Slashdot Mirror


LWN Does Year in Review for Linux

HeUnique was too busy to post, but pointed out LWN's Timeline of 1999 for Linux. Quite a ride over the last year - complete with lots of images and historical markers. It's broken into months or the whole year. This is version .8 - 1.0 will be out after the end of the year.

20 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. when do we make the 'time capsule'? by kerouac · · Score: 2

    First thing that i'll put in it is Linus' initial
    post to the minix news group.

    1. Re:when do we make the 'time capsule'? by mduell · · Score: 2

      Here is the post he made: (I got it out of the RHAT 5.2 manual)

      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.


      Mark Duell

  2. Seattle Prophecy? :) by MAXOMENOS · · Score: 3

    Listed as one of the year's events is a series of April Fools jokes, including a fake news story where Anti-MS protesters rioted through the streets of Seattle. And eight months later....

    Conspiracy theories anyone?????


    The Kulturwehrmacht
  3. Wow, what a productive year by Energy+Flow · · Score: 2

    Wow, compare the '98 year to the '99 year. Look how much more stuff has happened in the linux community compared to 98! It's exciting to see this massive growth. Onward Linux!!

    --
    -D0n'+ h$+3 M3 b3C0u5e 1'M 4 1337 Hax0R!-
  4. A world of CGI�s. by Nicopa · · Score: 3
    This is not completelly related with the timeline, but... why now everything is a CGI? I can expect that from massive consumer products like, say, a Disney site... but people "in the community" should know that to properly build "the web" we need indexable and cacheable content.

    Squid will not cache that timeline, so the 200 Linux users of a ISP will each download his own copy. Netscape won't probably cache it either, so you will need to download it again if you come back.

    The pages will not be indexed, so if you make a query in Altavista with "+timeline +linux" you wont find the page.

    I think there was a Slashdot article abaout this a short time ago, maybe we need some more until we learn.. =)

    Note that you could still use a CGI and dont have all the problem I listed. Ask me how.. (and eeeevrybody will give you the same answers =) ).

    1. Re:A world of CGI�s. by Inoshiro · · Score: 2

      Well, jeez. My squid wasn't able to cache it, and it's already getting /.ed for its trouble, methinks. Perhaps a nice "Cache-friendly-Apache-HOWTO" or similar should be sent to them.

      Cache now! campaign and the Squid proxy server make my LAN life easier. IJB latches onto Squid quickly & easily, so less spam, more content, and lots of calamari for all!
      ---

      --
      --
      Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
  5. Re:microsoft by MAXOMENOS · · Score: 4


    . . .
    • 4/11/99: 10,192 bugs located so far. Fixed one; patch added more. New count is 10,197.
    • 4/12/99: 10,197 bugs located so far. Fixed one; patch added more. New count is 10,214.
    • 4/13/99: 10,214 bugs located so far. Fixed one; patch added more. New count is 10,222.
    • 4/14/99: Treated the gang to a movie to achieve goal of getting through one day without causing further damage.
    • 4/15/99: 10,222 bugs located so far. Fixed one; patch added more. New count is 10,378.
    • 4/16/99: 10,378 bugs located so far. Fixed one; patch added more. New count is 10,387.
    • 4/17/99: 10,387 bugs located so far. Fixed one; patch added more. New count is 10,402.

    The Kulturwehrmacht
  6. ZDNet - hmmm. by Signal+11 · · Score: 5
    They left out a critical detail:
    The Jesse Berst Timeline!

    January: "Leenucks?" -- Jesse Berst
    March: "Linux will never amount to anything!"
    May: "Linux might give Microsoft a run for it's money
    July: "I always said Linux was a contender."
    September: "Linux beats NT hands down."
    November: "Go linux go!"

    1. Re:ZDNet - hmmm. by daviddennis · · Score: 2

      Although that was surely an unforgettable experience to live through, wasn't it last year's?

      I seem to remember they did exactly that in last year's LWN.

      D

      ----

  7. Creative Labs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    It's cool to see Creative Labs pull a 180.
    Take a look at the time line:

    (January 9) Creative Labs says there will be
    no SB Live driver for Linux. From their
    note: "Creative has no plans of releasing its
    intellectual property to the general
    public."

    (January 12) Creative Labs advertises for a
    Linux driver writer to produce an SB Live
    driver (job posting here).

    (May) Creative Technologies releases a beta SB
    Live driver. The driver proves problematic,
    but, due to its closed-source nature, can not
    be fixed.

    (November) Creative Technology releases a
    driver for its SB Live card - under the
    GPL.

    btw, the opensource driver is excellent, no
    problems here!

  8. Bias by Wonko42 · · Score: 3
    Did anyone else notice the somewhat biased nature of the timeline? Obviously this was put together by someone who didn't feel comfortable with marking down some of Linux's losses as well as its gains.

