Linus's Baby Comes of Age

just_another_sean writes "Torvalds' Baby Comes of Age - BusinessWeek Online is running a story on how Linux has matured over the years. They have some positive things to say about it, and back up their statements with some examples and stats." From the article: "Hardware companies are selling more than $1 billion in servers to run Linux every quarter, while sales of servers running proprietary software continue to fall. And now, slowly but surely, Linux is making inroads on the desktop as well. According to IBM, 10 million desktops ran Linux in 2004 -- a 40% jump from a year ago. That progress has been an important foot in the door for all open-source companies. Marc Fleury, chief executive of open-source middleware company JBoss, describes the Linux operating system pioneered by Torvalds as the older brother who fought the tough battles and was able to get the curfew extended and the keys to the car, so that life was a lot easier for the rest of the open-source world. "

Comments

You all didn't know that

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm his baby and now I'm of age. Does that mean I can drink?

Re:You all didn't know that

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is Slashdot portscanning me????

Re:You all didn't know that

[Kickersny.com]

I think it's because they are checking for proxy servers and whatnot. Not sure, I just think I've read that here somewhere.

Re:You all didn't know that

[Anonymous Coward]

It's really a money making scheme by Malda, he collects open proxies and sells the list to script kiddies.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Baby

[Anonymous Coward]

I was shocked for a second after reading the title and wondering what does Torvald's family life have to do with news for nerds.

even though it's GPL?

[Anonymous Coward]

So is the GPL really such a handicap?

Re:even though it's GPL?

[Slashdot_Gandhi]

Study suggests that Linux is strong enough to make it big in the real world even with handicaps like GPL.



Ready to reproduce!

Linus' baby?

[SlashdotMeNow]

For a second there I thought Linus had a baby but then I realised that would imply he had sex at some point in the past.

Now...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's time for the terrible TEENS! LOL! Now Linus will be called Linu$ and he'll run an evil corporation.

Linux maturity and business opportunities

[totallygeek]

IBM's adoption of Linux and push of advertising has done wonders for overall acceptance of Linux by the business communities I work with. This is especially true of regulated industries, such as financial, medical, and educational. It is nice to see the very small project grow to become such an animal, while maintaining the ability to steer clear of bad commercialism. There have been many players that could have chosen to not further develop in Linux and it would have just remained a 'geek-only' system that people downloaded and wrangled with installing just to say they could do it.

Re:Linux maturity and business opportunities

[rholliday]

IBM practices what it preaches, too. Several of our support tools (like ServeRAID Manager) run on bootable Linux kernels, and we have versions of our flash and log-gathering utilities for Linux OSes. It's pretty cool.

Our internal workstations are still Windows and Lotus, though, sadly. :)

Re:Ohhhhhh!

[delirium of disorder]

He does.
http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/torvalds/pat.gif

so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[gullevek]

I doubt that, a kernel allone doesn't make a server. I'd say its thanks to apache group (apache, tomcat, ...), php, samba and all the other services that you can provide and that can replace properitary services.
Same for the desktop. It's thanks to KDE/Gnome that it gets more and more accepted on the desktop. The kernel is just one small part ...
But well, manager & business journalist. Lets keep it simple and add a pie graphic!

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[LennyDotCom]

The kernel is just one small part

I may be a small part but just try and run those other apps with out it

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[i_should_be_working]

I'd rather have to replace the kernel (by doing something like switch to BSD) than replace all the GNU software I use.

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[rolfwind]

It's not ALL thanks to the kernel but the kernel helped get everything else gel. It's was the right piece of software at the right time.

Back in the early 90's the GNU had all these cool tools but still no functional kernel (up to 2004, IIRC???) - enter Linux. And the rest would be history.

Without Linux, a lot of other opensource projects might not have gotten started or would be residing largely on Windows or BSD. On Windows, open source would be okay until MS decides it's time to get into that market........ so that's unstable ground to say the least. BSD - well, I have nothing against it - but I wonder if it would have achieved Linux's sucess (if Linux were missing from the picture) due to differences in licenses and the seemingly more closed organization around developing the kernel.

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[Xtifr]

I've run most of them on Solaris and BSD and HPUX and...so whatcherpoint?

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[Anonymous Coward]

The kernel is just one small part ...

Making kernels doesn't come easy.

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[ozmanjusri]

On Windows, open source would be okay until MS decides it's time to get into that market.

Yeah, you have to wonder whether Microsoft has shot itself in the foot there. By refusing to port their tools, they've forced the FOSS community to develop the whole software stack for Linux. Now instead of having to compete with just a free OS, and leveraging their Office software income to do so, they're having to compete with an entire platform. Worse for them is that Linux is providing a haven for developers who don't have to immediately compete with closed-source products - at least until they're on their second or third generation and ready to port to Windows.

When someone buys a Mac (for example), there's a fair chance they'll be giving Microsoft some cash for Office, but every successful deployment of Linux on the desktop means Microsoft loses revenue from both of it's main income streams.

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[Xaria]

The controls on the BSD kernel are a good thing, at least from a server perspective. As an example - CD record on Linux uses SCSI (unless this changes recently). Someone wanted to use an IDE burner. So they hacked up a SCSI-IDE interface and voila, instant CD burning. BSD has IDE burning native. No stupid hacks. No compiling SCSI support into the kernel to support an IDE drive. This is the *right* way to do things. Yes, I turn to Linux for the latest & greatest, but I turn to BSD for reliability.

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[urmensch]

If I'm not mistaken, you have been able to burn using IDE since kernel 2.6

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[gullevek]

throw in xBSD and you can have the same apps running too.

More Kudos to the app developers!

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[gullevek]

up to 2004? what are you talking about. I had Server running with linux kernel long before that.

Linux didn't became "cool" just yesterday. It was useful a long time ago. Just the Managers didn't have any cool pie graphics yet, so they didn't know about it. Now there are enough MBA guys with redhat/suse/etc so they can spill out pie graphics and super leaflets in millions, so all the managers now know about it.

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[gullevek]

but its not like samba or apache or php or perl or others came around the conrer in one day ...

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[Anonymous Coward]

you can run them on windows (cygwin, mingw or native port) for chrissakes

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[tsa]

That's what I am in the process of. Switch to OSX at home! At work MS is king :-(

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[tsa]

I think he meant there wasn't a GNU kernel until 2004. That's why RMS wants us to all say GNU/Linux. GNU tools with a Linux kernel. He has a point there. Unfortunately he acts such like a zealot these days that nobody takes him serious anymore.

