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Happy Birthday, Linux! An OS At 24

prisoninmate writes: It has been 24 long years since the first ever release of the Linux project on August 25, 1991, which is the core component of any GNU/Linux distribution. With this occasion we want to remind everyone that Linux is everywhere, even if you don't see it. You use Linux when you search on Google, when you use your phone, when buy metro tickets, actually the whole Internet is powered by Linux. Happy Birthday, Linux!

13 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. It's been 24 years by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And I really hope Linux will last at least another 24 years (2039: they'll have to fix that 32 bit time since the Epoch, though).

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    1. Re:It's been 24 years by NonUniqueNickname · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You very well might be right, but isn't that what COBOL devs said back in the day about the year 2000?

    2. Re:It's been 24 years by unrtst · · Score: 4, Informative

      I know this 32 bit epoch is a running gag, but time_t is 64 bits on 64 bit systems and I doubt there'll be many 32 bit systems left (even embedded) by 2039!

      There are still a large number of 32bit cpu's being made (like almost every android device CPU there is, and most Apple iPhone/iPad things, and many of the chromebooks out there):

      All ARMv7 based CPU's, such as:
      * Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 (nexus 7)
      * ARM Cortex-A9 (ex. Exynos 4210 in Galaxy Tab 3)
      * ARM Cortex-A15 (ex. nvidia tegra K1 in NVIDIA SHIELD; Galaxy Tab 4 and S, ASUA Chromebook C201 with Rockchip 3288)

      Apple mobile products:
      * Apple A4 (ARM Cortex-A8): iPhone 4, iPod Touch (4th gen), Apple TV (2nd gen)
      * Apple A5 (ARM Cortex-A9): iPad 2, iPhone 4S, iPod Touch (5th gen), iPad mini
      * Apple A6 (ARM Cortex-A15): iPhone 5

      Some notable 64bit exceptions:
      * Apple A7 (ARMv8-A): iPhone 5S
      * Apple A8 (ARMv8-A): iPhone 6 and 6 Plus
      * Apple A8X (ARMv8-A): iPad Air 2
      * Exynos 5433: Galaxy Note 4 (but it only runs in 32bit mode)
      * Exynos 7420: Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge
      * NVIDIA Tegra X1: ... I don't know if this is in anything yet.

      The work that OpenBSD did needs done everywhere. 32bit systems need to have a 64bit time_t.
      http://it.slashdot.org/story/1...

      Also, like y2k, there will be LOADS of data storage issues - databases that need tables altered, etc. Unlike the printed date, it will be far more difficult to make assumptions about the values based on proximity to the current date (ie. 9/11/01 was considered to be 2001, but 7/4/48 was considered 1948). time_t was a signed 32bit int, so it will wrap around to negative which has a poorly defined behavior.

      It'll only be a "gag" if everyone ends up fixing their systems, rather than crossing their fingers and assuming all cpu's and OS's will be running full 64bit. 2038 isn't even the deadline... the deadline is whenever usage of that date as a timestamp is needed:

      64bit-sys$ TZ=GMT date -d "2038-01-19 03:14:07" +%s
      2147483647
      64bit-sys$ TZ=GMT date -d "2038-01-19 03:14:08" +%s
      2147483648

      32bit-sys$ TZ=GMT date -d "2038-01-19 03:14:07" +%s
      2147483647
      32bit-sys$ TZ=GMT date -d "2038-01-19 03:14:08" +%s
      date: invalid date `2038-01-19 03:14:08'

  2. Re:Correction by RabidReindeer · · Score: 5, Informative

    Correction: Happy Birthday GNU/Linux. After all, GNU software makes up 75% of the codebase of any "Linux" distribution. Show some respect.

    Some of that gnu stuff is a LOT older than 24 years. I was using some of it under CP/M back before Linux started school.

    It's the LINUX part of it that's having the birthday.

  3. Re:Crap. by amalcolm · · Score: 5, Informative

    Like you, I use Linux professionally as well as at home, as a developer and user of many CAD and development tools. I've deployed it in embedded environments in a number of scientific intsruments. I simply don't recognise your experience. So I guess YMMV, but you need to take some anger management classes or change career.

