It's Not the 15th Birthday of Linux

Glyn Moody writes "There's been a spate of celebrations of Linux's 15th birthday recently. What they're really marking is the 15th anniversary of version 1.0. But do version numbers matter for free software? The 'release early, release often' approach means there's generally little difference between version 0.99.14z, say, and version 1.0. In fact, drawing attention to such anniversaries is misguided, because it gives the impression that free software is created in the same way as traditional proprietary code, working towards a predetermined end-point according to a top-down plan. So how should we be choosing and celebrating free software's past achievements?"

I've been using it longer than 15 years.

[olddotter]

Yea this is an annoying trend. I used Linux for a year or two before it hit the 1.0 kernel. The 0.99 releases were very useful at the time, and in many ways better than the SCO release that cost BIG money for a PC unix.

Re:Who cares?

[TCP-mHz]

Educate yourself my friend. Christmas is based on non-Christian traditions that were absorbed by Christianity because they could not get people to stop celebrating them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas [wikipedia.org] or if you don't like Wikipedia http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=61264&display_order=2&mini_id=1290 [history.com]

Re:In Korea

[digitig]

In Korea, you are 1 year old the minute you are born.

China too, but it might be better to translate it as "in your 1st year".

Re:Usenet post?

[The Leather Duke]

Witch would be:

Aug 26 1991, 7:12 am, when Linus revealed his intentions [google.com]

or

Oct 5 1991, 4:53 pm, when he announced the availability of Linux [google.com].

Either way, Linux would 20 in two years time and 18 later this year.

Re:Yeah Yeah Yeah

[0100010001010011]

i'm going to become rich and famous after i invent a device that allows you to stab people in the face over the internet [bash.org]

For Linux 1.0 was NOT the beginning

[ChrisA90278]

For Linux using the release of 1.0 was something that happened late. the .9 series was long lived and mature. I'd been using Linux for a long time before 1.0 was released.

In people years, Linux 1.0 was more like a high school graduation than a birth. It meant that Linux was mostly grown up,

For Linux we do have a very good and well defined "birthday". The day Linux posted on usnet. Use that.

Re:"Release early, release often"

[yelvington]

Parent item is an uninformed Microsoft troll.

"Release early, release often" doesn't mean you push non-working software into production channels.

The point of "release early, release often" is that a wide and open circle of potential users can become collaborators in the development process.

That doesn't mean they write code or even follow good formal test practices. Even without technical skills, users can contribute materially to the development of a well-run open-source project.

If you won't want to sign up for the responsibilities that come with participation, including acceptance of risk, then you shouldn't download and use alpha, beta, and other pre-release software. Nobody is making you do it.

In the case of Linux, the typical participating user also was a developer, which is why a project with the breadth and complexity of Linux 1.0 was even possible. And when it was released, Linux 1.0 was infinitely more stable and secure than anything Microsoft was selling at the time.

Right now I'm in the middle of an internal company project to migrate all of our newspaper websites onto a new platform based on open-source software. Users are deeply engaged in shaping the direction of the toolkit. We're committed to open development and testing, with new production releases every two weeks.

You cannot get good outcomes creating complex systems in a vacuum.

Everybody makes mistakes. It's important to catch those mistakes early in the process, and not build a software equivalent of the Spruce Goose.