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[cowbutt]

If I'm not mistaken, you have been able to burn using IDE since kernel 2.6

Correct, and cdrecord and friends know how to use ATAPI to do so now.

Further, ide-scsi isn't as stupid as it first seems; ATAPI is pretty much just the SCSI command set over the ATA physical layer.

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[hey!]

Yeah, you have to wonder whether Microsoft has shot itself in the foot there. By refusing to port their tools, they've forced the FOSS community to develop the whole software stack for Linux.

One of the few business situations where the advice of the "Art of War" actually applies. In the Art of War, the master says that when an army crosses a ford, you let it get half way across before you attack.

The trick is estimating the size of the F/OSS army. If this were a commercial entity, the results would be brutal: invest the money and time coming close to parity, then have MS destroy the revenue model by tweaking their margins on a product where the vast majority of lifetime costs are sunk, or by exploiting any one of their countless stratetic advantages such as control of the platform.

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[dario_moreno]

About Windows or BSD, I remember using a lot of open source stuff (gcc, emacs, tex, nethack, gnuplot...) on Sun and HP workstations in the early 90's. Without linux I think it would have stayed this way at least in the academic world.

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[trygstad]

End-users, the ultimate audience and market-share, really, really, really don't give a damn about the pieces/parts. To them, an operating system is just another piece of the computer and in the end is really something they'd rather not think about. This insistance on distinguishing the pieces is one of the geek handicaps to mainstream acceptance of Linux. Even the whole "Linux - GNU/Linux" debate turns people off fast. They don't care what you call it or what the parts are; they only care about what it does, and does it meet their needs.

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[ArsonSmith]

I think you could leave out "these days" and "anymore" from your last sentance. Not saying he hasn't done great things and he did pioneer the OSS movement, but noone ever took him serious, and he has always been a zealot.

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[ivan256]

I'd rather replace all the GNU software than all those device drivers....

But now that I think about it, other than libc and bash I don't really use much GNU software. The software running on my system right now comes from x.org, Mozilla, Apache, Sun, myself, and a few independant developers. There are plenty of shells and libc implementations, so going GNU-free wouldn't be that hard.

It's the drivers that are hard to replace. Even if you run lots of GNU.

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[alba7]

up to 2004? what are you talking about.

About GNU Hurd.

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[gullevek]

well that will never be ready :) so from that point linux did something very good

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[gullevek]

correct. thats why users really don't give a damn if its windows, mac os x or something else. As long they can open their powerpoint, excel and surf the web without too many troubles.

Windows can bring you in a lot of troubles once it breaks. But the trick is not to let that happen. Of course windows sometimes does this by itself, eg by claiming that the OEM licence doesn't work anymore.

Mac OS X works much better in that way and is easier to fix. But the iMac hardware is uebercrap and sometimes if it works on one Mac it doesn't work on another.

Linux is anyway a different storry and superfar from beeing a desktop system. Especially if it comes down to CJK (chinese japanese korean) input. possible yes, but so far away from the easieness of MS or Mac OS X like nothing else in the universe.

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[gullevek]

When you see him talk, then you understand why noone ever take him and will take him serious. Sort of a shame, he really did something great for the software world.

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[ArsonSmith]

I actually had a chance to hang out with him for a while. "dirty hippie" comes to mind, and I don't even mind dirty hippies.

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[gullevek]

hehe :) a unique social beeing then.

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[SlackwareKid]

In my opinion, neither KDE nor Gnome are very good. Although it did bring people to linux, it was why i was glad for Slackware 10.2(no Gnome).

Re:so all its all thanks to the kernel?

[gullevek]

true. I use KDE, but the only reason why, is because when I started to use Linux at work KDE Terminal had taps and gnome didn't. Konsole (the KDE terminal program) and Korganizer are the only KDE progams I actually use.

The only thing wrong with Linux...

[Anonymous Coward]

...is the guy who invented it, and his complete ignorance of the software development cycle.

But remember folks...

[Noryungi]

As seen on Slashdot: the GPL hinders the development of Linux.

(Yes, this is funny. Laugh.)

So, on one hand we have ZDNet telling us the GPL is bad, bad, bad. On the other hand, we have BusinessWeek telling us Linux is going places. Oh, and Steve Ballmer says the GPL is for communist bearded hippies. Go figure. I guess somebody did not get the memo or something.

Re:But remember folks...

[RelaxedTension]

Oh, and Steve Ballmer says the GPL is for communist bearded hippies

This being the company that's currently towing the communist Chinese line...

Re:But remember folks...

[FreakyLefty]

Towing or toeing? The two are very different things...

Re:But remember folks...

[Anonymous Coward]

Taken to be an abbreviation of kowtowing, they mean the same thing.

Re:But remember folks...

[RelaxedTension]

Maybe I should have said toadying. :)

Re:Ohhhhhh!

[ankarbass]

That would imply sexual intercourse, thus we can infer from the contrapositive, that it's not possible for geeks to have children.

Paul Murphy

[WindBourne]

this contradicts Paul Murphy's earlier article.

40% growth is being "held back"?

[prattle]

According to IBM, 10 million desktops ran Linux in 2004 -- a 40% jump from a year ago.

If only the gpl weren't holding linux back, eh?

Re:40% growth is being "held back"?

[man_of_mr_e]

For all those 10 million desktops, i'm not seeing it translate to Web site hits.

That tells me that most of those desktops are essentially dumb terminals, running turnkey applications, rather than real user desktops where the user is free to do whatever they wish.

I'm sure someone will argue that browser agent strings aren't reliable, and that they can be forged, but most of the browsers actually report themselves as Linux, even if they pretend to be IE.

Re:40% growth is being "held back"?

[WindBourne]

I'm sure someone will argue that browser agent strings aren't reliable, and that they can be forged, but most of the browsers actually report themselves as Linux, even if they pretend to be IE.

Actually, they do not. In fact, right now, my browser is set to appear to be firefox on windows and that is exactly what you or /. would read it as. Why, you ask? I prefer to keep it quiet as to the real number of Linux desktops. Every time, I set up a desktop, I change the konqi defaults to read like MSIE (and lately like firefox). The less info that companies like IDG, Gartner, and MS have, the lower the likelyhood that they can mess with things. In the mean time, the industry is moving back to standards and away from MS only.

Re:40% growth is being "held back"?

[man_of_mr_e]

Well, just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean everyone else is. What evidence do you have that any most people using Linux are changing their user agent strings from the defaults to masquerade strictly as a windows browser?

