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Linux 3.17-rc2 Release Marks 23 Years of the Linux Kernel
An anonymous reader writes Linus Torvalds released Linux 3.17-rc2 today in commemoration of the 23rd anniversary of the original kernel announcement. It was on 25 August 1991 that he announced his new OS project to the Minix users list.
heh :)
Hail Discordia.
I know you're just trying to disturb shit with your comment, but you do indirectly bring up a good point: systemd and how it's contrary to everything that UNIX stands for.
Like almost everyone else, I'd heard about it. I heard the complaints, but I didn't take them seriously. Then, almost three weeks ago, I had to install and use Fedora for the first time in a number of years.
Everything negative that people have said about systemd is true. The problems they point out are as real as can be. Binary log files? Jesus Christ. One daemon that does just about everything? Jesus Christ. systemd shits upon the UNIX philosophy in every way possible.
More and more distros have started using systemd. Soon people won't have a choice; they'll be subjected to systemd whether they like it or not. Decades of UNIX and Linux knowledge is being flushed down the shitter, replaced with a something that's more at home in the world of Windows than it ever should be in the land of UNIX.
Over two decades on, the Linux community is facing its biggest threat yet. systemd is the kind of software that will render Linux irrelevant in the server market, just because it disregards decades of wisdom in favor of a one-size-fits-all approach that has never worked well in the past.
The Linux community needs to discuss systemd, before it's too late!
After 23 years of consistently having your ass handed to you by Microsoft, you think Linus would have a little more humility. You know your software is complete shit when people willingly shell out hundreds of dollars for a superior product rather than use your product for free.
Ya, windows is winning. Except for the server room. And the tablet and smartphone spaces. And the embedded world. In fact, Linux is kicking windows to the curb pretty much everywhere except the desktop.
Doesn't feel like that long. Admittedly a lot of the 90's is a blur. Hey, hey, you guys remember that time when the Linux kernel went over 10 MB and we predicted it would destroy the Internet?
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
It has little to do with "indoctrination" of people, but familiarity is something of a factor, of course.
More critically, I think, Microsoft established a very large software ecosystem that Linux was never able to match as a relative late-comer, and catching up was nearly impossible without a critical mass that Windows enjoys. The simple reason people use Windows is because of the massive ecosystem of products available for the platform. Linux has some fine software, but there are many, many times the number of applications available for Windows, some of which are pretty damned specialized and are simply not available on other platforms.
There's a reason Linux is able to complete so well in other areas. In the server market, for example, the job is largely about serving up standard internet protocols, and so a free product is a huge win with no compatibility-related downsides. In the small-form device market, the open and free nature is also a big win, where margins are very tight, and vendors want to be able to customize their offering.
But the desktop relies on software written for specific platforms, so the ecosystem is everything. Microsoft has been extremely effective at courting third-party developers with excellent tools, services, and documentation. Windows has also enjoyed excellent long-term binary backward compatibility, which is hugely important for business software and the businesses that use them. So, to me, it's not hard to see why they've maintained their domination on the desktop.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
Year of the Linux desktop!?
Sorry, just had to post that.
Thank God for open source LINUX.
Seriously.
I would be running a chain of Indian Restaurants long ago if the only thing I was doing was product management of Wind0ze machines.
LINUS thanks for the greatest occupation anyone could want: LINUX Admin/LINUX Programmer.
PS: I need to buy LINUS something, but what do you do for a man that has all the source code? MMMmmmm....
Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
Wow, time flies! Soon it will be the 20th anniversary of Linux on the Desktop Year.
Achille Talon
Hop!
"Wow, time flies! Soon it will be the 20th anniversary of Linux on the Desktop Year."
You think you're funny but I first had Linux as my desktop in 1995 and shortly after I was one of the founding members of our university Linux User Group.
"I have the attention span of a strobe lit goldfish, please get to the point quickly!"