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Linux Is 10 Today 247

Posted by CmdrTaco from the silicon-cakes-taste-terrible dept.
genixia noted that the BBC was the first to note that Linux has turned 10 today. Happy birthday and congrats to the hackers whose labor pains keep giving us new tarballs.
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Linux Is 10 Today More

Linux Is 10 Today

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  • first post for linux! probably too late for that , but it's been fun learning about unix through linux about 4 years ago and I use it at home and at work. always stable, has NEVER crashed on me, and cool desktops like KDE and GNOME.. what more do you need? congrats linus.
  • Soon it will be puberty...
  • Can one speculate how far we will have reached
    in 10 years ?
    Congrats and happy birthday to Linux's team
  • Happy birthday Linux!!!!!!!!!

    Congrats to Linus and all of us who have ever debugged a kernel module until 2:00 in the morning!

    Okay mods, go ahead and mod me down. Don't care. Had to join in the celebration!!!

  • What Linux wants for it's birthday ... maybe for the school (M$) bully to stop beating it up.
    giggles
  • That olive crown is the best part of the article. Long live the Caesar!!!
  • It's been a wild ride so far.
  • Wow ... A 10 year old programmed that whole kernel by himself? ... oh wait, maybe I should reread that ...

  • who of you guys has the oldest running linux machine?

    Unfortunatly I'm out - I just dropped my old 200Meg Drive on the floor in an accident some time ago...

    Note to myself: never drink to much while close to precious equipment..

    • Re:I wonder... (Score:1, Offtopic)

      by shokk ( 187512 )
      I still have my 386SX and the 0.99.?? boot floppy that I used to boot it with on what used to be a 200MB hard drive (100MB dedicated to Linux). No ethernet back then, though, so it was only using a modem. I'll have to try that boot floppy on one of these P4s around here.
    • I do my best work when I've been drinking. Especially when it comes to computers..... :-)

      • I do my best work when I've been drinking. Especially when it comes to computers..... :-)


        I didn't talk about drinking in general, just about drinking to much...
        "Hey look, heres my old harddrive, there's still some pretty old kernel installed on it, lets take a look at ... - *plonk* - ups..."

        ;-)
    • Oldest machine or oldest linux install? ;) I've got linux installed in my '75 El Camino, does that count? It's probalby one of the fastest land-based linux machines around, too... :)

  • Linux (Score:1)

    by crumbz ( 41803 )
    Great, now we can lump it in with MS-DOS and Win 3.x

  • Nice! (Score:2)

    by tcc ( 140386 )
    Nice ot see something good that didn't die after all that time. 10 years in computer history is a big milestone, and the most positive aspect is linux isn't dying. Wish I could have celebrated the same with my amiga, but after its 10th birday, while the community was stile alive and kicking, the rest looked more like a skunk that got hit while crossing a road :(.

    Ok ok let's not get nostalgic here heh, happy birthday to all of you guys, coders users and abusers :) !

    • Re:Nice! (Score:2, Insightful)

      by bentini ( 161979 )
      UNIX and C - more than 30 years

      C++ - 15 years

      Mac - closing in on 20

      x86 - too damn long, more than 20

      This is an accomplishment, don't get me wrong. But 10 years is not, no matter what the dot-commers would have you think, a huge milestone in computing. This is just the continued maturation of a product getting better all the time.

      Congrats to everybody who's changing the way software is created!

      • Re:Nice! (Score:3, Insightful)

        by tcc ( 140386 )
        I should have mentionned, "IN TERMS OF PERSONNAL COMPUTING"

        Unix 30 years ago wasn't available on your personnal desktop, heck, sorry, there wasn't any personnal desktops...

        A majority of personnal computers/OS that were there 20 years ago aren't here anymore... mainly because previous architechture's efficiency was due to the fact that the os was tight to it's supporting hardware, but since you mention it, macOS never ran on any other architechture than it's own, unless running thru an emulator of course :), if you want to list that way here goes:

        C64 - didn't last 10 years
        Coco - "
        Adam - "
        TRS-80 - "
        TI994A :) - "
        VIC20 - "
        BE - agony nice if it can live as an embedded solution but that means killing it's basic root, like amiga did.
        Etc... - this could go on for days.

