PM UTC

Today, we are celebrating 20 years of Linux, listening to the kernel : http://www.linux.fm

Re: Happy 20th birthday, Linux

#28

Post by indrora » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 7:24 PM UTC

I got my first taste of Linux in the late 90's. That taste? RedHat and Debian. I was, oh about, 8..9 or so.

I initially played with linux only as a luzer -- I would go up to a friend's place for parties but more accurately to sit in the "commanders seat' -- In a ring of 3..4 monitors. Being a kid, I was enthralled. The friend? Hugh Daniel of the FreeSWAN project (Thanks for the keyfobs, Hugh.)

Then I got a copy of RedHat 6. I used it with an old dilapidated win95 box we had after a move. During the move, we had gotten new laptops, so this one I took over as the nerd child.

I found Mandrake. I dont remember what version -- It was around 2002 or so. It had instructions for dual-booting Windows XP in the manual.

I played with linux until I actually didn't have a choice: I had a machine I couldn't run Windows on at all. I was using Ubuntu 6.06 LTS and the machine was an Alienware computer that wouldn't boot windows right. It had a bad IRQ line from a car crash being pulled low.

Since then I've used Arch, DamnSmall, Debian, Ubuntu, Suse/OpenSUSE and even TInyCore. I've done kernel rebuilds and written countless lines of shell. I've run Linux on Dingoo`s, Zaurii, even SBCs. I've worked with printers that run BSD on the inside (NetBSD) and on servers with hundreds of gigabytes of space. I have done things that Windows would cry over. I have mastered my world's machines with Linux, as well as its friends.

Cheers, Linus.

Re: Happy 20th birthday, Linux

#29

Post by Bootvis » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 7:42 PM UTC

trafficlight wrote: post #13

microtonal wrote: post #9

It has been a fun ride! I started using Linux in 1994 when I was twelve with Slackware Linux. I remember having long fights with my younger brother about how to divide a 40MB hard disk between Linux and MS-DOS (for games). It is important to remember how Linux and the BSDs made it possible for a whole generation of tech enthusiasts to educate themselves. At that age, I could not afford to buy a compiler or books as m…

At 12 years old, how did you end up finding out about it so early?

For me it was Suse 6.4 at 13. Fine memories. I guess it was because most of my friends were nerds too.

Re: Happy 20th birthday, Linux

#30

Post by eru » Thu, Aug 25, 2011, 7:52 PM UTC

trafficlight wrote: post #13

microtonal wrote: post #9

It has been a fun ride! I started using Linux in 1994 when I was twelve with Slackware Linux. I remember having long fights with my younger brother about how to divide a 40MB hard disk between Linux and MS-DOS (for games). It is important to remember how Linux and the BSDs made it possible for a whole generation of tech enthusiasts to educate themselves. At that age, I could not afford to buy a compiler or books as m…

At 12 years old, how did you end up finding out about it so early?

I had my first contact with Linux around the same age. I had nerdy friends. (Don't know where they got it from in the first place. Probably nerdy parents at some stage.)