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Linux 2001 Timeline 98

Posted by HeUnique from the this-is-definately-in-a-must-read dept.
From the people at Eklektix Inc. (ok, everyone knows them simply as LWN or Linux Weekly News) have written the Linux 2001 Timeline (you can read it all at once with this link, though it's 1MB download). Lots of funny notes from Linus, Eric Raymond, RMS, some sad moments. Who would have remembered that Linux kernel 2.4.0 went out only a year ago (Jan. 4, 2001), Eric Raymond promising SourceForge mirrors, and other tidbits -- A definite must-read.
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Linux 2001 Timeline More

Linux 2001 Timeline

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  • Humanoid robots? (Score:4, Funny)

    by mrroot ( 543673 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2001 @02:00PM (#2727091)
    From the article, July 2001:
    The University of Tokyo makes a Linux-powered humanoid robot

    Possible highlights from 2002's timeline:

    Sept 2002... Linux-powered humanoid robot gets rooted by 1337 hacker in under 10 minutes.

    Oct 2002... Microsoft makes a Windows XP-Powered Humanoid Robot, but it goes berserk, killing 12 innocent bystanders after it got a BSOD.

    Nov 2002... Pay per view event: Linux-Powered Humanoid Robot vs. Windows XP-Powered Humanoid Robot in a winner-take-all death match.

    Dec 2002... Army of Linux-powered humanoid robots march on Redmond, WA.

    • Re:Humanoid robots? (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Jan. 2002: Linus invokes the little known pinky_brain feature in the 2.9kernel

      Feb. 2002: Linux takes over the desktop market

  • Jon Stewart-esque (Score:3, Funny)

    by SilentChris ( 452960 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2001 @02:04PM (#2727107) Homepage
    "This-is-definately-in-a-"must-read" dept."

    In a Jon Stewart voice, "If... you happen... to use Linux".

    • definately?

      And do not spellcheck.
      • About your sig: what's so bad about Outlook?
        • About your sig: what's so bad about Outlook?

          I am contacting you to ask your advice.

          • But that's more a sys admin's problem then anything else. You purchase a piece of software, it has bugs or faulty "features" (they all do) and you deal with them.

            There haven't been many viruses and Linux, but you mean you never have had a mail reader hose your home directory while setting it up (particularly KMail)? The shit happens.

            As an "ease of use" thing, I think Outlook (and more Outlook Express), are pretty competent.
            • Yeah, right. Joe Sixpack with a Windows machine can afford to pay a competent sysadmin. Viruses are very much the users' problem, and it's Microsoft's fault that they proliferate so easily. I'm not saying Linux is excellent security-wise (though it is somewhat better.)
              • "The problem is that Microsoft keeps forgetting that the users own their computers."

                So do Linux developers.

                I'm not trying to trash Linux, because I use it and Windows XP/2000 regularly. The problem is in having a zealot nature, you tend to dismiss the small problems Linux definitely has. And Joe Sixpack is in no better condition to fix its problems than Windows.

                • So do Linux developers.

                  Actually, I was referring to the information access restrictions on WinXP, and Microsoft's tendency to insist that everyone except Microsoft employees is too stupid to fix simple bugs. However, I do agree with you.

                  I'm not trying to trash Linux, because I use it and Windows XP/2000 regularly. The problem is in having a zealot nature, you tend to dismiss the small problems Linux definitely has.

                  Small problems? :) I've always called them different problems. I'm certainly not a Linux zealot: I was for the first year or so that I ran it, but now I just consider Linux to be the lesser of the two evils (I've considered *BSD, but I don't think I can part with apt-get.)

                  And Joe Sixpack is in no better condition to fix its problems than Windows.

                  No, but Joe Sixpack can get help from a programmer friend/relative, or pay a third party to fix things. Note that I am not saying that Linux systems are ready for Joe Sixpack yet.

          • I am contacting you to ask your advice.

            This should be followed with:

            All your file are belong to us. Make your time!

  • Linus flees (Score:4, Funny)

    by Medievalist ( 16032 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2001 @02:05PM (#2727119)
    This is just a great (and accurate) tidbit:
    Linus redefines min() and max() in the 2.4.9 stable release, then flees the country. Many people object to the new, nonstandard interface.
    I've just recently started testing 2.4-based distributions - there didn't seem to be any point when they were only nominally stable.

    Red Hat 7.2 seems useable, except for the broken pppd.

    --Charlie

    • Re:Linus flees (Score:2, Interesting)

      by jmu1 ( 183541 )
      Call me naive, but I haven't had a single problem with my Enigma box dialing out with pppd... I don't recall ever seeing an update for it in the updates archive either.
      • /.
        The problem, specifically, is in the patches that Red Hat added to Paul Makerras' code base. I had a working configuration that was in regular use for Win98 and MacOS dial-ins running under 6.22, and that same configuration completely failed to work under 7.2. Once I installed the source .RPM and recompiled without the patches the same configuration worked fine, and I now have it in use on the test box.
        This is a known problem that was reported to Red Hat's Bugzilla box as bug #55367 and apparently the patch that causes it was obtained from Dell (see Bugzilla #15738). The comments all refer to windows, but I know for a fact that it also affects pre-OSX macs, and I'd guess most DOS dialups as well.
        From your comments I'd guess this doesn't affect dial-out, which is somewhat interesting. You haven't seen an update from Red Hat because there isn't one, they have not addressed the problem yet.
        --Charlie