Re:40% growth is being "held back"?

[Anonymous Coward]

Me, too. I do something very similar. There are six home desktop computers on which I have installed Linux (for myself and family members). Three of them never access the Internet. The other three do, but I have them set up to fake being MS/IE machines. Just makes life easier.

Re:40% growth is being "held back"?

[Anonymous Coward]

A lot of people change the default because of so many sites that freak out if the UA string is anything other than IE (though in recent years it has gotten a LOT better, there are stil some things that only check if its IE or an ancient version of Netscape). Generally its easy to change the default then do it on a site by site basis.

Re:40% growth is being "held back"?

[WindBourne]

Do I think that all the Linux's konqi's and firefox's change their strings? No.

But I think that a good percentage of them do, just to avoid the inevitable hassle that comes from dealing with the IIS sites that try to block.

Can I offer you evidence of such? Other than a number of us here (and at distros, Gnome and KDE sites) who say that they do this, No. But then again you have no evidence and no logic that says otherwise.

Plain and simple, tracking the linux installs via the browsers is a wasted effort. About the only thing that it will tell you is the fake absolute maximum of Windows and the minimal minimums of Linux. Nothing more.

Now, as to the paranoid crap, you are starting to sound like you are from D.C.. Just because I elect to make life easier on those that I help as well as deny others information, does not make one paranoid. But it does make you judgemental and pretty much an idiot.

Re:40% growth is being "held back"?

[prattle]

Flamebait? Redundant? Ouch.

The point I was trying to make was that we had zdnet earlier telling us that linux growth had slowed because the gpl was holding it back and then here we have an ibm study showing 40% growth of linux on the desktop. Maybe I should have included a sarcasm tag...

Re:40% growth is being "held back"?

[man_of_mr_e]

I agree, but that's not what I said. Even if they've changed their UA string to say IE, it will still report as running on Linux, unless they completely override the entire string (Mozilla/Firefox provide both UA string override and UA string). Apart from the fact that most users don't even know how to change their UA (Opera provides a nice GUI to do it, but Opera's share is pretty small, even on Linux), most would just change the Browser name reported.

Linux is dying.

[picz plz]

I'm sad to say that the 2.6 kernel is a mess. It has never worked right. Now that the Linux kernel team has given up on producing stable kernels (leaving the hard work to the distributions) and the fact that distributions are already having a hard enough time to keep themselves alive, it's safe to say that Linux is on it's deathbed. For all practical purposes, Linux is dead.

Re:Linux is dying.

[Anonymous Coward]

Stfu, n00b.

Re:Linux is dying.

[WhiteWolf666]

I blame the GPL.

Without the GPL, MS would come and save us from this convoluted mess of code we call the kernel.

A bit of avalon here, some win32 there, and Linux 2.8 with NTFS support would be ready to rock!

Actually...

[Spy der Mann]

For a second there, I thought Linus had a kid...

Actually, he's married and has three kids, all girls. Yes, fellow slashdotters, our favorite geek hero has trascended beyond the realms of our known universe: He COULD get a girlfriend! :-o

\o/ \o/ All nerds bow to Linus the Great! \o/ \o/

Re:Actually...

[Stradenko]

Yeah, I initially thought those sick f*cks at businessweek were talking about Patricia...nine years old? coming of age? sick bastards.

Re:Actually...

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

our favorite geek hero has trascended beyond the realms of our known universe

I think what you mean is that Linus fork()ed and got 3 new processes going...

Re:Actually...

[ickleberry]

if linus can do it... i probably cant do it because im still a n00b

Re:Actually...

[paranode]

He COULD get a girlfriend!

True but he replaced Girlfriend 4.0 with Wife 1.0 and the upgrade is not reversible. Please do be careful with this decision.

Documentation to follow:

Last year a friend of mine upgraded from Girlfriend 4.0 to Wife 1.0 and found that it's a memory hog leaving few system resources for other applications. He is also now noticing the Wife 1.0 is also spawning Child-processes which are further consuming valuable resources. No mention of this particular phenomenon was included in the product documentation, though other users have informed me that this is to be expected due to the nature of the application.

Not only that, Wife 1.0 installs itself so that it is always launched at system initialization where it can monitor all other system activity. Some applications such as PokerNite 10.3 , Bachelor Party 2.5, and Pubnite 7.0 are no longer able to run on the system at all, causing the system to lockup when launched (even though the apps worked fine before).

Wife 1.0 provides no installation options. Thus, the installation of undesired plug-ins such as Mother-in-law 55.8 and the Brother-in-law Beta is unavoidable. Also, system performance seems to diminish with each passing day.

Some features my friend would like to see in the upcoming Wife 2.0:

        * A "don't remind me again" button.
        * Minimize button.
        * Ability to delete the "headache" file
        * An install feature that provides an option to uninstall 2.0 version without loss loss of other system resources.
        * An option to run the network driver in "promiscuous mode" allowing the the system's Hardware Probe feature to be much more useful/effective.

I myself wish I had decided to avoid all of the headaches associated with Wife 1.0 by sticking with Girlfriend 3.0 Even here, however, I have found many problems. Apparently you cannot install Girlfriend 4.0 on top of girlfriend 3.0. You must uninstall Girlfriend 3.0 first, otherwise the two versions of Girlfriend will have conflicts over shared use of the I/O port. Other users have told me that this is a long-standing problem that I should have been aware of. Guess that explains what happened to versions 1 and 2.

To make matters worse, the uninstall program for Girlfriend 3.0 doesn't work very well, leaving undesirable traces of the application in the system. Another identified problem is that all versions of Girlfriend have annoying little messages about the advantages of upgrading to Wife 1.0!

VIRUS ALERT

All users should be aware that Wife 1.0 has an undocumented bug. If you try to install Mistress 1.1 before uninstalling Wife 1.0, Wife 1.0 will delete MSMoney files before doing the uninstall itself. Once that happens, Mistress 1.1 won't install and you will get an "insufficient resources" error message. To avoid the aforementioned bug, try installing Mistress 1.1 on a different system and " never" run any file transfer applications(such as Laplink) between the two systems.

FYI: Don't even think about a shared directory!!!!!!!!!

Re:Actually...

[valintin]

For a second there... I actually thought one of his daughters was old enough to start sending in patches.

Re:Actually...

[Anonymous Coward]

The REAL question is... anyone got a picture of his wife?

Re:Actually...

[Anonymous Coward]

You know her by her first name?

Ewww!!!

Re:Actually...

