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Happy 15th Birthday Linux

An anonymous reader writes "It's 15 years already! On August 25th, 1991 Linus Torvalds submitted the famous message to comp.os.minix: 'Hello everybody out there using minix — I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things)' Happy Birthday Linux!"

15 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Well, that's great by chriso11 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is it just 15 years? Amazing what Windows hasn't done in all that time.

    --
    No, I don't trust in god. He'll have to pay up front, like everybody else.
    1. Re:Well, that's great by Jugalator · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hey, it went from being a 16-bit OS, to a bugged 16/32-bit hybrid, to a 32-bit OS with severe security flaws, to being an OS sued by courts on an international scale, to having a pretty glass theme on a DRM foundation. I'd say it has achieved quite a lot! Sure, with Vista, you have around 600 MB RAM consumption directly after start up in its Release Candidate, but I'd say this is a small price to pay for all amazing things it can do to you.

      --
      Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
  2. don't forget by anti-drew · · Score: 5, Funny

    Happy, uh, zeroth birthday to the Hurd.

    Good thing Linus didn't decide to just wait for GNU to finish their OS instead...

    1. Re:don't forget by 2.7182 · · Score: 3, Funny

      I don't think zero has come yet. -1 or -2 or less ?

      And while I am here, let me just reiterate that "hurd" is a poor choice of name for a kernel.

    2. Re:don't forget by Kenshin · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hmm... The fact that Hurd hasn't been born yet may be the reason that RMS is so fat.

      --

      Does it make you happy you're so strange?

  3. desktop readiness by legoburner · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wow, and just one more year and it will certainly break into mainstream desktop usage

    (recycled from last year ... disclaimer, I like a good number of you use linux on the desktop)

  4. Never trust guys (or girls) who use nested clauses by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 4, Funny

    Never trust guys (or girls) who use nested clauses. You just can't (as I've learned from past experience) know that what you've heard (or perhaps read) is really what they (or their source) really meant (or felt).

  5. Re:Second try by e4g4 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Right....but it was today, 15 years ago, that Linus told everyone about it...I suppose you could say that it's not really Linux's birthday, but more like the anniversary of the day that Linus Torvalds told everyone that he was pregnant with a beautiful baby androgynous operating system...

    --
    The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. - Albert Einstein
  6. Aw, how cute by the_humeister · · Score: 3, Funny

    Honey, I think it's about time we give him the "talk."

  7. Stay off the roads. by krell · · Score: 4, Funny

    Next year, Linux drives a car.

    --
    Where were you when the voynix came?
  8. First usable version of Windows? by krell · · Score: 5, Funny

    "arguably the first usable version"

    I don't expect the first usable version of Windows until 2022.

    --
    Where were you when the voynix came?
  9. Thin glass windows. by krell · · Score: 2, Funny

    "to having a pretty glass theme on a DRM foundation"

    Glass? Are you referring to how the OS is easily broken, or how the DRM schemes are easily shattered?

    --
    Where were you when the voynix came?
  10. Re:Second try by ID10T5 · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...but your parents did.

  11. Re:just promise me by Richard+Steiner · · Score: 2, Funny

    Oh, it's not so bad. Just imagine Ballmer in a red dress. :-) :-) :-)

    --
    Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
    The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
  12. I'm so going to jail ... by soren.harward · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... for screwing around with a 15 year old. For the last nine years.