  • and in 2002 ... (Score:3, Funny)

    by gCGBD ( 532991 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2001 @02:10PM (#2727149) Homepage
    Microsoft claims it is responsible for the creation and all of the innovation in Linux, announces that its next release will be Linux based, and that everyone who uses Linux in any capacity will owe them royalties, license fees, and due homage.
    • Naw, they'd just blackmail a couple of drunk mandrake geeks, put them in a windowless room for a week to Find and Replace all the keywords in the code with MS references, then release the new Microsoft linuXP with much fanfare. I can hear the Lame Biskit song playing in their commercials already.
    • Don't you remember - Bill already tried to claim responsibility for the success of open source in a speech [slashdot.org] back in November
  • My daughter was born January 4, 2001. Coincidence? I think not.

  • Mac OS X (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I find it odd that they mention so many non-Linux things, while at the same time not mentioniong a new UNIX-based operating system that is showing up everywhere.

    Does anyone know if the overall market share of Mac OS X is greater than the market share of Linux yet?

  • MPAA==RIAA==maffia (Score:5, Informative)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2001 @02:33PM (#2727267)
    "Jack Valenti predicts that Congress will require copy-protection controls in nearly all consumer electronic devices and PCs. The lobbyist nonpareil for the Motion Picture Association of America delivered a stark warning to technology firms on Monday : Move quickly to choose standards for wrapping digital content in uncopyable layers of encryption or the federal government will do it for you."

    There was another guy in Chicago in the '30s with an Italian-sounding name who used to go around businesses saying "accept our protection or something bad might happen to you".

    Jack, you and your lobbyist goons should be sued for spreading thinly disguised threats like your do. Your pathetic schemes will end you making everybody's life miserable just because you don't know how to make a buck without twisting people's wrists. I say get fsck you with a steel wire brush ...

  • Put this in your timeline...

    I wasted $200 on Linux Vaporware... The Agenda VR3 PDA Developer's edition. (Stupid Battery Guzzler)

    Actually it wasn't a waste, I still love mine, but funny how it wasn't mentioned, at all in 2001.
  • November 2001: Microsoft lies about Embedded Linux [slashdot.org]
  • This couldn't have been that hard to compile, all you have to do is grep through the Slashdot story titles for the past year for certain keywords and the timeline writes itself.

    --trb
  • Many announcements in the timeline tell stories from different companies "quarterly loss", "lays off 20 people", "file for bankruptcy". Many creative company's have gone this way this year and it looks like they didn't really understand the market they were trying to get into.

    Sometimes it reminds me of a rather old IBM ad on TV. Two guys talking, one reads a paper "We have to get on the internet" "Why?" "That's not in the text."

    Like founding a company with a "let's do something cool in Linux" philosphy but without any clue or concept. They're trying to queeze Linux into their marketing scheme and then wonder why it doesn't work.
    • Like founding a company with a "let's do something cool in Linux" philosphy


      I doubt that they even wonder why it doesn't work. I suspect that the management guys were just rushing to cash-in on the Linux hype. Too many $$ in their eyes. It was nice that a lot of developers were being paid to do what they love.


      I also noticed the frequent layoff references (probably due to my own current layoff ;-). Next year should be real interesting. I expect to devote more time to my projects. If the others do the same, there might be a lot more version announcements in the 2002 edition.

  • and its not a new one at all

    The linux market is maturing and on its path from hobbyism to professionalism a long way has been completed, yet running is still necessary to catch up.

    Nonetheless the dices are showing its eyes and business it is.

    The OpenSource EVOLUTION are successful. At least in my eyes. The purpose was to me, to establish a foundation of a counterpart to the monopolistic software business we all love and hate as Microsoft.

    No single company was capable of establishing such a counterpart, not even Sun or IBM, yet they have tried, I'll grant them that. So instead companies and people have fought hand in hand in spawning an alternative to MS that could survive and co-exist with Windows. We have succeeded.

    Linux will be continue to be free thanks to the GPL and the support, so will the BSD's.

    But one thing to acknowledge is that we will see more and more services based on paid subscriptions to be introduced.

    As the dark ages matures and the warlords loses their strength due to long lasting battles, threaties are signed and peace and prosperity grows.

    Rivers of blood was to be seen, but the blood have not been wasted, it has found new purpose. It ripped up existence, to seed the changes.

    We have a new market now. But it is still young.
    Compared to before the dark ages, Romans were in control, and Romans alone. Rome collapsed, but still it exist today. But things are different, won't you say?

    I didn't say this one was going to be easy to understand. The software and business markets are only a small pocket in time. So are world history. - Open your eyes.

    Once I had karma, now I have none. :)
  • ...very interesrting they would comment on the Linux need for Virus Sccanners. I can't seem to find a Linux Virus Scanning Engine on the site anymore...there was one once...
  • Well, the Sourceforge mirrors didn't seem to work out. But hey, maybe ESR can sell off those VA Linux options and buy Linus a cheeseburger or something.

    Surprised at 29 cent burger day?

    --saint

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