Celebrating 20 Years of Linux 193
dmbkiwi writes "2011 is the 20th anniversary of the first release of the Linux kernel by Linus Torvalds. Since that time, the Linux kernel, together with the GNU tools and a whole host of software has been developed by enthusiasts and professional programmers into an operating system that runs on tiny embedded systems right up to the world's fastest supercomputers."
The Linux Foundation is hosting a celebratory gala at this year's LinuxCon.
Happy Birthday (Score:5, Funny)
What do you get for the kernel that has everything?
Re:Happy Birthday (Score:4, Funny)
What do you get for the kernel that has everything?
A larger desktop market share and acceptance by the general population?
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Re:Happy Birthday (Score:4, Funny)
Sounds like Canonical has that covered.
That gift must have got lost in the mail...
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Maybe a working link in the Slashdot article? The #1 link is not an HREF.
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It is in the Classic Discussion System.
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A larger desktop market share and acceptance by the general population?
Larger desktop share would be nice, but technically I would say Linux (especially the kernel) is accepted by the general population even if they don't know it's Linux running their phone, gps, web page, etc.
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A larger desktop market share and acceptance by the general population?
Larger desktop share would be nice, but technically I would say Linux (especially the kernel) is accepted by the general population even if they don't know it's Linux running their phone, gps, web page, etc.
True, but that doesn't necessarily mean contributions back to the kernel for the general public and so the kernel doesn't really benefit from that.
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MeeGo is just a minimalist Linux distro with a lightweight desktop manager designed for smaller screens. Too bad there's no hardware being made to run it. You can run it on a regular x86 PC, or hack it onto an N900 and a few other devices though. I think my next phone might actually be an Android device hacked to run MeeGo.
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A larger desktop market share and acceptance by the general population?
Larger desktop share would be nice, but technically I would say Linux (especially the kernel) is accepted by the general population even if they don't know it's Linux running their phone, gps, web page, etc.
Meh, I'm fine with the current desktop Linux marketshare. If 90% of the population want to perform the computing equivalent of diving in front of bullets for me, who am I to stop them?
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What do you get for the kernel that has everything?
42...
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If that's the question those mice should really demand their money back.
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You joke, but I was just looking at a comparison of open source OSes, and Linux really DOES seem to have everything. [wikipedia.org] I keep getting reminded of The "Last" OS comment [slashdot.org]. Truly insightful.
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Stable API?
Calm down. I'm joking. It has gotten better. Just the occasional, changing of the name of constants.
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Oh please don't tell me you're another one of those going on about stable kernel API nonsense. [kroah.com]
Oh good. Well, you could just always go the route of getting your driver into the mainline kernel. Or hell, if that's too much trouble, ask them to write it for you [kroah.com]. What's that you say? You want a binary interface so you can write closed source drivers? Well in that case, fuck off. It's called "open sour
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Oh please don't tell me you're another one of those going on about stable kernel API nonsense. [kroah.com]
Good lord. All the reasons cited on that page are presented as good things rather than as problems that need to be solved, as most of them are.
Or hell, if that's too much trouble, ask them to write it for you [kroah.com].
Yeah, because that's worked so well so far. Plus the next time someone changes the kernel API you get to redo all the drivers again. Awesome!
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Sigh . . .
I figured I would post the relevant part of the linked document, since you obviously didn't read it.
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The Last OS? Isn't that what they said about Multics?
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Unfortunately, that was before my time. I have heard of Multics though; I think I may still have a scan of my first vi reference card that had MULTICS(or was that ULTRIX?) printed on it. But wasn't Multics written in PL/1? Perhaps that was the cause of it's downfall, whereas I don't see C going anywhere (especially for OS implementation) anytime soon.
The key to Linux survivability, I think is that lots of people are working on it and using it; in other wo
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"... whereas I don't see C going anywhere (especially for OS implementation) anytime soon."
Uh... can you say "Windows"??? Sure. I knew you could.
Fine, so we can argue over whether Windows "will" go anywhere in the near future, but you can't deny that it DID. Written in C.