        Granted these are almost more microcontroller firmware than OSes, but that was due to the ressources available at the time, look at the mac or the amiga that came in after, it was a bit less tight, look at BE dying slowly and being converted to embedded, etc etc

        10 years is a HUGE milestone in computing, stop giving sucessful examples, of COURSE SOME STUFF MANAGE TO SURVIVE thru time, sheesh.

        10 years ago, you wouldn't even RAYTRACE a 10 second flick on your personnal computer because you would have died waiting.

        10 years ago, multiprocessor was only a mainframe buzzword.

        10 years ago, 3Dchipsets were out-of-reach technologies

        10 years ago, GUI on a PC was a joke

        10 years ago, some tools you take for granted today didn't EVEN exist, CD-R is a good example

        10 years ago, 256 colors was luxury

        10 years ago, internet wasn't something 99.99% of the people knew about

        10 years ago you would get 40megs for the price you get 100gigs today.

        so please, spare me the dot.com junk argument :) 10 years in computing history is a lot. Enuff said.

    • Re:Nice! (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Black Parrot ( 19622 )
      > 10 years in computer history is a big milestone

      Yep. That's almost 20% of the way back to the Beginning of Time, as far as electronic computers go.
  • or as they say in your homeland ... "Onnellinen syntymäpäivä!"

  • Linux World Expo [linuxworldexpo.com] is next week at the Moscone Center in San Francisco!

    It's pretty cool to see how far Linux has actually come since the 'ol days. Maybe one day we'll finally settle this whole Gnome vs KDE stuff once and for all.... ;)

    Speaking of parties..don't forget this party [berkeley.edu] to raise funds for Dimitry's legal defense.
  • The next ten years will only get better!!

    and..Thanks to all involved for a great OS!

  • Tomorrow, August 25 (or September 17, whatever you prefer) is the correct date, even the BBC article says so.. *sigh*
    • My opinion is Sept 17. The reason being that on Aug 25, 1991 Linux posted a message that he was WORKING ON a kernel. That's like a woman telling all her friends that she's pregnant. No birthday has occured, just the official announcement.

      No matter which side of the debate you stand on, there's no one in their right mind that thinks linux is 10 today. Sheesh.
    • CmdrTaco might be in Vladivostok, or Guam, or some part of the earth where "Today" is already saturday. But then again, this is /.'s own CT, who thinks that Holland is in Michigan :-)

      I'll be downing a cold beer to celebrate, actually, the celebrations seem to have started early, and I'll continue for another few hours until the official "announcement anniversary"

      the AC
      [Yes, I know there is a Holland in .mi.us, but I'm heading up to Rotterdam in a few hours to consume large quantities of beer]
  • I thought Linux's birthday was actually September 17th. I don't remember the source, but I thought it was cool that my birthday was the same day as Linux's birthday.

    -Karl
    • Actually on August 25, Linus announced that he would make Linux (he didn't give it a name then obviously, but thats another story.). So this is a day early, and not entirly accurate :) Though possible that today he started some coding, as I'm sure he did alot of prelim trials before he made the announcement.
      • this is a day early, and not entirly accurate

        That is the best description of slashdot that I've ever read.
        This should replace "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters." as the slogan.
      • This would mean that Linux was conceived on August 25, but still not 'born' until September 17. I celebrate my birthday on December 25, not some day in March.

        Though I imagine that this will spark some heated debate over when software is really functional. The die-hard extremists on one side will argue that it is the moment the first hash mark of the first include was typed and the extremists on the other will claim that the software isn't really there until the product is officially released.

        The more rational people will realise that software probably begins its existance sometime around when it can actually be compiled.
        • Of course, this is just my opinion, but since the whole point of Linux is that it's "Free" (i.e., open to the world), then I'd say it was "born" on the first day it was available for download -- i.e., released. Obviously, it wasn't finished then, but what software product is ever really "finished" on its first release?
    • > I thought Linux's birthday was actually September 17th

      Yeah, but this makes it easier for Slashdot to run the story twice.

