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Happy 15th Birthday Linux

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the what-do-you-get-a-penguin dept.

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!"

3 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. You gotta love /. by aaronwormus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    10 years of annoucing minor point Linux Kernel releases, and then Linux's 15th birthday doesn't even make it to the front page.

  2. Re:First usable version of Windows? by fotbr · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Arguing by example is stupid.

    For every example you can throw out about Linux/Mac/Windows/etc being better, someone else can throw out a counter example thats every bit as valid.

    Use whats best for you, and drop the fanatical fanboyism. Windows/Linux/Mac/PS3/360/Wii/whatever -- whats best for YOU isn't going to be best for EVERYONE and claiming it is just makes you look petty.

  3. Re:First usable version of Windows? by soliptic · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Actually, I did try, thank you very much: I spent about a week on it IIRC. I also asked for help on the interwebs, although I didn't get anything more helpful than "RTFM n00b" type remarks. Well, anyway, after a week of not getting beyond a command prompt, I gave up. What, should I have given it two weeks?

    FWIW, it was Slackware, and whatever the latest version was in about 98. I await the "well try a n00b distro like Ubuntu" - well, sorry, I can't be bothered any more. I use Ubuntu a bit at work, and it's very nice, but at home I'm passed caring because XP does the job for me. Back in 98 I found it fun to use my computer pretty much for the sake of using my computer, which is why I wanted to try Linux, but now I just want to use some apps and get things done, and Windows suits me just fine in that regard.

    Anyway you're (all) missing my point, which wasn't to bash Linux exactly, but just to that this "OMG ROFL Winblowz Sux0rz!" attitude is really not +5 funny because it's quite obviously wrong. You guys saw 98 bluescreen seven years ago. That's great. But I failed to get X to load seven years ago. Now, when I come along and offer that silly (and admittedly completely trivial one-data-point) anecdote, you're falling over yourselves to dismiss it. (With cheap personal attacks on my level of computer competence no less. No, I'm not "learning the computer", I've been programming since I was 6.) But when you come along and harp on the same old judgements based on 7 year old Windows, it's +5 moderation all the way.

    That was my essential point. Not a "this OS is better than yours" thing - just saying ungrounded MS-bashing as a quick route to popularity around here is pretty lame.

    Like you say - both Windows and Linux are decent OSes these days. Why is that? Because both have come a long way since 1998, or, to get back to where we started - since 1991.