[pablodiazgutierrez]

Actually, he's married and has three kids, all girls.

He prefers calling them his genetic back-ups.

Re:Actually...

[CastrTroy]

Yeah, but those backups are like mp3s, in the respect that they are quite lossy. Maybe with 3 backups, there is enough parity to assemble the original.

Re:Actually...

[(1 -sqrt(5))*(2**-1)]

I think what you mean is that Linus fork()ed and got 3 new processes going [...].

Actually, the analogy is apt both in respect to the division of resources and relative autonomy of forkés.

Re:Actually...

[sr180]

Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it. - Linux

Re:Actually...

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh good grief, who's modding this old recycled piece of crap to "+5 funny"? I think it's about time we just gave up on the "funny" mod....

Re:Actually...

[dankasfuk]

Honestly,

      One of the funniest things I've ever read on Slashdot (~2yrs). So damn true...

Re:Actually...

[rob_squared]

Linus doesn't do backups, though I'm worried about how he'd go about mirroring himself accross the net.

Re:Actually...

[Anonymous Coward]

From the Wikipedia article:

Linus is married to Tove Torvalds. She is a six-time Finnish national Karate champion, whom he first met in fall 1993.

So his children are the unholy union of a geek demigod and a woman who could beat a Navy SEAL to death with little to no effort. Wow....

Re:Actually...

[LarsWestergren]

Yeah, but those backups are like mp3s, in the respect that they are quite lossy. Maybe with 3 backups, there is enough parity to assemble the original.

Seeing as all of them are missing the same 50% of his data (Y cromosome) I find it unlikely. :-)

Re:Actually...

[SimilarityEngine]

Should've called the firstborn "Trinity" :-)

Re:Actually...

[Anonymous Coward]

Google does. Probably not the best pic, but one:
http://www.yle.fi/linna98/photos/photo46_i.jpg

Re:Actually...

[Skjellifetti]

I think what you mean is that Linus fork()ed and got 3 new processes going...

... and will soon discover that they are closed source proprietary processes with broken signal handlers which close STDIN whenever you most need to communicate with them. This tends to happen after they have been running for about 13 years.

Re:Actually...

[Hymer]

Yes, fellow slashdotters, our favorite geek hero has trascended beyond the realms of our known universe: He COULD get a girlfriend!

I'll suggest that you read his biography again... that was Tove (Linus' wife) who asked for a date first.

Re:Actually...

[ACPosterChild]

I thought that maybe she just had her first device driver accepted into the kernel, or something.

Re:Actually...

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't that even more impressive?

Linus's Baby Comes of Age

[MoxCamel]

Last time I RTFA. I was thinking his daughter was 18 or something.

Mox

Re: Linus's Baby Comes of Age

[nurhussein]

You'd better watch your comments. I hear the mother, Mrs. Torvalds, is a karate master.

Still not where i want it..

[cybrthng]

For web servers, even j2ee application servers and open source stuff linux is fine and dandy, where i can't stand it is enterprise applications.

I can't stand the horrible certification matrix that is a joke on RedHat AS. I can't stand the fact that vendors lock into specific redhat releases and NONE of those locks carry forward. I can't stand the fact that Redhat doesn't seem to care. "contact your software vendor".

Hence, i love solaris for enterprise applications - i'm talking about financial back end systems, i'm talking about heavy duty bpel, oracle sso, applicaitons 11i, oracle 10g grids and everything else. RedHat's TCO because of the lack of supported arch's is more than solaris or even HPUX which is downright scary.

I love my redhat boxen, i wish i could standardize on that platform. Why the hell hasn't the market caught up? i mean for christs sake oracle preaches linux day in and day out yet i have to run AS 2.1 or AS 3.0 and i can't run 64bit database back ends in certain mixes nad i have to have oracle kernel versions for this and that and yet all of this is supposed ot come together in some "proposed" future date.

They've only been saying that for 5 years now :(

Re:Still not where i want it..

[temojen]

Sounds like your problem is with Oracle, not Linux.

Re:Still not where i want it..

[temojen]

Hint: PostgreSQL. If you play with proprietary vendors, you get proprietary vendor games.

Re:Still not where i want it..

[cybrthng]

Linux is the only platform that has this issue. It's up to redhat to get certified. Suse is in the process, but i don't know where that stands after novel purchased them.

Re:Still not where i want it..

[cybrthng]

Postgresql doesn't scale what we need. We have over 600 concurrent web users and countless concurrent jobs and tons of replications and db links to other systems.

besides, postgressql has the same problem as redhat. You buy support and they will only support you on "supported" platforms that are hardly ever modern or optimized for the amount of transactions a large ERP system does.

Re:Still not where i want it..

[superpulpsicle]

Yep that was the first one that came to mind. But Oracle on redhat AS enterprise has improved a great deal compared to Oracle on early redhat 7, 8, 9s.

Re:Still not where i want it..

[cybrthng]

oh no doubt.. but it still has a ways to go when you compare it to sun or hpux.

My finding is everything can do in linux, i can do in sun/hpux cheaper. Will this change? ofcourse. And i *still* can't wait!

Re:Still not where i want it..

[kpharmer]

but...so what?

I'm running large data warehouses on db2 on aix. I could run this on linux (power5 hardware supports linux, so does db2).

But why the hurry? In the meanwhile, the upfront cost is the same, aix has a lower tco (fewer patches to install, more reliable, etc). The hardware cost for power5 isn't that much more than for intel (when you're talking about seriously fast hardware). All the same apps and utilities run on aix (python, gnu stuff, etc).

Aren't you in the same spot? Why rush large oracle 12-way servers to linux? It'll happen eventually.

Re:Still not where i want it..

[Anonymous Coward]

Take a look at his posting history before you mod him up. He's a troll.

Re:Ohhhhhh!

[tylersoze]

Actually when I first read that I thought they were talking about one of his kids. I was thinking to myself, why is this news? :)

What distro does Linus run?

[wvitXpert]

Maybe a little off topic, but I've always wondered what Linus runs on his computer.

Re:What distro does Linus run?

[Reducer2001]

I heard he's a closet Win 3.11 user.

Re:What distro does Linus run?

[i_should_be_working]

He runs on a PPC so that narrows it down a bit. Between Gentoo, Ubuntu, Yellowdog and Mandriva, I'd guess Gentoo.

Re:What distro does Linus run?

[EvilMal]

Linux From Scratch, of course!

Re:What distro does Linus run?