  • Umm (Score:2, Informative)

    by savrinor ( 464970 )
    Isn't it tomorrow?

    From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
    Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
    Subject: What would you like to see most in minix?
    Summary: small poll for my new operating system
    Message-ID: <1991Aug25.205708.9541@klaava.Helsinki.FI>
    Date: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMT
    ^^^^^^^^^

  • Shame on you. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by standards ( 461431 ) on Friday August 24, 2001 @01:19PM (#2214485)
    In a way, this is kind of sad. I mean Linux is 10 years old, put together by a bunch of people who aren't all that interested in being the next Bill Gates, and it's one of the most stable and reliable OSs out there.

    It really makes you think - for years, many of us were taught in school that non-capatalist approaches result in poor quality at a very high price.

    But at least in this one case, it seems that just the opposite is true: after 20+ years of development, MacOS and Windows and many others, funded by billions of dollars, are just starting to get the stability of Linux. And sadly, this stability is at the expense of flexibility. And with a much higher pricetag. Linux is cheaper, faster, and better. And it isn't even a "product".

    This is a testament to the abilities and the desires of those who have worked on Linux over the past decade. The corporate world - you have let us down, and look what we have done. Hold your heads in shame.
  • Lets all post Happy birthday songs in different languages, I will start with dutch

    Lang zal die leven,lang zal die leven, lang zal die leven in de gloria, in de gloria, in de gloria hieperdepiep, HOERA!!!!!!!!

    add your own additions yourself
  • So if you are in San Francisco Bay area (native or here for LinuxConf), don't miss the linux10 get together in Sunnyvale (south bay). For more info check out
    www.linux10.org [linux10.org]
  • ...it'll be able to drink in the U.S.!
  • Given that Linux is only 10 years old, this proves that the future is very bright and has a very good chance to eventually compete and surpass Microsoft Windows. Windows 1.0 was released in 1985(?), meaning MS has a 6 year head start on the Linux OS. It's fairly obvious that in 6 years, Linux will far surpass what Windows is today.

    Happy Birthday Linux!!
    • I should hope that in six years it will surpass what Windows is today! It's pretty likely that Windows itself will, in six years, surpass what it is today. :-)
      • ... In terms of ease-of-use, software library size, and compatibility with other products/devices. Currently, Linux does not compare to Windows in these aspects.
        • Sorry, I just had to say it :-)

          But one thing I would like to point out is that it wouldn't be a good thing if Linux was, in 10 years, what Microsoft is today. That would mean they are just catching up while Microsoft will likely have made some further strides in development therefore causing Linux to try to catch up again....

    • It's fairly obvious that in 6 years, Linux will far surpass what Windows is today.

      it would be pretty pathetic if after another 6 years Linux could not surpass what windows is today, argueably it already has. There is still plenty of room for improvement when it comes to usability and market share, but dont forget, Microsoft is a moving target.

  • Linux today looks almost exactly like Linux did 10 years ago.

    Wanna talk about instability? Think about what Windows looked like 10 years ago.

    • Hate to bring up the point.. But look how far windows has come. Look how far linux has come. Like you said, nothing _major_ has happened to linux is the past 10 years. I think that if linux doesnt do something, it will eventually be eclipsed by the stability of windows. Windows2000 has already proved to be extremely stable. Linux just gets a new FS here, little cleaning up in the code there. Nothing worth mentioning.
    • Linux today looks almost exactly like Linux did 10 years ago.

      What are you smoking, and where did you get it? Linux is so radically different under the hood today that it can scarecely be compared to what it was like 10 years ago. From a user standpoint it's also changed radically, with the advent of multiple quite nice and usable GUIs. Unless you take the almost meaningless concept of the Linux command line (in which case it's true that the GNU tools haven't changed much in appearance in 10 years) things have changed drastically. And if you do take that standpoint, Windows hasn't changed much, either. The DOS prompt under Windows looks pretty much exactly like what it looked like 10 years ago, too. And remember that many, if not most, Windows users are still using a version of Windows that's running on DOS technology and hasn't really changed that much at all.

