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Linux Software

Linux Weekly News 2004 Timeline 46

Ridgelift writes "Linux Weekly News has made their annual 2004 Timeline available free to the general public. " Much happens in the Linux world over the course of a year. 2004 saw ongoing legal and political fights, new distributions, big releases of major applications, a new mode for kernel development, and more. This timeline is our attempt to separate out the most significant developments of the year and present them in a concise and enjoyable format. It continues an annual LWN tradition; it is the seventh in the series.""
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Linux Weekly News 2004 Timeline

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  • Wow (Score:2, Funny)

    by entitude ( 770810 )
    This year really wasn't the year for Linux. Maybe 2005? =)
  • by Hank Chinaski ( 257573 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @06:06PM (#11353021) Homepage
    They made it "Free to the general public". Well, what a kind and noble gesture.
    • You sound like you're in a snit about it.

      LWN is a going concern, paying its employees (a pittance, I suspect), ISP, and bandwidth from subscriptions. This is because when LWN announced its demise due to lack of funding, an outcry from readers, with offers of money, caused them to reconsider.

      The one-week delay for certain juicy bits is an inducement for the general public to help by subscribing.

      If you don't like it, don't read it, and in any case don't complain about how an excellent site stays in busine

  • by kirun ( 658684 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @06:08PM (#11353035) Homepage Journal
    ...has made their annual 2004 Timeline

    I wonder what next year's 2004 timeline will look like?
    • by eln ( 21727 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @06:18PM (#11353131)
      Exactly the same, except sepia toned for that nostalgic feel.

      They do mention it's the 7th in the series though, which makes me wonder what 1998's 2004 Timeline looked like...probably a lot of flying cars and robot butlers and things like that.
  • by Anonymous Coward
    Yikes [lwn.net]
  • OMG (Score:3, Funny)

    by savagedome ( 742194 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @06:11PM (#11353065)
    Check this out. This is a goldmine. The dunk tank.

    http://lwn.net/Articles/66669/ [lwn.net]
  • by stratjakt ( 596332 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @06:18PM (#11353126) Journal
    None of that has anything to do with linux. DeCSS has nothing to do with OSS, it has to do with your right to descramble your own DVDs.

    Actually, a lot of this list has nothing to do with linux, some just barely have to do with OSS in general, like the DeCSS stuff.

    Hell, news on OSS apps like GIMP doesn't have anything to do with linux. I've always used GIMP on Windows.

    What does the Sun/MSFT settlement have to do with linux?

    I guess without the cruft, the timeline would just be:

    January: Kernel version X released
    April: Kernel version X.1 released
    Novermber: Kernel version X.2 released
    • For the most part, there wasn't a lot to report on related to Linux in 2004, other than SCO, SCO, SCO. And that was in the first six months.
      • Re:It's rather sad (Score:2, Insightful)

        by stratjakt ( 596332 )
        I was hoping to see something more technical, along the lines of:

        January: support for architecture X included in 2.4

        Febuary: driver tulip.o expands support for cards X, Y, Z

        March: stratjakt's HP deskjet finally works like TFA says it will.

        April: ATI drivers that don't suck come along

        etc etc

        I have a short list of hardware that I'm really eager to see supported under linux (mostly Hauppages PVR-500MCE so I can have dual-tuner MythTV goodness for ~the same price as the 250), and that can be some hard
    • Yes it does, since DeCSS is a known way of playing DVD's on a GNU/Linux machine in the abscence of commercial DVD software.

      and yes, I am aware [slashdot.org] of such offerings, but DeCSS still lets developers create their own open DVD playing software.

      • by Anonymous Coward
        DeCSS is a known way of playing DVD's on a GNU/Linux machine in the abscence of commercial DVD software

        One could just as easily say "DeCSS is a known way of playing DVD's on a FreeBSD machine in the abscence of commercial DVD software".