[i.r.id10t]

The guy who should be working already mentioned the PPC, but I remember reading here on /. a while back that he had a *really* nice SMP workstation (4 or 8 cpu, forget) and ran Mandrake simply because 'drake "just worked" at the time.

I think that would be a cool slashdot interview type thingie - find out what hardware, OS, and apps the Big Names in computing use personally.

Re:What distro does Linus run?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes... I'm sure that Linus has nothing better to do than compile everything he uses all the time.

Re:What distro does Linus run?

[houghi]

Before he owned a Mac, he ran SUSE and RedHat. Although that info is already a few years old.

I think it is very wise for him not to piblicly tell what the best distro is, because that would make all the others look bad.

Re:What distro does Linus run?

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't forget Debian, Gentoo isn't the most practical distro and Linus is a fan of things that just work.

Re:What distro does Linus run?

[CastrTroy]

If people are really going to choose 1 distro over the other, because Linus uses it, then they are pretty dumb users. You really have to choose your distro based on what you will be using it for. There is no distro that's right for everyone. That's where windows has it wrong. They try to create 1 windows that's right for everyone, and instead, don't really end up satisfying anyone. Never mind the Home,Pro,Server,Advanced Server, DC Server versions. They are all really the same OS, with a few features disabled. With linux, you can get any version, and enable all the features. You don't need to spend thousands of dollars just because you happen to have a 16 cpu machine.

Re:What distro does Linus run?

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck, you stole my_crappy_post. YOUBASTARD!

Re:What distro does Linus run?

[indigoid]

i feel the same way when people trot out this tired old line:

"*bsd is better because walnut creek cdrom / hotmail / yahoo / obscure tequila-producing community in mexico use it, linux users are obviously teh sux!!"

the company i work for has migrated (spanning around 9 years) the core-business application from ultrix/mips to digunix/alpha to solaris/sparc to linux/x86. i think we'll be staying on linux for a good while, as worthy contenders don't appear very often. the only real constant has been the gnu tools, and we are very grateful for them.

Re:What distro does Linus run?

[M. Baranczak]

If people are really going to choose 1 distro over the other, because Linus uses it, then they are pretty dumb users.

I think that was the whole point. There are a lot of dumb users out there, in case you haven't noticed.

Re:What distro does Linus run?

[msormune]

Well, just about every Linux distribution has the same components. X, kernel, the same Window managers, KDE or Gnome, etc. What is the difference for a regular end user? They all look the same and do the same. 99% of users are happy with surfing the net, reading email and writing an occasional document and printing it. They just wanrt that to work. And Windows does this rather perfectly. Oh, and if you already have paid for that 16 CPU machine, I'm sure Windows license for it is relatively cheap.

Re:What distro does Linus run?

[cowbutt]

If people are really going to choose 1 distro over the other, because Linus uses it, then they are pretty dumb users.

OTOH, it is a useful 'certification of fitness'; if SuSE or Red Hat or whatever are usable enough for Linus, or Alan, or whoever, they'll probably be good enough for the likes of you and I. Too many people think that the work they're doing is unique and boundary-extending when really most of it isn't.

Re:What distro does Linus run?

[Hymer]

Well, I run a SuSE 9.3 on an IBM A31p (with a 7K2 disk) as my primary system.
I'm not sure if I'm qualified...

Don't forget Hurd

[Anonymous Coward]

What about the retarded kid locked in the basement, Hurd?

Re:Don't forget Hurd

[Anonymous Coward]

I haven't hurd anything about that lately.

Sorry, couldn't help it.

No wait, I want to correct myself!

[Stoopid-Guy0]

Now THIS has GOT to mean next year is the year of Linux on the desktop!!! Right guys? ... Anyone?

article?

[rbochan]

Article?
It was a blog entry... a damned zdnet blog entry at that.

OT...But does anyone

[Anonymous Coward]

I know this is off topic, but I was asked about an hour ago if I could find anything like this. Does anyone know of any Linux based/Open Source alternatives to programs like Microsoft's SMS server or the Altiris Deployment systems? I think Zenworks is another one. I have googled some, but just keep finding AD's. We have so many Sun and Microsoft machines I would love to introduce Linux like this to manage our XP machines.

You Lie!

[alfrin]

I see no pie graphic!

Re:You Lie!

[gullevek]

damn :) they must have removed it! made it geek compatible.

Inroads on the desktop

[br00tus]

I began playing with Linux in 1994 or 1995, when I downloaded it to my PC and used LILO to stick Linux on one of the drives. Eventually I owned multiple PC's, but usually used Windows as my desktop, and had a Linux server. One of the reasons for this was that it was easy to handle Linux remotely, and Windows wasn't, so due to Windows bad features in that area, it was stuck being my desktop.

Anyhow, last December I got a Linksys wireless ethernet adapter and put it in my main desktop, a Windows ME machine (I haven't bought a new machine since the market crashed in spring 2000). Except it didn't work - perhaps it only wanted to work on Windows XP or something. Anyhow, the drivers for the adapter fried all my networking. I kept working on it, and finally decided to reinstall my C drive. Except it's not like Windows 95 with its decent install disks, I have these crappy OEM Windows ME repair disks. OK, so I backup everything I need on C and go. Well, the crappy OEM CD not only blows away C (which I expected), but blows away the D drive as well to write just one file. So I stop everything, and ponder how I am going to get my stuff off D which I need. So I install Debian on drive C, and rescue the important stuff on D. I also pull my stuff off drives E and F. Then I blow everything away and reinstall Debian for my entire disk.

I have to say, I have missed Windows a lot less than I thought I would. My main concern was being able to read and send Microsoft Word documents, but I haven't had to send a Word document in months, and I haven't had a problem reading the few I need anyhow. So I haven't even had to use the Linux programs that say they can help compensate for this. My roommate has a Windows box anyhow, so I can always use his if I'm desperate (or make other arrangements). I've been using UNIX for a long time and love being able to run Apache, MySQL, PERL, PHP etc. on my computer. I have Mediawiki and osCommerce running locally just for testing, and I have my own MySQL tables and PHP/Apache and PERL scripts as well.

I haven't needed Microsoft like I thought I would. Also, I should point out, I switched because Microsoft has gotten worse (OEM repair CDs instead of the old, easy Microsoft vanilla install/reinstall CDs), and Linux has gotten better (which includes GNOME/KDE etc.) I switched due to necessity, not because I am a free software zealot, although I appreciate free software zealots and can be one myself sometimes. I should also add that my wireless adapter worked fine - Linux had the drivers for it. Windows had the drivers as well - but only for XP (ones that didn't blow away your machine). I would have had to shell out money to upgrade my OS to use my new device. You don't have this problem with Linux.

