The History of Linux (in the eye of the beholder)

fogobogo · 2009-04-28 14:07:21

Hi!

Since I only switched recently to Linux (so many wasted years... ) i cannot add a lot here, but I'd like to ask if some of the ol... veterans of Linux (or even something else. e.g. CP/M) could share some stories, anecdotes or simply a good link about the good old bad days from the dark (or bright) age of computing.

Reading it up isnt simply the same and i would really like to hear some tales from a personal point of view, about what was used back then, what happened community wise or simply how it felt back then. So feel free to add what you think fits here!

tlaloc · 2009-04-29 10:30:39

No, I don't think that there is much need for yet another "My-Linux-History" thread. You should read it up first. Usually, there is anecdotal data combined with sincere analysis. So here are some of my favorites (without direct links, since you can probably google that for yourself - these books are all out there for free):

1) Linus Torvalds (and some journalist) "Just for fun"
Which is funny to read and obiviously important ...

2) Neal Stephenson "In the beginning ..."
I just love all of his books, but this is most techy one. An essay on the very old Win/Mac/Linux-controversy. The only problem is that it is by now ten years old.

3) Christopher Kelty has as a less funny, more academic book on open software development (including projects like Linux and Apache) out there. I forgot the title, but it was published in 2008 by Duke University Press, and provides you with a more up-to-date point of view.

Vintendo · 2009-04-29 10:36:57

I got Just For Fun for my birthday and it's very interesting to read how Linux started. I would certainly recommend it.

Last edited by Vintendo (2009-04-29 10:37:14)

sveri80 · 2009-04-29 10:40:52

Hm, i dont know if it fits, but i could tell something about how linux was in the 90's.

My memory isnt as fresh as if it happened yesterday but i remember one big point.
For me Linux wasnt usable in that days. I came from Dos 6, Windows 3.11 and 95.
In these times i tried to install some distros like Suse, Redhat, Slackwar and Debian.
Most times the install went fine, but everytime something kept me from using it.

The two big hiccups were my soundcard (Audigy 2) wich didnt work (I later found
out that some Also Beta supported it, but in that time also was not standard and
i had a hard time get it running).
And the second one was AOL. In former time it was the only ISP providing a flatrate
for modem users here in germany and it was a must have for me. You really
did need at that time already. It was the time were everybody could find an open
ftp server on the internet and put their warez there. So we were downloading a lot
of MB via 52 kb/s. And you could be sure, some of the .rar files always were corrupted.
Yes, in that time .rar was already some sort of a standard.

Unfortunately AOL was using some proprietary Connection Protocol which only
worked under Windows. So no chance for Linux again.

I started using Linux regularly during my studies back in 2001/02. I was a long
time gentoo user until that day where i thought i had to get out the most of
openoffice (which i never used, cause i am addicted to Latex) and i tried
to compile openoffice. I started in the afternoon and late at night it wasnt
done. So i went to bed and let it work over night. Next morning i put on my
display and saw a weired message about no more diskspace on my
/. Scince them i am done with gentoo. After some Suse and Debian again
i went to Ubuntu which was the first system that made my mother and my
sister use Linux and they still do today after three years.

Then i found Arch linux with what i am quit happy :-)

And just to mention it, i do dualboot to windows, linux could
never completety substitute windows cause i am a casual gamer.
And Windows ist still unbeaten in that.

Edit: I thought the op wanted some personal impressions?
If not, nevermind and just ignore my post

Last edited by sveri80 (2009-04-29 10:42:17)

lucke · 2009-04-29 11:05:19

Watch Revolution OS too, you'll learn a thing or two.

hbekel · 2009-04-29 11:41:20

In 1999 I was learning perl on windows and tried a simple example for a tcp server, and found "fork(): not implemented". So I searched the web and found that fork was a unix system call, and also found references to Linux. I went on and bought a box containing Suse 6.1 in a store.

What I remember most vividly was the excellent Suse manual that came in the box. Although Suse was considered newbie-friendly back in those days, the manual made it clear that using Linux required lots of reading and manual tweaking (lots of warnings about destroying your monitor with bad X mode lines, etc), frequent references to manual pages and howtos... all in all it was a thorough introduction to Linux, with very little Suse specific stuff.

My first installation attempt failed miserably, with loads of scsi io errors during package installation. I was just on the point of giving up when I checked my scsi wiring and discovered that win98 had been happily running on a non-terminated scsi string for a year without telling me. I terminated the string and the install went smoothly, and i was greeted with a console prompt.