    It's biased almost to the point of being propaganda, even. Almost every reference to Microsoft is either exaggerated against the company or in some way worded so as to make Linux appear superior. Sure, in some cases this is fact, but in others, not so much. I noticed specifically that the blurb about the first Mindcraft benchmarks was quite exaggerated and even factually inaccurate. And where was the mention of the results of the SECOND Mindcraft tests? There was mention of the ANNOUNCEMENT of the tests, but nothing about the results, which proved that the original tests were correct.

    I'm all for Linux enthusiasm, but Linux propaganda just starts to worry me a bit.

    --

    1. Re:Bias by reactionary · · Score: 2
      This is a Linux Information Resource, so I'd expect some Linux bias. However, there was little exaggeration or mudslinging in the timeline. The Mozilla Project's loss of Zawicki, security holes, and "kernel panics" (lack of ISDN support, etc.) were all mentioned -- these were certainly setbacks to the Open Source movement.

      I think that you any propaganda you saw is benign. I found this timeline to be both entertaining and informative. Perhaps the tinting on your spectacles is too dark.

      By the way, the results of the second test were mentioned:
      The Mindcraft benchmark is rerun with Linux experts present. NT still wins; Linux comes out with set of things to fix. Many of the fixes happen within a few weeks.
      --
      -- I'm embarassed to look like Hemos.
    2. Re:Bias by jkorty · · Score: 2

      Strange. I noticed the opposite. Did you miss those deprecating quotes in the sidebars?

    3. Re:Bias by Wonko42 · · Score: 2
      Ah...guess I missed that then. Doh. I take it back. :P

      --

  9. Mindcraft II is in there. by Sam+Ruby · · Score: 2
    May, 1999
    Mindcraft tries again, and issues this call for an "open benchmark" to retry its NT-vs.-Linux tests. This time, people who know something about Linux will be allowed to participate

    June, 1999
    The Mindcraft benchmark is rerun with Linux experts present. NT still wins; Linux comes out with set of things to fix. Many of the fixes happen within a few weeks.

    --
    - Sam Ruby
  10. Think '99 was hot for Linux? 2000 will be hotter by Bill+Henning · · Score: 2

    Just watch 2000; Linux will start eating away at the desktop.

    --
    --------- Webmaster, http://www.cpureview.com and
  11. One of the quotes by reptilian · · Score: 2
    Linux pushed Microsoft into the third phase. Suddenly we were able to see the emperor clearly, and we could see that he had no clothes. Nothing that Microsoft says seems believable any more. An operating system that cannot perform properly is not acceptable any longer. We have a choice. For years, we accepted what we could not change. But change is easy now. The finery the emperor told us he was wearing is missing. The emperor has no clothes.
    -- Al Fasoldt, Technofile.


    This guy is a tech journalist for a local newspaper where I am (Syracuse NY). I remember reading some of his stuff about a year ago; all windows-oriented, usually directed to an audience of clueless users. I read this quote, saw his name, and thought 'wait, this guy is hyping linux?' I checked the URL and yep, sure enough he's the good old Al Fasoldt I know and never really loved. I knew he played with linux at least, since he's posted in the twcny.rr.linux newsgroup more than once, but all I can say is, wow. If linux had that much influence over this journalist, what's stopping the rest of the them?

    I really liked the timeline, though some of it can't be right. I'm almost positive that Linus getting his doctorate wasn't way back in may, because I don't think I even read slashdot back in may, though I could be wrong. Maybe it was just slashdot getting an old story, but if it were, I would definitely remember the ACs bitching about it. Anyway, I learned quite a bit, like ESR speaking at microsoft. Weird.

    Man's unique agony as a species consists in his perpetual conflict between the desire to stand out and the need to blend in.

    --

    72656B636148206C72655020726568746F6E41207473754A

    1. Re:One of the quotes by EricWright · · Score: 2

      "I'm almost positive that Linus getting his doctorate wasn't way back in may"

      You're right. They *announced* it in May. He was *awarded* the degree in Sept or Oct (too lazy to check).

      Eric

  12. Grossest understatement/misstatement of the year by / · · Score: 3

    Under march, you'll be reminded of Eric S Raymond's "Take My Job, Please" essay fiasco. If you go and reread it, as I did, you'll notice the following text at the bottom as one of the qualifications ESR said was necessary to have his job:

    "You'll need to be financially secure enough not to need to have a regular job. (This one will give you some perks but no pay.)"

    Especially not $36 million. No sir, I wouldn't call that pay. That one's definitely a perk.

    --
    "If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
  13. Mindcraft redux by SurfsUp · · Score: 2

    Check out the excellent c't benchmark showdown. It shows that in one configuration (two fast ethernet cards in the same machine, serving static pages) NT can truly outperform Linux, but that in all the realistic configurations tested Linux beats NT, usually by a wide margin.

    Naturally something has to be done about that one case where NT sneaks ahead, right?

    --
    Life's a bitch but somebody's gotta do it.