      • Those nice and usable GUIs are not Linux. It is the tenth anniversary of the Linux *kernel*. The kernel itself hasn't radically changed at all. It has ten years worth of incremental improvements, but I seriously doubt you could show me something in the paging module that is radically different from ten years ago.

  • http://www.linux10.org/ (Score:2, Informative)

    by Zeio ( 325157 )

    http://www.linux10.org/ [linux10.org]

    Linux10 party still has room on the East Coast!! =)

    Linux 10th Anniversary Picnic/BBQ August 25th, 2001 from 11:00 to 6:00 Sunnyvale Baylands Park, Sunnyvale, CA, USA Bring the kids!

    Mark your calendars! The Linux 10th anniversary picnic/BBQ will be Saturday, August 25, 2001 from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM.

    We had to stop taking new RSVPs for Linux10 when the picnic area capacity was reached on Aug 14. However, "Linux10 East Coast" in Philadelphia still has plenty of room. See below for more Linux 10th anniversary events.

    Burgers, hot dogs, veggie burgers, and other picnic foods will be served until 3:30 and are free to all those who RSVP'ed

  • Today also, windows 95 is turning six.
  • 10 years ago was about the time I got my first computer. It was a 386SX/20 that came preloaded with Windows 3.0 (not 3.1!) and MS-DOS. Since then I've gone on to use Windows 3.1, 95, 98, 2000 and now XP. In my heart, I would love to use Linux, however it just doesn't have all of the applications that I would like to use. However, it's getting closer. So, I haven't used Linux full time yet. However, with many products becoming more mature that run on Linux, I feel that I may switch to using Linux full time within the next 10 years. I think that when that point in time when the switch is an obvious one for hold-outs like myself, there is going to be exponential growth. For those of you working to make Linux software reach this point.. God speed! I'll see you in 10 years. (maybe sooner)

  • And windows is (Score:1, Troll)

    by nowt ( 230214 )
    still infantile
    (sorry, couldn't resist)

  • My brother turned 19 today :-P He's born on Linux's birthday (just not the same year).

  • What they say... (Score:5, Funny)

    by hyyx ( 447405 ) <cky AT snpp DOT com> on Friday August 24, 2001 @01:32PM (#2214584) Homepage
    ---|SNIP
    open source is an intellectual property destroyer
    - Jim Allchin, Microsoft executive, Feb 2001

    Software is like sex; it's better when it's free
    - Linus Torvalds

    Any sufficiently advanced Operating System is indistinguishable from Linux
    - Jim Dennis

    Linux... Find out what you've been missing
    while you've been rebooting Windows NT.
    - anon

    See Linux run...
    See Windows run... scared.
    - anon

    Microsoft will make something that doesn't suck
    when it starts manufactoring vaccum cleaners.
    - car bumper sticker

    I thought that aliens would take over the world,
    but I never suspected the Finns.
    - garf@roadum.demon.co.uk

    How do you power off this machine?
    - Linus Torvalds, when upgrading linux.cs.helsinki.fi,
    and after using the machine for several months.

    The most important design issue...
    is the fact that Linux is supposed to be fun...
    - Linus Torvalds,
    at the First Dutch International Symposium on Linux

    Open-Source Architecture requires neither Windows nor Gates
    - Malcolm Macsween

    Linux - What itch do you want to scratch today?
    - Ulrik Haugen

    With Linux there is no Bill to pay
    - Maurice Fonhof

    First they ignore you,
    then they laugh at you,
    then they fight you,
    then you win.
    - Mahatma Gandhi (possibly not talking about Linux!)

