Oh come on now! How is it possible to write a synopsis of 17 years of Linux without even *once* mentioning the OS itself? RMS would be turning in his grave, were he dead.

Whey hey, Linux is 17, does this mean it'll appear driving cars? :-)

Seriously though, I'm amazed how far it's come in such little time. I remember first trying Slackware Linux back in 1995, it came on a PCW CD and was a pain in the arse to install. Now it's so easy to install even my technically illiterate mum could install it (well, maybe not just yet but it's pretty much there once she learns how to turn the computer on!).

I'm just looking forward to what will come in the next 17 years. Maybe someone will make embedded Linux based brain implants or something.

Rob

Well, it's a bit more complicated than that... Porting stuff - applications rather than OS - is what I do for a living, and I've been watching processors go by for a while, and taking notes.

People forget nowadays that Windows NT started life on the Intel i860 (Huh? went the chorus), with MIPS as its second platform, and shipped as a four-platform CD for x86, DEC Alpha, MIPS and PowerPC. And all of those platforms except x86 died. The basic reason was that x86 became the fastest, and Windows' requirements grew fast enough that using anything except the fastest became silly. XP is Windows NT version 5.1; Vista is version 6.0. Windows 9x was throughly non-portable, but it's dead.

The world is now down to just two architectures that are performance-competitive and potentially mass-market: x86 and PowerPC. IBM weren't interested in doing PowerPC laptop chips, so Apple switched to x86. That's the vast mass of Linux systems, too. Itanium is on the way out: it never really took off.

So what platforms does Linux actually have a competitive advantage on? Embedded systems, micro-portables, and the like. The issue there isn't that Windows couldn't be ported to their CPU architectures, it's that it takes too much CPU power and memory, and thereby wattage, to be a cost-effective choice. Even Windows CE, which ran on many platforms quite recently, even if it is mostly ARM now, needs a chunkier system than a stripped-down Linux, or other embedded OS. That's the killer. Not portability, as such.

Only one more year left until the kernel starts drinking, forgetting where it left stuff and dying of liver failure before 30?

I think phrases such as "Linux on the desktop" are a bit misleading, Linux is just a kernel. There are other projects that are equal if not bigger in size/importance to Linux and they deserve a mention too - GNU, Gnome and QT/KDE for instance - where would Linux be without these? Still stuck in 1995 I guess.

Cross proessor architecture is pretty meaningless these days when all the processor architecures are so simillar. Flat byte addressed address space is pretty much wired into the assumptions behind Linux (and Windows for that atter). A vision stuck in the 1980s in many ways (or earlier).

Where are the interesting operating systems closely coupled with a new architexture? Different security modells hard wired into the processor? Different multiprocessing models? Linux's use in education stifiles new ideas: too many people are being taught an architecure designed in the 70s, slightly reworked in the 80s as if it were the only way - or worse as if it is the state of the art.

"well, maybe not just yet but it's pretty much there once she learns how to turn the computer on!"

She already knows how to turn me on Rob

Hardly a balanced perspective was it?

With what looks to be a global depression waiting in the wings, perhaps Linux' time to shine will come sooner, rather than later. Can't ask for a better birthday present than that.

Was Pope 3 times in the 11th Century, not sure if that makes it a better name than Linux.

I can't remember if Linus has had one, but if not, perhaps it's about time he was given a knighthood in the UK for services to the community - both domestic and commercial.

Mine's the one with xubuntu in the pocket, the laptop, and the desktop - only one machine in the house doesn't have windows on it now, and as soon as I convince the missus... :-)

The rather trite IBM commercial aside, if you drive up the cost per watt of computing power, eventually people will want to make energy savings. That's where Linux ought to win the next chunk of market share. Somehow I doubt Macrosoft can compete, unless they bring out versions of Server 2010 (or whatever) specifically designed to run whatever server app the box is hosting.

RMS can rotate in his mausoleum allright:

"Hurd will be out in a year (or two, or next month, who knows)"

Seriously, it is amazing how advanced Linux software installation and patching schemes like apt-get are heads and shoulders above Windows' turd-bath of individual vendor-provided patching agents. And Linux pgm installations used to be a big weakness.

Now if we could just get a bit of free-vs-proprietary pragmatism, more polite fanboys, easier configuration (rather than installation) and better games on it, it would be the best thing ever.

P.S. I wouldn't load up on M$ stock just now.

How old is RMS?

"particularly small and medium businesses that adopt Windows reflectively."

Precisely opposite :-)

GNU is an operating system, Linux is one of the kernels it uses.

http://www.gnu.org

for the first time in a while.... nothing quite like a day with CDE to remind me how much i love linux.

Hm, sound like a version of the Pope's name for that famous French cartoon... No, I guess I'll stick to Linux, ta very much.

By the way, to repeat myself, I refuse to use this Playmobil version of the Tux icon.

Type your comment here — plain text only, no HTML

I too love our Penguin friend. It and all the Open Source software I use has taught me much, and taught me well. Thanks to all involved for that !

I too remember my first Linux install - R/H 5.something. Real pain in the backside to install. But it was worth the effort, and I've never looked back. Now, as you say, the installers are much easier to use, and don't do your head in like frequent reboots as seen on another computing platform.