As far as me being a tech, and this not effecting the population, I disagree. I write software, as do many of us, and this is really what effects things. If all the techs begin writing lots of software for Linux, this changes the dynamics of things. There's an old saying "if you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow". Microsoft no longer has me by the balls, which means my mind no longer has to follow them.

Re:Inroads on the desktop

[geekoid]

that was a really long way to go to try and get slashdot cred* for getting linux into the 90's. sheesh.

It also seem you don't need windows as long your room mate has windows.

*only exist in the minds of a few, some limitations apply, may not be exchanged for ale or whores.

Re:Inroads on the desktop

[PenGun]

I gotta agree with geekoid, this chatty crap about fuck all is irritating and the moderators ... my fucking ghod.

    PenGun
  Do What Now ??? ... Standards and Practices !

Re:Inroads on the desktop

[Anonymous Coward]

Well I've noticed serious regressions in Linux since 2.6.x was released.

A bootloader is now mandatory; Linux can no longer boot on it's own. The lack of a 2.7 branch means that all development is going into 2.6.x which has resulted in numerous stability and security issues (stability issues resulting from this development branch that is 2.6.x has bitten me in the ass a number of times.

Modern ATI drivers (both the free and proprietary ones) badly crash my machine, and some distros simply do not install on my box (whereas every BSD and Windows variant I've used do install and teh ATi drivers work fine), and not giving any meaningful reason as to why.

Linux ACPI chokes badly as well, whereas BSD ACPI (NetBSD, FreeBSD and DragonFly) works fine. Kind of strange as IIRC both Linux and BSD ACPI both came from Intel code.

But whatever. it works for some people, and that is great. But it's not a solution for me as the most modern versions refuse to work on the (average) hardware that I have at my disposal.

Re:Inroads on the desktop

[Anonymous Coward]

Modern ATI drivers (both the free and proprietary ones) badly crash my machine

Did they used to actually *work*? From all I've read here, finding a working Linux ATI driver would be kind of like finding the Holy Grail.

Re:Inroads on the desktop

[eldenf]

Yeah, you could do all that... or you could just get a Mac. Much easier IMHO. :)

Actually it's Stallman's baby

[hansreiser]

Sorry, but Stallman of www.fsf.org was the one, and Linus made an important contribution (the kernel was only one of many pieces needed by the OS), but not as important as those made by the guy who failed to name anything after himself.

First we needed an editor (emacs), then a compiler (gcc), a bunch of utilities (things like cp got written by the fsf), a license (the GPL), and only after all that Stallman originated stuff was in place were we ready for a kernel.

Hans

Re:Actually it's Stallman's baby

[geekoid]

didn't have to go that way.
there is no reason I can't create an open source Kernel using a closed source editor.
Or a open source compiler using a closed source editor.

You history was correct, but there was no reason that it had to go in that order.

Re:Actually it's Stallman's baby

[GigsVT]

Sure, Linux would be nowhere without Gnu, but Gnu would be nowhere without Linux. Can't we just call it a happy symbiosis instead of trying to say it's one or the other's baby?

Re:Actually it's Stallman's baby

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey if it's open source, wouldn't it be all of our's kid? A pure breed from the loin's of /.er's...what have we done!

Re:Actually it's Stallman's baby

[Teckla]

Sure, Linux would be nowhere without Gnu, but Gnu would be nowhere without Linux. Can't we just call it a happy symbiosis instead of trying to say it's one or the other's baby?

This just in: GigsVT (208848) confirms BSD is dead.

Re:Actually it's Stallman's baby

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, but Stallman of www.fsf.org was the one, and Linus made an important contribution (the kernel was only one of many pieces needed by the OS), but not as important as those made by the guy who failed to name anything after himself.

Yes, because if there's anything we know for sure about Richard Stallman, it's that he doesn't have an inflated ego. Or is it GNU/Ego?

Remember, if you use any terms for anything that haven't been officially sanctioned by Stallman himself, you're actually part of a separate "movement" with goals opposed to everything that is good and holy in the universe. Stay Free, never Open; keep your enemies Proprietary and never Closed; and be careful of falling into any GNU/Traps. It doesn't matter that Stallman opposed Linux every step of the way - and wanted to strangle it in the crib by insisting the media call it LiGNUx - all that matters is the GNU/Truth, and I for one stand by that.

Re:Actually it's Stallman's baby

[i_should_be_working]

Can't it belong to both of them? Uughh. That brings horrible visions of Linus injecting his kernel, or seed as it were, into Stallmans fertile GNU userspace.

Almost makes me want to stop using their bastard child.

Re:Actually it's Stallman's baby

[ocelotbob]

Nope. Had Stallman not created GNU, we'd probably be using the (nicer, IMO), BSD toolchain with the Linux kernel. RMS is highly overrated.

Re:Actually it's Stallman's baby

[Anonymous Coward]

Shit, do you even know anything about operating systems? Poser.

Re:Actually it's Stallman's baby

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, but Stallman of www.fsf.org was the one, and Linus made an important contribution (the kernel was only one of many pieces needed by the OS), but not as important as those made by the guy who failed to name anything after himself.

The existence of the BSDs is proof that this argument is bunk. Without GNU tools, we'd still have had the BSD toolchain and utilities which predate it. Yes, we might initially have had to use a free-as-in-beer instead of free-as-in-speech compiler, but GNU itself had exactly the same bootstrap problem. In the real world, the GNU toolchain and utilities and compiler are very important on Linux systems, but historically speaking, Linux without GNU is like a fish without a bicycle.

RMS's great contribution to the world was not his so-called operating system, it's certainly not his leadership or project management abilities, and it's certainly not his half-baked armchair philosophy. Much of the ecosystem he insists we all call "the GNU system" (or "GNU/Linux" if we're feeling charitable and want to credit the allegedly unimportant kernel) is there despite his efforts, not because of them, as those of us in the trenches at the time remember.

No, Stallman's great contribution to world was the idea of copyleft or share-alike, as embodied in the GPL. And both Linux and Linus absolutely owe him a debt of gratitude for that, for it drove much of the developer energy that made Linux possible. It's such a great contribution, in fact, that most of us let him slide on all the rest of the egotistical rantings and ravings.

Re:Actually it's Stallman's baby

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmm, you wouldn't happen to be, you know, biased against the Linux developers or anything, would you?