    Some people have told me they don't think a fat penguin
    really embodies the grace of Linux, which just tells me they have
    never seen an angry penguin charging at them in excess of 100 mph.
    They'd be a lot more careful about what they said if they had.
    - Linus Torvalds

    Linux represents a best-of-breed Unix
    - Vinod Valloppillil

    Linux is like living in a teepee. No Windows, no Gates, Apache in house.
    - Usenet signature

    Consumers love it
    - Vinod Valloppillil

    The best thing about GNU/Linux is the people who use it.
    - Kenneth W. Melvin

    Most of the primary apps that people require when they
    move to Linux are already available for free. This includes
    web servers, POP clients, mail servers, text editors, etc
    - Vinod Valloppillil

    Don't throw your PC out of the window,
    throw Windows out of your PC and run linux!
    - Gernot Kerschbaumer

    Linux and other OSS advocates are making a progressively
    more credible argument that OSS software is at least as robust
    - if not more - than commercial alternatives.
    - Vinod Valloppillil

    If the box says ``Windows 95 or better'', it should run on Linux, right?
    - anon

    Linux can win
    - Vinod Valloppillil

    ---|ENDSNIP
    [http://www.vision25.demon.co.uk/prog/linuxbirth da y.html]
    • The best thing about GNU/Linux is the people who use it.
      - Kenneth W. Melvin

      This is the only quote I don't agree with. I think the users are probably the worst thing about Linux. I'm not saying that all users are bad, but what annoys me is the people whose only response to a question is RTFM. The people who get on their high horse about how superior Linux is and how everything else sucks also annoy me, but not as much since I know they're right, these are also the people who respond to any Windows problem by telling them to reformat and install Linux.

      I think the Linux user community has a ways to go and should learn to be more inclusive of non-Linux users and Linux users who are new to Linux. Once the Linux users become more helpful, then I'll agree that the Linux users are the best thing about Linux.

    • Re:What they say... (Score:4, Funny)

      by anticypher ( 48312 ) <anticypher@@@gmail...com> on Friday August 24, 2001 @02:38PM (#2215003) Homepage
      Linux is a cancer
      - Steve Ballmer, crackmonkey [ntk.net]

      Unsurprisingly, that's incorrect; LINUX was released on August 25th, 1991 and is therefore a virgo.

      - Kevin Lyda, kevin@suberic.net, from r.h.f one liners file

      the AC
    • The best thing about GNU/Linux is the people who use it.
      - Kenneth W. Melvin

      I was going to reply to this message, saying that this is the one point of the entire list which deserves special emphasis. I was a bit surprised to see that someone else has already replied saying it's the only point he did not agree with.

      Sure, GNU/Linux people can sometimes be a pain, especially when they disagree with each other. But I always realize that it's only because they care. They care deeply, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

  • The Australian (National daily newspaper) had this story [news.com.au] on their site from around noon WST (+0800). In Australia, regional LUGs are doing a nationwide InstallFest [plug.org.au] to celebrate.

  • Hmm. From code snippet to the monster it is today.

    *SNIFF*

    You've come a long way baby! We're a little bit further along the development curve than any Microsoft OS was at the 10 year mark.

  • And my system has 11 years uptime!
  • Nice! Me and Linux have the same birthday, although I've been around longer by a factor of almost three.

    Why don't all you stingy motherfucks buy us something nice?


    /></

  • I loved the pictures that accompanied the article. A smiling Linus and a sneering Gates. Now, just on the basis of that, which OS should you prefer? :-)
  • from the article:
    Said Parker: "The biggest threat is if IBM only gets 30-40% of the market they have been privately targetting, they might well write it off as an experiment that did not pay off like OS/2." And who remembers that?

    Just stand back and watch the OS/2 nostalgics go, they wont be happy about that one! Not ever having run OS/2 id seriously like to know why people like it. i do know that it had a proper network stack before windows3.11 came along, but how did it manage to last so long, IBM only killed it off in the past year or so

    OS/2 is that like half an OS?
    :P i know old joke sorry, my bad.