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And I can list a dozen or more OSes written in C, despite the various attempts over the years to write a "better" OS in a "better" language [wikipedia.org]. And that's just open source OSes.
There's a quote that talks about most successful programming languages having been created by the authors for their own use, whereas most programming language failures were created for others to use. C was cre [paulgraham.com]
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With the right cards it was there before 2000 (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure I saw that before 2000 with some Matrox cards.
Nice of you to join in but unfortunately this article is about something totally different to what you are writing about and you are wrong anyway. I hope the rest of your day goes better.
Re:Happy Birthday (Score:4, Insightful)
decent competition?
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drivers
documentation
ease of use
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I await - after 15 years - my MIPS R4000 support with framebuffer devices for the SGI Indigo Elan and the unique TTY on this architecture.
"A better Iriix than Irix".
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I'm really having a hard time finding beginner-level doc, especially finding documentation that is relevant to my distro, and its precise version.
1st, there are so many possible places to scavenge for doc, that google is pretty much the only solution.
2nd, most doc is outdated
3rd, most doc assumes more linux knowledge than I have. Or a different distro. or a different version of the same distro.
4th, honestly, forum support is rarely very friendly or efficient, especially for badly-phrased newb questions.
Exam
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I never could get the Remote Desktop (as in, MS's remoting protocol) client/server to run on my Ubuntu... 8.04 I think, at the time.
why would you want to? Ubuntu supports remote desktop out of the box with VNC, for which there are numerous clients on all OSes
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RD client is pre-installed on all Windows PC, which is handy, especially when I'm not an Admin. Also, RD looks and feels better than all VNC implementations I've seen.
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There's a lot of networking protocols (especially dealing with real-time TCP, networking over slow connections - eg DTP, QoS functions) that are missing and why the hell aren't things like Web100 and KTAU integrated with mainstream yet?!
Documentation (eg: LARTC) is horribly out-of-date and usually sucks.
The VAX port is missing.
A number of newer filesystems (eg: btrfs, nilfs) still need work and there's a few good filesystems (eg: Polyserve's fs) that we don't have clean-room implementations of.
More of the h
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Another filesystem, optimized for whatever pattern of use is happening at some particular mountpoint, like Reiser did for maildirs. You can't ever have too many filesystems. Screw the generalists; there will never be one best filesystem, and this is one way Linux shines and beats everything else out there.
A video would be nice (Score:2)
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oh come on, that was funny.
+1
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Right! So far there are only two apps that actually have Linux versions: Guitar Pro 6, Firefox, and Abiword! Er... So far there are only THREE apps that actually have Linux versions: Guitar Pro 6, Firefox, Abiword, and VLC! ... Amongst the apps that actually have Linux versions, we have: Guitar Pro 6, Firefox, Abiword, VLC, Skype, and NICE RED UNIFORMS -- Oh, damn!
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So far there are only two apps that actually have Linux versions: Guitar Pro 6, Firefox and Abiword. This may not be popular with the Linux crowd, but everything else that might be of interest to me is quite frankly NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
Sure there are plenty of server administration apps and tools, but I'm not interested in becoming an IT guy. Most of us aren't.
i'm guessing you dont think the calculator is good enough either?
The link is broken. (Score:3)
Click on the underlined "20th anniversary of the first release of the Linux kernel " and you go nowhere.
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Yep, it's an a element with no href attribute, something I've never seen before.
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Yep, it's an a element with no href attribute, something I've never seen before.
Really? I thought that was the old way to make hyperlinks to different parts of the same HTML document (i.e. <a name="foo">. I'm not sure when the "normal" way switched to using the id tag inside any element.
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It probably changed with HTML 4. I didn't really do much with HTML before that.
Holy crap ... (Score:2)
Holy crap, 20 years? I'm pretty sure I first installed it in '92 or '93, that really makes me feel old now.
I know it was a Slackware install with a 0.99a Kernel or something like that. I know there were an immense amount of floppy disks involved.
Wow, 20 years goes by fast.
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I installed one of the first Slackware distros around 1993 or so on my old 486SX-25 with a whopping 70mb hard drive and 8mb of RAM, to run my BBS. I showed off running X and having folks dial in on one of my two phone lines, really flew once I had proper UART serial ports.