Re:Actually it's Stallman's baby

[dickrichardv8]

If I got the "gist" of the news net articles there was a kind of a cult of a community around Minix that was writing software applications and they abandoned it for Linux in a firesale fashion because Linux had not only source code available as in Minix but was also free as in freedom and free as in beer too. Your own distro (each person's hard drive had a unique combination) was made up of incumbered applications as well as GNU applications. Wasn't the compiler one of the first GNU apps? Stallman was the visionary leader in getting these applictions rewritten and replaced with GNU applications to get the ball rolling on a true GNU operating system-distribution combination (Some applications were GPL'ed by their original owners as momentum built). I think the furture of Linux will still be cycles of a propriorship application becoming popular and then becoming a commodity application as it gets replaced in function as a GNU application.

Re:Actually it's Stallman's baby

[MichaelSmith]

Had Stallman not created GNU, we'd probably be using the [...] BSD toolchain

Well, there is still GCC

But Stallman might have actually gone on to write some good AI software in lisp.

Re:Actually it's Stallman's baby

[phantomfive]

are you aware that the GP is Hans Reiser of ReiserFS? He does know something about operating systems, I think.

Re:Actually it's Stallman's baby

[Anonymous Coward]

I belive the compiler is more important than you think. Sure you might get free-as-in-beer compilers for the more popular archs, but finding a single one that supports all major and many of the obscure would be a major feat. A lot of kernel development has been sponsored by ibm (power) sgi (mips) sun (sparc) etc, it's not entierly obvious that the adoption of linux had been the same if they not only had to port the codebase to a new arch, but also adapt it to a new compiler, possibly one for each arch, while all maintaining the same codebase.

Re:Actually it's Stallman's baby

[Anonymous Coward]

The existence of the BSDs is proof that this argument is bunk. Without GNU tools, we'd still have had the BSD toolchain and utilities which predate it.

That argument also works in reverse: the BSD kernels can be seen as proof that linux is unimportant.

Re:Actually it's Stallman's baby

[GigsVT]

There are two kinds of people in this world, the ones that know BSD died 10 years ago, and the people that still use BSD for whatever reason.

Re:Actually it's Stallman's baby

[ArsonSmith]

Yea, it's like Grandma. Everyone knows she died 10 years ago, but Grandpa still uses here for whatever reason. Except that the people still useing BSD is just sick and wrong.

Re:Actually it's Stallman's baby

[ArsonSmith]

"Linux without GNU is like a fish without a bicycle."

Not a very good analogy. A fish would never need nor be able to use a bicycle. I'd say more like a dog without a fire hydrant. The dog is still going to pee it just may not be in it's favorite place.

Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

What a lame attempt at flamebait.

Flame on :)

[Henk Postma]

At the risk of starting a "is it GNU/Linux" flamewar ...

Opensource is hardly Linus' baby, more like RMS. Not discounting Linus: it was of course smart of him to use the opensource concept, and he can surely code me into a corner.

Plus, don't forget: the kernel is not the (only) thing that makes linux great, it's all the tools Apache/Perl/gnome/kde etc that live on top of it.

10 million?

[Anonymous Coward]

According to the Computer Industry Almanac (may only include IBM-PCs, but close enough) and this article, Linux desktops are on about 1.2% of all desktops. Better than I could ever do with a little hobby OS I guess.

How many more years of Slashdot articles saying "Linux is dramatically gaining desktop share" are we going to see before that percentage even hits double digits?

Take off your "M$" hating blinders and smell my special blend of coffee: it's called "Linux as you know it is not destined for a large share of desktops and won't topple 'evil M$' period." Long name, but focus groups liked it over "OpenFolgers".

Note to self

[Henk Postma]

must ... read ... before posting

Too late

[temojen]

Someone else already started that flamewar.

older sibling ...

[Triumph The Insult C]

curfew extended and the keys to the car,

that's the easy part. getting laid^H^H^H^Haccepted by PHBs as being suitable 'enterprise grade' computing is the hard part

Linus, like all other smart people, runs OS X

[Anonymous Coward]

The nasty little secret of the Lin-sux community is that their "pope" of code, the guy for whom their little toy OS is named doesn't even run it. I don't know about you guys, but I find that hilarious! OS X is so far aboe Lin-sux in every way (speed, security, etc) that it isn't even a fair fight any more.

Think Different. Think Better. Think Apple.

Re:Linus, like all other smart people, runs OS X

[Anonymous Coward]

Think Different. Think Better. Think Apple.

Aaghh... Strong signs of Apple marketing brainwash!

Re:Ohhhhhh!

[bd1e0d0]

I think it just means he's 18. Imply what you will.

Article is wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

Proprietary software revenues aren't falling. Microsoft sets record profits every quarter, and Unix is seeing a resurgence. Business Week apparently has some fanbois on its staff.

Mainstream is bad

[Anonymous Coward]

I personally don't want Linux to become mainstream. I forsee two paths for Linux, it stays out of the lime light and semi-underground (I know that sounds funny, but go to a public place and shout "Linux is so cool!" and note all the blank stares you get) and stays a great OS or it goes mainstream and it turns into just another way to make money for some CEO who takes all the credit for an unkown developer's work. Stay right where you are Linux.

Re:Mainstream is bad

[ClosedSource]

"but go to a public place and shout "Linux is so cool!" and note all the blank stares you get"

Well, first of all OS's are not considered cool by the general public. Add to this that Linux is a clone of an 70's OS and it becomes even less cool. You might as well shout out "bellbottoms and long sideburns are so cool".

The creepy part of this story..

[xant]

Torvalds has a baby. She's almost 5 now. How about we say "Linus' Software Comes of Age" instead. You perverts.

Re:Ohhhhhh!

[brohan]

So, this means his kid has started being interested in women. I've seen him checking out Mac OS X, but I don't think a there will be a serious relationship after.

Ah.

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps this year will be The Year Of Linux On The Desktop(TM).

RedHat Sucks. Duh.

[Anonymous Coward]

RedHat is for suckers. Personaly I prefer Debian. Many buisnesses should be considered suckers in my book. Perhaps this is a reason for RedHat's success in the buisness world; Buisnesses feel safer and more secure about a product that is obscenely overpriced, this imo is also a good explination for why buisnesses continue to use m$ server products.

*834|^*

It's been a long day....sorry for the drained brain.

All at the same time?

[ClosedSource]

IBM spokesperson: There were 10 million desktops running Linux in 2004.

Business week: All at the same time?

