Slashdot Mirror
Linux Turns 25, Is Bigger and More Professional Than Ever (arstechnica.com)
The Linux operating system kernel is 25 years old this month, ArsTechnica writes. It was August 25, 1991 when Linus Torvalds posted his famous message announcing the project, claiming that Linux was "just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu." From the article: But now, Linux is far bigger and more professional than Torvalds could have imagined. Linux powers huge portions of the Internet's infrastructure, corporate data centers, websites, stock exchanges, the world's most widely used smartphone operating system, and nearly all of the world's fastest supercomputers. The successes easily outweigh Linux's failure to unseat Microsoft and Apple on PCs, but Linux has still managed to get on tens of millions of desktops and laptops and Linux software even runs on Windows.Do you use any Linux-based operating system? Share your experience with it. What changes would you want to see in it in the next five years?
Those are some nasty split ends.
Yes, Linus is in control of the Glorious Kernel of Non-GNU-Vaporware. Verily.
That kernel, as impressive as it is; as necessary as it is... won't power a shitty blog about your mom's quilting, without which the corporate-backed initiatives running atop it were around.
And corporate control is here. Potheadering wouldn't have successfully foisted the clusterfuck that is SystemD on us all without corporate adoption. But I digress: corporations are behind the heavy lifting going on in Linux. Which makes sense, because corporations are who use Linux. Yes, yes, you run Linux on your shitbox and your grandma e-mails it up with Gnomebuntu 3.0 Brushed Rounded Corners Bonanza, but y'all ain't shit as a market. (And spare me the "But, but, Android is Linux when we conveniently need to say Linux has end user marketshare!" tripe.)