        The point is that a lot of stuff on the list is not specific to Linux.
    • While covering news related to the kernel development (with lots of good technical articles that make it well worth to subscribe if you are interested that) is certainly the core of "Linux Weekly News", it isn't restricted to that. It roughly covers what a GNU/Linux-based free software developer or technically interested users would want to know about. That includes software patent issues, IP issues as far as they related to free software, everything concerning security of GNU/Linux systems, platform-indepe
  • what timeline? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Jodka ( 520060 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @06:23PM (#11353180)
    Was anyone besides me expecting to so, and disappointed not to find, an actual timeline, a graphical chart in the form of a line with labeled tic marks demarcating events?

    The link is over-billed. I'ts only a chronologically ordered table, not really a timeline.
  • The second paragraph of this item [lwn.net] from November is my favorite line from 2004.
    • My favorite was this one:

      http://lwn.net/Articles/107110/

      It appears that the overall quality of code, and more importantly, the amount of QA, on various browsers touted as "secure", is not up to par with MSIE; the type of a test I performed requires no human interaction and involves nearly no effort. Only MSIE appears to be able to consistently handle [*] malformed input well, suggesting this is the only program that underwent rudimentary security QA testing with a similar fuzz utility.

      I wonder why I do
  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 13, 2005 @06:24PM (#11353192)
    The revolution will not come like a torrent that sweeps through IT departments, converting the unwashed masses to our ways. No, the revolution will continue slowly and quietly. Take heart that in the coming years, our noble cause shall be well known.

    We have continued to infiltrate the server room. We have rekindled the browser war. We have publicly proven that litigation and marketing cannot prevail over quality and enthusiasm. The open source model is reaching more mainstream audiences.

    More are beginning to question The Beast and its minions. More companies are understanding our cause. Some are allies while others, envisioning their own demise, are trying to regain a foothold which they ultimately cannot.

    It is a quiet night, but in that seeming calm we quietly fight. Slowly we position ourselves, quietly we make our way through it all until one day the opposing few open their eyes to see themselves surrounded.

    Take heart, soldiers. We will win. It's only a matter of time.
    • -- Random Slashdot post from mid-1998.
    • by bluGill ( 862 ) on Friday January 14, 2005 @12:23AM (#11357006)

      Back in the late '80s and early '90s every year was predicted to be the year that LANs finally exploded. Never happened. A few people here and there put in a LAN, but there was no massive explosion of installations. Then one day someone looked and low and behold everyone had a LAN.

      Likewise the linux desktop will not explode overnight. Instead a few companies here and there will get sick of Windows, or need something special that Windows doesn't give, but linux allows them to write. Those companies will install linux. Perhaps not even all at once, just for the few people who need it. Slowly, slowly, slowly, linux will get better while it gets a few wins. Suddenly one day we will look back and see linux everywhere.

      Of course on that day *BSD people like me will sigh and go on using our better OS that never gets any press... ;)

  • "The GNU Project celebrates its 20th anniversary."
    Guess it's not that GNU then, is it?

    The title for the page showing Linus going into the dunk tank? "Linus gets wet".

    "KOffice 1.3 is released" - alongside KOfficeSyrup.

    Sorry, but I really have nothing useful to contribute. I'm too busy trying to get Gentoo to install on a virtual machine without getting Flagrant Errors.
  • by Anonymous Coward
    Ok, I admit this is a plea for any sort of attention to a bug in 2.6.10 but are you able to put yourself in empathy with me here.

    Summer: upgrade to 2.6.x, love it

    Late Nov: upgrade to 2.6.9, love it

    After Christmas: upgrade to 2.6.10 and buy new hardware with 2.6.10 support only

    Jan 2005: Find both Vanilla 2.6.9 & 2.6.10 kernels crash after 2 days running (no acpi or preempt). Can't believe it. Can't downgrade as now need the hardware support in 2.6.10. Shocked. Try to file a bug report:

    http://bugzill
    • by Anonymous Coward
      Can you include a shot of the *first* lines of the panic?
    • 2.6.10 has been fine for me... If that is the first kernel version that supports your hardware then clearly the drivers for this hardware are very new and not thoroughly tested, which is what your doing.. Give it time and file a few bug reports and it will get fixed.. Lots of non opensource drivers are incredibly buggy the first few revisions too.
  • wow. (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Much happens in the Linux world over the course of a year.

    Is that so? Who would have thought that could ever happen??

Kleeneness is next to Godelness.

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