IBM spokesperson: Well, no. We were going to take 5 million PCs out of stock and load Linux on them before installing Windows, but then we decided to load Linux on a single PC and move it from desktop to desktop. It was much cheaper.

ASCII underwear

[zahl2]

You know how at concerts, chicks throw underwear at hot rock stars?

Well, ten years ago, I meant to email Linus some ASCII art underwear.
(Wow but that was a long time ago.)

Coming of Age?

[zahl2]

That would mean, what? Kernel hacking? Yeah, that is pretty sick. But HOT.

Sex with Linux now safe

[Anonymous Coward]

Excellent, so now I can have sex with my Linux machine without risking arrest!

free thinkers

[seanadams.com]

It is really astounding to me how few free thinkers there are in the world.

If you compare the behavior of businesses/investors to that of high school cliques, you'll find few differences. It's all about trends and fads and nothing about individual ambition or purpose. Indeed, even the language spoken at the highest echelons of these companies is decidedly more inane than the babbling of a bunch of valley girls.

Kudos to IBM for setting a new and good trend for all the sheep to follow.

Re:free thinkers

[JonAnderson]

Here, Here. I mean, IBM, the GOOD guys. Come on!!!

10 Million .... 40 % ..... WOW!

[argoff]

For those who say that Windows is destined to own the desktop, 10 Million at 40% is one hell of a demographic/trend. 20% with a base of a 2 million would be enough to make any astute business student pee in their pants. In fact, I can't find the data, but from my memory that kind of uptake is stronger then Microsoft was. At this point, there must be serious market forces behind the wheel. And they are happening in spite of an entrenched well financed competitor??? I would say all hell is going to break loose in the next few years or so.

Re:10 Million .... 40 % ..... WOW!

[shmlco]

That's a 40% increase over the prior period, which isn't bad... but one also has to consider where those numbers are coming from.

IIRC, it's entirely possible the vast majority of that increase is coming from Linux installed on cheap Chineese desktops, as more and more people in that country get computers and get online. As such, even with the increase it could still be a smaller percentage of a larger pie.

Re:10 Million .... 40 % ..... WOW!

[argoff]

...it's entirely possible the vast majority of that increase is coming from Linux installed on cheap Chineese desktops...

Actually, I wouldn't be supprised if it was, the 3rd world isn't the same as it used to be. Linux is very well positioned.

There are over a billion people coming "on-line" to the global economy, with a potential limit of 6 billion. The latest business thinking is that it is better and easier to make $10 from a billion people, then it is to make $100 from an oversaturated US market segment of 100 million people. With the PC side pratically halving in cost every year, the Microsoft model of closed , controlled, proprietary, and profit optimized - is not well positioned to benefit from this market at all. (not to mention that with all the debt, over leveraged housing, over bought bond market, and over 100 trillion in outstanding derivative contracts - the US economy is teetering on the edge inspite of all the glowing reports from Washington DC. Gold is at 17 year highs, and the market is calling it under bought, what the hell do they know that we don't? )

poss troll

[ninjakin]

gigity gigity gigity ~ horney guy on the family guy show yeah im not sure about the spelling though...

When will you all get it?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's NOT Linus' baby, for god's sakes.

You could use the GNU utils on FreeBSD and be just as fucking happy.

Linus contributed the kernel. Big Fucking Deal! Grow up already.

Re:When will you all get it?

[waferhead]

"You could use the GNU utils on FreeBSD and be just as fucking happy."

Not if I want all my hardware to work.

Fought that several times while "trying out" various BSD flavors over the years on numerous computers.
(NetBSD 1.0 DID work well on my A3000/A2410 video card setup back in ~`94 tho IIRC, but any given Linux (0.93?)
tarball "distro" was STILL far easier to port random software to...)

Penguin Birth

[Anonymous Coward]

Linus gave birth to a penguin?

Is it a penguin-man hybrid?
Or is it a purebred penguin?

Re:But remember Cabbage patch

[Azzhole]

" Commie Bearded Hippies" That's cuz Ballmer was the model for the original cabbage patch doll.

So does this mean...

[gentoo_troll]

Linus' baby is a GENTOO?

Not totally correct

[BerntB]

Consider, there is 50% chans a given part of a chromosome of the father is not in a given child (Xover, etc). That means one in four, that it is not in two children and 1/8 that it isn't in three children.

Seeing as all of them are missing the same 50% of his data (Y cromosome)

There aren't that many genes on the Y chromosome so it is much less than 12.5% of the rest of the genome.

Sigh, can't stop myself from correction facts in a joke. I have to get this besserwisser tendency under control. :-(

Please, someone, post exact number of genes (according to alternative splicing, silencing, etc) lost so I can feel I'm not worse than the spelling nazis. :-(

Re:Not totally correct

[LarsWestergren]

Sigh, can't stop myself from correction facts in a joke. I have to get this besserwisser tendency under control. :-(


Hey, I don't mind, its good to have gaps in my knowledge pointed out. Your post did stir some faint memories from high school when talking about Mendel etc. I should obviously go refresh my knowledge in this area. :-)

I'm sorry, but...

[msormune]

...isn't Linux just used here as a replacement for a Unix core kernel? That way companies don't have to pay for commercial Unix implementations. I admin a Linux server myself, and don't care one bit it runs Linux. It could be any Unixish system for all I care. I am also pretty sure Linux alone does not run much software. It takes a lot of other software component to achieve that.

Re:Ohhhhhh!

[tsa]

So he has a lesbian kid? Let the rumours fly! :-)

Count the rest of the world

[FishandChips]

The figures for desktop Linux use are always a little vague. Are they just counting the States and Western Europe or the whole world? How do they account for Win/Linux dual boot systems which may well be the norm for a lot of early adopters?

Linux has great attractions for the developing world where folks either can't afford the Wintel upgrade crack or are leery of it for political reasons. Yesterday, for example, it was announced that Sun Wah Linux will be rolled out on 150,000 PCs in Chinese schools, arguably a more solid achievement for open sauce than yesterday's Google/Sun lovefest. It's possible that an increase in desktop Linux in the West will be prompted by its widespread use everywhere else first.

Re:Count the rest of the world

[kidcharles]

"open sauce"

Are you from Bawston?

Back... to the Huaah?

[Kingrames]

"10 million desktops ran Linux in 2004 -- a 40% jump from a year ago."

Great Scott Marty!
What year IS it?

Finally

[SlackwareKid]

Ever since 1998, i've been waiting for this to happen, Most people are finally using Linux THANK GOD!!!!!!