    --
    Time for bed, said Zebedee - boing
  4. a timeline for those new to the neighbourhood by nimbius · · Score: 5, Funny

    1991: Linux torvalds pulls a fresh cup of coffee off the pot and announces hes got an idea. Little does he know this idea will mean 24 years of shepherding a child through a forest of shady characters from Hans Reiser to Leonart Pottering.
    1992: not even a year old and Linux is caught messing around with windows despite very specific instructions to practice her POSIX. she gets good at CIFS, confusing most of the parents around her and once she starts pretending to be a domain controller at the Active Directory dance its gloves off for the Microsoft PTA.
    1998: Linux finishes her ALSA class and in 2 years starts singing the chart-toppers in mp3 format, much to the dismay of the RIAA.
    2010: in a rebellious phase, Linux stops doing one thing and doing it well and starts hanging out with SystemD, who convinces her she can do anything all the time so long as hes in charge.
    2011: Weird emo/goth/Gnome3 phase means Linux wears a lot more bling than she used to...Parents of Unix long since departed now sigh and stare at the shelf where the pictures of little Linux dressed in Bash rest alongside her achievement for learning computational fluid thermodynamics and wonder where they went so wrong.
    2015: at 24 Linux flies planes handles social media, and directs traffic. She knows windows inside and out, and can hang out with everyone from stuffy government types to the art crowd. She composes music, builds cars, and even folds proteins when shes bored. Old man Torvalds still shows up from time to time to remind parents not to be lazy, friends not to be greedy, and people not to expect him to be around for every little thing Linux may or may not choose to do.

    Happy 24th, Linux.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
  5. Re:Crap. by Stewie241 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Curious as to why you would run Xubuntu at home if you hate Linux so much.

  6. "operating system" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
            Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
            Subject: What would you like to see most in minix?
            Summary: small poll for my new operating system
            Message-ID:
            Date: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMT
            Organization: University of Helsinki

            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).

            I’ve currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work.
            This implies that I’ll get something practical within a few months, and
            I’d like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions
            are welcome, but I won’t promise I’ll implement them :-)

            Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi)

            PS. Yes – it’s free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs.
            It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never
            will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that’s all I have :-(.

    Title is accurate: The original announcement refers to an operating system, so this is the birth of the linux operating system.

  7. Re:One exception... by selectspec · · Score: 5, Funny

    Actually, the entire internet runs on a FreeBSD system running in Al Gore's basement.

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    Someone you trust is one of us.

  8. Re:Crap. by LVSlushdat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    heh .. Such problems with Linux.. Funny how theres a bunch of us out there that have been using it since FOREVER (Slackware/1995 here..) and have ZERO problems with it... If this AC is *actually* having these kinda problems, either he's got seriously crap hardware or more likely he's just trolling... And with what a spyware-fest Windows 10 is, I suspect a LOT more people are gonna say "FUCK MS" and come over to the Linux side...

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  9. Re:Crap. by LVSlushdat · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sure is interesting that all of the people posting about how bad Linux is are posting AC... Wonder why? Wonder if they're just trolls.. nah, couldn't be...

    --
    THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
  10. Re:One exception... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    #WindowsComputersMatter

  11. Re:Crap. by mark-t · · Score: 4, Interesting

    386BSD, the BSD for PC's from which almost all, if not all modern PC variants of BSD are descended from, first appeared in spring of 1992, after Linux had already been around for some number of months, albeit still in a very alpha state. Even though 386BSD was vastly technically superior to Linux when it first came out, at the time, Linux had simply far too many minor features that made it more amenable to the prevalent existing PC's at the time. Linux had floating point emulation, where BSD required a coprocessor (which at the time was still considered relatively luxurious), and Linux could co-exist with DOS on a hard disk with multiple partitions, while BSD initially had no such capability. By the time BSD had added these features, Linux had largely caught up with it in terms of being far less alpha-state.

    Linux isn't popular because it is faddish, Linux is popular because back in the beginning, it did what people actually needed it to do, while the alternatives did not... and by the time others could also do so, Linux simply had too much of a head start. Linux maintained the lead ever since.

    But does having a head start make something a fad?