Now I'm running Linux servers every bloody where; custom routers, SAMBA servers, LAMP servers, Postfix mail gateway.
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I put it on my brand new 486DX-33, with a 325MB HD, and 8MB of RAM, with a video card with 1MB so I could do 1024x768. Two years or so later I upgraded to have a total of 20MB of RAM (and a princely sum that cost in the fall of 1994, $600 if I recall).
At the time, my Linux machine was bigger than some of the Sun machines at my school.
Ahh ... good times.
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I had an SLS version first. I think there may have been a Slackware version at the time. I wanted to limit the headaches of installing it, so I chose a distribution with a relatively small number of floppy disks, and optional floppy sets. The BSD I looked at required too many floppies for a "base" system. I was downloading at work and taking them home (no ISP access until this millenia :-). I certainly had no access to an expensive CD writer. Later it turned out I used Linux more at work than home, bu
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For some stuff. I confess that I'm using Debian more and more.
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it was 96 for me, but still,,,,i feel so old.
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97 for me... and 98 before I switched my Windows desktop for it... but yes.
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I was thinking the same thing. "That can't be right because I played with some very early versions and that was only...Damnit!" I still remember my bundles of B, N, D, etc. floppies. (Base, Networking, Development, etc.)
Link (Score:2)
Corrected link (Score:3)
Since the one in TFS is bogus -- I got this from the firehose:
Corrected Link [like-a-boss.org]
Happy Birthday (Score:2)
It's already been 20 years?!?
Damn we're getting old.
These things happen all too frequently (Score:4, Informative)
August 26, 1991 (Score:5, Informative)
That was the date of the birth announcement.
1 year to download (Score:2)
20 years back linux came out, 19 years ago i started downloading it from bbs's, 18 years ago I installed it.... thanks to SLS and 2400 bps modems!
Linux fangirl since 1997 (Score:2)
I bought a used 486 computer in 1997, booted it, saw that it had Windows for Workgroups on it, marvelled that people actually paid money for it, bought a Linux book at the local technical bookstore, loaded Slackware 3.3, and was off and running.
I've always liked the way Slackware doesn't try to hide the fact that it's a Unix clone. I also like the way you can build any sort of system you like with it, desktop, server, whatever.
...laura
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What was wrong with Windows for Workgroups? I mean how did you know there was something better out there?
Being a Mac programmer might have had something to do with it... :-)
This was the time Apple was moving their product line from 68k to PowerPC. Our first PowerPC compiler didn't generate fat binaries, but I figured out how to make my own with ResEdit and the 68k compiler.
...laura
I 3 Linux. (Score:2)
(If Linux
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Is that, like, a step up from <3'ing Linux. (The whole three rather than less than three.)
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09:46:03 up 691 days, 21:05, 1 user, load average: 0.62, 0.19, 0.06
That was not that long for an uptime. I also have this one:
9:41am up 2167 day(s), 16:31, 1 user, load average: 0.02, 0.01, 0.01
But then I realized it was a Sun. I saved the line the day we decommission it.
does android count as linux on samrtphones? (Score:2)
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Attn: Wash. DC area Linux area users! (Score:2)
And I didn't start using LInux until.... (Score:2)
1993. I wonder if I have anything left of all those distributions I tried back in the day.
And! (Score:2)
It's also the year of Linux on the Desktop! Have you tried Linux Mint 10?
Hey, wait a minute! (Score:2)
I think this must be a conspiracy to subliminally "prepare" innocent people for indoctrination into a "xunil"-worship group. Who knows where it will go from there?
Oh, the humanity!
Damn you! (Score:2)
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I didn't know Stallman had a Slashdot account...
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No, that's ESR(3702).... He used to post here a while back...
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I didn't know Stallman had a Slashdot account...
There is no where on earth infidels can hide from the powerful musky hand of Stallmen.
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He just borrows one when he needs it.
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Even if RMS [stallman.org] has a Slashdot account, I doubt he'd find any fault with this story, which correctly describes the role both Linux and GNU have played.