Now if brain implants were penguin, I would surely be looking at an increase in uptime ? Would someone be able to exhume my remains in say 300 years time, and know my thoughts ? I can see it now : who was 'that smeg head gordon brown' ?

Sorry Reg ! I love your site. I couldn't put another penguin icon in succession ... so I chose the one that is nearly the same shape ... the reg one ... I'll be back - honest !

Heck, I remember when a roommate brought 50 floppies in from work (NASA) and installed it on a spare PC. There wasn't any distros at all. We used VT-100s instead of multiple PCs because it didn't have networking yet.

Anyway, proprietary UNIX died because each vendor wanted to be "different" and distinguish itself from competitors somehow, which usually meant making it incompatible in some way, which is the exact opposite of what you want technically.

It's funny, originally Linus didn't care about cross-porting and warned that it would never run on anything on x86. DEC donated an Alpha and Linus couldn't turn down a technical challenge.

One of the reasons it succeeds where BSD doesn't is that Linus thinks "world domination" is a joke, and he doesn't care about "market share" but just about users getting shit done. BSD is so uptight and neurotic that it's fragmented into it's own little bunch of infighting pieces.

You were compiling a closed source program? Yeah right ...

From my Fedora machine, I just select one of 3,000 applications from the menu, wait a few seconds, and it's installed. They're all open source apps, integrated properly into the system.

"The beauty of Linux is this: You can't stop a port to a new architecture, even if you wanted to."

So, if I port it into a T-101 that becomes self-aware because of the advanced nature of the chipset and the inherent adaptability of open source code, is such "port"-ability a *good* or *bad* thing?

<Lab coat with the Cyberdyne logo, thanks>

And waiting for the inevitable flame war that will explode between the various factions... Linux/GNU geeks on one side and wintards on the other. Should be fun to watch.

BTW Happy B-Day tux :-).

The Hurd will come thundering through just as soon as they're done porting Duke Nukem Forever to their kernel.

"Oh no, you won't!" the biggest goat shouted and he lowered his horns and charged at the troll.

Smack! He butted him right over the bridge....

The forces of commoditization are, inevitably, irresistable. Linux *will* eventually become the predominant operating system everywhere, it's merely a question of when. It could take a few years or it could take decades.

And the fact that it's open source will mean that it will evolve and constantly be updated as generation after generation of technology greets us. To paraphrase a famous computer scientist, "I don't know what kind of operating system I'll be using 30 years from now, but I know it'll be called Linux."

Oh, and to all the GNU/Linux nomenclature police: get over yourselves.

The joke was the "dead RMS" part. The fact that the OS is GNU and linux is the kernel wasn't.

Not withstanding that the bearded one will have a heart-attack if he reads this article :-)

For those slagging the Hurd, it's a rather nifty OS, but it progresses on geological timescales. If the same effort had been put into GNUMach as into the linux kernel, who knows where it would be now.

And yeah MACH kernels can be beaten over the head to run an fully-fledged OS - Jobsy-boy proved it with XNU.

"The English language has never been displaced--- to be replaced by a whole-cloth reimplementation-- but instead has seamlessly morphed to support changing requirements."

You got the wrong end here by picking a living language for your example. English has replaced a huge number of other languages, and presumably may be replaced itself at some point.

Bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ....

This "writer" (to call him a journalist is another laugh) is delusional (he should buy a Mac, he'd fit in there too).

Windows 94% of the worlds Desktop OS Market in use.

Mac OS 4%

Linux <1%

Misc. 1%

(per Gartner Research 2007)

"Mine's the one with xubuntu in the pocket, the laptop, and the desktop - only one machine in the house doesn't have windows on it now, and as soon as I convince the missus... :-)"

Spot the obvious :-} - should read "only one machine still has windows on it now" (as its' primary OS at any rate)

* "it is Linux - first and foremost - that made open source a commercial idea and one that corporations could embrace."

What about X Windows, for example, or BSD networking code, like "sendmail"?

* "It will take a tremendous force - perhaps a global recession or depression - to make companies think about learning Linux and investing in the technology rather than go with what feels like the safe choice of using Windows."

Huh? Are you taking medications?

* "Linux may yet get a shot at the title for operating system heavyweight. One this is for sure: There is no other contender for the title, no matter how much Sun Microsystems believes in OpenSolaris."

That's right, there are NO OTHER CHOICES available, except all those other operating systems people are using that the author doesn't seem to know about. Where are those new icons we were promised?

...anyone who has ever had sex with more than just themselves...

who have you been having sex with ? Steve Ballmer ?

Anyone whose brain is not soft from sucking Microsoft di..., or who uses their computer for something besides Office drone, or playing video games, or viewing porn likes linux. Hell, even the porn viewers like linux, makes them more resistant to all the spyware the porn pushers embed in their wares.

How about: "linux, like a mac, except for heterosexuals" ?

Neither is the case boy-o. Point and laugh yes, like or get excited by. Not in the least.

http://uptime.netcraft.com/perf/reports/performance/Hosters?tn=august_2008 (Windows share aprox. 16%)

Read, then shut the fuck up. Permanently.

I've not even going to bother pointing out that if desktop PCs came without a certain OS already preinstalled then the story would be different.

And for the record, I'm a FreeBSD fanboy :-)

Belated brithday wishes for GNU/Linux.