Linux Turns 17 Today

Meshach writes "Over at the Linux Journal, Doc Searles is noting that today marks 17 years since Linus posted to Usenet, starting Linux (post). As a Linux user at work and at home I say, thanks Linus!" The anniversary is also featured on the top page of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Comments

Re:Made for hackers

[Gewalt]

And it was a negative term "to hack" long before a small group of programmers started misusing it. Because the general populous perceived the word akin it's etymology, to the public the word could only be used to describe something malign.

Re:Made for hackers

[slap20]

I believe this is the link you were looking for?

http://catb.org/esr/jargon/html/magic-story.html

Magic... or More Magic?

Re:Poor Quality

[bmo]

I'm commenting on the Britannica article that I clicked through to. It wasn't written by Doc. It's written by some guy called Anthony Craine, who I have never heard of.

Britannica is supposed to be "high quality" (because it was when I was a wee tyke when it was only available in dead-tree edition).

I guess I should have been more clear.

--
BMO

Re:Linus... humble!?

[BobNET]

Or did you conveniently forget that it's GNU/Linux?

Like how people conveniently forget that it wasn't published under the GPL until late 1992. Or that it can currently be compiled with at least one compiler other than GCC. Or that it's possible to run it with a modified *BSD userland and non-glibc C library. But yeah, aside from that, it's all Stallman's doing...

Re:Linus... humble!?

[Cathbard]

I think you are underestimating the influence of the GPL in the success of GNU/Linux. Knowing that some slimy corporation wasn't able to take your contribution, close it off and sell it made the whole deal far more palatable. There's no way I would contribute without the protections offered by the GPL license and I know I'm not alone in having that attitude. The only thing worse than working for a corporation is working for them for free.