  • joshua:/proc# echo "Happy Birthday" >/proc/kcore
    joshua:/proc#

    Doesn't seem to make him pleased...

    joshua:/proc# telinit "Happy Birthday"
    Usage: telinit 0123456SsQqAaBbCcUu

    well at least we get an answer :-)

    Happy Birthday to you Linux !
    Thanks to all who made it possible.
    Long live Linux !

  • Linux turns 10 (Score:3, Funny)

    by Far_From_Newbie ( 514216 ) on Friday August 24, 2001 @01:48PM (#2214671) Homepage
    in a couple years Tux is gonna start growing hair in strange places and start pursuing other "penguins" :-0
  • At least according to this guy [joelonsoftware.com]. That claims that "good software takes 10 years". (There was a slashdot story on this a while back, but I couldn't find the link.)

    Heffel
  • EMPEROR PENGUIN: Aptenodytes forsteri

    Distribution: Antarctica.

    Habitat: Lives only on pack ice and in the surrounding oceans.

    Size: Emperor penguins measure around112cm. in length and they weigh anything from 20 - 40kg.

    Lifespan: Roughly 20 years.

  • ... labor pains keep giving us new tarballs...

    Is that anything like the pain associated with a kidney stone? Heard those suck.
  • How old is that in Penguin Years?
    Happy Birthday Linux!

    Thanks Linus!
  • Linux Today [linuxtoday.com] has a poll where you can vote for the best operating system.

    Note: This is an unbiased and unscientific poll, for entertainment purposes only.
  • Happy Birthday, Linux! (:

    Thank you all.
  • I am celebrating the 10th anniversary of my 24th birthday today!

  • growth spurt... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by option8 ( 16509 ) on Friday August 24, 2001 @02:30PM (#2214956) Homepage
    considering it's still a few years away from puberty, there's still some time before linux's real Growth Spurt.

    and if you consider in ten years it's gone from exactly one user to.. um? millions? (depends on who you ask) the next few years will be prety interesting.

    also if you consider the original kernel source [kernel.org] and the current(ish) kernel source [kernel.org] are, respectively, 71 Kb and 26,830 Kb (gzipped), what will the future bring? 2 CD distros of just the kernel?

    hell, the patches are 10x larger than the original source. that's one fast growing 10 year old...

  • Cynicism is not always a good thing... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by stonewolf ( 234392 ) on Friday August 24, 2001 @02:35PM (#2214986) Homepage
    Ten years ago I saw a posting from Linus about his new operating system. I read it. I remember he was asking for people to help him develop it. I thought it sounded very very nice. I started to compose an email back to him telling him that I would devote all my spare time to the project and make it my lifes goal to support it.


    And then I said, "Yeah.... right.... Some college kid is going to implement UNIX. Yeah... Walk away slowly..." And I deleted the partially composed email.


    They say the only things you truely regret are the things you didn't do. Well, I KNOW that is not true, but not sending that email is something I DO regret.


    Stonewolf

  • And Windows NT turns 8 in September. It first shipped in September 1993. (Development first started in October 1988 when Dave Cutler left DEC for Microsoft.)

    Of course, for both NT and Linux, one could argue that the GNU portions of Linux, somewhat like the Win16-OS/2 antecedents of NT, developed earlier, before the true "birth date". (OS embryos in the womb?)

    As someone using Linux since 1992, I've found this age similarity to be striking. What do *you* think is the significance of the fact that Linux is older than NT?

    --LinuxParanoid
    LinuxParanoid, since I remain concerned that Linux advocates aren't paranoid enough(!)

  • Linux Anecdotes (Score:2, Informative)

    by joeytsai ( 49613 )
    One of the funniest articles I've read is a brief history of Linux [liw.iki.fi], told from the trenches by Lars Wirzenius.
  • Happy birthday and congrats to the hackers whose labor pains keep giving us new tarballs.

    So if producing a Linux kernel feels like childbirth, what do Windows developers feel? Intestinal cramps like someone dumped a whole pack of laxatives into their chocolate shake?
    1. The code was formally released [lwn.net] to the public.
    2. It's the first time it's called "Linux".
    3. Oct 5th is my birthday as well :P.

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