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Funny that we still had the silly LiGnuX or gnu/linux storm in a teacup even when the heading above was obviously written very carefully to avoid bringing that up. I'm not sure if the above was a very bad reading comprehension failure or just being obnoxious.
If half as much effort was put into gnu as has been put into the gnu/linux flames then hurd would be good enough that it would be irrelevant to claim owner
Re:damnit guys (Score:5, Informative)
GNU dates from 1983. This is just the Linux kernel's anniversary.
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Re:damnit guys (Score:4, Informative)
The Free Software Foundation didn't create Linux. Linus Torvalds created Linux and decided to license his code with the GPL. This little fact is the main reason that I call Linux by "Linux" and not "GNU/Linux".
The OS kernel that should be tagged with "GNU" is Hurd since it is actually being created by the FSF therefore it should be called "GNU Hurd".
Before the flaming commences, I'd like to defend myself by saying that I promote GNU software in the workplace and support their hard work. I do have some minor ideological differences with RMS, but that doesn't stop me from using GNU software or supporting the FSF.
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You sir, are one of my heroes. I'm sorry I was so harsh to you earlier over the stable abi stuff. But I still stand by my opinion that standard kernel abis are neither necessary nor good.
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That's a horse of a different color. The Linux kernel is being used mostly as a bootstrap and a hardware layer for Dalvik. For all intents and purposes Android is an OS provided by Dalvik, I haven't seen any push for Gnu/Android.
What anti-FSF sentiment?
Re:damnit guys (Score:5, Informative)
Linux is a kernel, and it's called Linux, and it's not part of the GNU project. A distribution that includes the GNU tool set and the Linux kernel is a GNU/Linux distribution. This is not a story about a GNU/Linux distribution, it's a story about the kernel. If you're going to be pedantic, get it right.
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Linux is a kernel, and it's called Linux, and it's not part of the GNU project. A distribution that includes the GNU tool set and the Linux kernel is a GNU/Linux distribution. This is not a story about a GNU/Linux distribution, it's a story about the kernel. If you're going to be pedantic, get it right.
This proves my point... thank you kindly.
Re:damnit guys (Score:5, Informative)
I realize this is probably an attempt at humor, but it's not funny and a lot people still seem to be confused about the issue. Linux [kernel.org] is 20 years old, but GNU [gnu.org] is 27 years old. There are complete operating systems based on GNU (and not Linux) as well as those based on Linux with very little or no GNU components. The term GNU/Linux only makes sense when one is talking about an operating system based on both of them, which is by far the most common way to use either one of them.
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It's not Slashdot. It's a bogus link in the text, once again the editors fail.
Note the lack of an HREF on the <a> tag.
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The parent post is right. In FF4, links don't activate properly here on Slashdot. I don't know enough to figure it out, but it is only FF4 and Slashdot that I've seen this problem.
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I know this is the standard response to a bug report, but...
"Works for me in FF4".
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The parent post is right. In FF4, links don't activate properly here on Slashdot. I don't know enough to figure it out, but it is only FF4 and Slashdot that I've seen this problem.
I've found the solution to be to double-right click, which brings up a context menu so you can open in new tab. Clearly there is some bug somewhere, but I don't know where or what.
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5.1% according to w3schools. http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp [w3schools.com]
Statcounter's statistics are skewed because they include virus information and AV update sites, which the average Windows user has to access about four times a day.
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So, you're absolutely sure the W3 number is more skewed than all the statcounter statistics coming from Windows-only download/software sites (whereas 99%+ of Linux downloads are handled via repos and source control systems)?
1% of all the PCs in the world doesn't even equal the install base of Ubuntu - just one of the available Linux distros. Stop with your own propaganda.
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Popularity doesn't matter to me so much - as long as enough people use it so that there is software developed for it. I use Linux because it does what I want better than the alternatives.
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In fact, I would avoid the most popular models because they are more frequently targeted by carjackers.
Minux (Score:2)
I might add that Andrew was a Professor. His ambition was/is to teach, not maintain an OS.
Seems in in April 2000 Minux became Open Source, but that was 10 years to late for Minux.
As fo