I had some trouble getting X to work nicely with my old S3 video card and an original 3dfx voodoo addon card, and I had to add some fprints to the bttv module to figure out the correct gpio_mask values for my noname tv tuner card, but in the end i got all hardware and gfx acceleration working smoothly. The idea that hardware should work "out of the box" didn't even occur at that time, instead you felt a deep satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment after days of fiddling with the drivers, knowing that in the end, someone much more knowledgeable had already done all the hard work of reverse engineering hardware for you, and you had to do was to use it properly. (Do I sound like an old fart by now?)

Then things went on, I started using Linux exclusively around 2001. Switched to slackware after being laughed at for asking why yast wasn't installed on a slackware box... I stayed on slackware until late 2008 when manually resolving dependencies finally became to much of a chore, and went on to Arch.

I found this to be an interesting read on the early days of Linux:

http://kerneltrap.org/mailarchive/linux … ts/1991/11

Compared to this, using Linux in 1999 was dead simple already

Last edited by hbekel (2009-04-29 12:05:34)

mikesd · 2009-04-29 11:41:54

lucke wrote:

Watch Revolution OS too, you'll learn a thing or two.

That's a great movie. Well worth watching. In the first week that I bought it I watched it 3 or 4 times.

fogobogo · 2009-04-29 20:49:25

Thanks a lot for all this. Ill definitely have a look at Revolution OS. And intention wasnt yet another "My Linux History" or "What distro did you use before" thread. Just about finding out how linux in general was back then. I lately tried to find out what was all the fuss about Mandrake back then, but could only find some vague info. Or even getting the big picture is difficult. Anways, thanks all

Peasantoid · 2009-04-29 20:54:13

Linux used to be a hacker's toy, almost useless for people who didn't know how to use it, now it's perfect.

PJ · 2009-04-29 21:37:10

Another movie you could watch is: The Code (there are some parts that are in swedish and finnish but most of it is in english).

Last edited by PJ (2009-04-29 21:39:29)

lucke · 2009-04-29 21:41:31

I hear Finnish, not Swedish. Didn't know about that one though, thanks.

Arien · 2009-04-30 17:15:59

If you are interested in the history of GNU/Linux (as opposed to sole intrest in the kernel) then it is quite likely that you would want to read about GNU too. (given that it started about 10 years earlier than Linux and due to the development of copy-left licenses (like the GNU General Public License) which are a crucial part of the success of GNU/Linux)

Edit:
there might be books about it, but this link is pretty extensive too:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html

Last edited by Arien (2009-04-30 19:50:54)

Dusty · 2009-04-30 19:23:10

Some people hate his works with a passion, but Eric Raymond's a self-described hacker historian and his papers and books are almost all relevant. The Art Of Unix Programming and Cathedral and the Bazaar are probably the two biggest ones, but the jargon file AKA new hackers dictionary is also a fun read.

Dusty

orph · 2009-04-30 20:38:35

Dusty wrote:

Some people hate his works with a passion, but Eric Raymond's a self-described hacker historian and his papers and books are almost all relevant. The Art Of Unix Programming and Cathedral and the Bazaar are probably the two biggest ones, but the jargon file AKA new hackers dictionary is also a fun read.
Dusty

The Art of Unix Programming
The Cathedral and the Bazaar
More on Eric's Random Writings

tlaloc · 2009-04-30 22:05:09

Some people hate that? - oops, I must have missed something.

MoonSwan · 2009-04-30 22:16:39

I read Cathedral & Bazaar, and came away with one conclusion only: Raymonds a self-serving, egotistical dickwad who can't write & should stick to coding. I don't hate him either, I just can't stand bad writing and he's full of it + the self ego-stroking got to me.

I also read "just for fun", and it is a very good book. "Revolution OS" I've only seen parts of it but its good too. As for Mandrake, if you want a decent over view, I can give you one thats from a personal perspective but I doubt thats what you want. You might want to look up the blog of the last french guy to run it. Sorry I don't recall his name but its easy to find.

fogobogo · 2009-05-02 10:35:58

I watched Revolution OS! nice movie. a bit outdated now but still interesting. I read half way through The Cathedral and the Bazaar but i got to agree with MoonSwan partly. Writing iss definitely not his strong side as i think hes repeating over and over again the same thing. I'm not so sure about the dickwad though

I can give you one thats from a personal perspective

And this is perfectly fine, as long as its not yet another "omg, the bloat"
I would be nice to hear how it all went back then. I've just read SuSE came with 40(!) floppies.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-04-28 14:07:21

The History of Linux (in the eye of the beholder)

#2 2009-04-29 10:30:39

Re: The History of Linux (in the eye of the beholder)

#3 2009-04-29 10:36:57

Re: The History of Linux (in the eye of the beholder)

#4 2009-04-29 10:40:52

Re: The History of Linux (in the eye of the beholder)

#5 2009-04-29 11:05:19

Re: The History of Linux (in the eye of the beholder)

#6 2009-04-29 11:41:20

Re: The History of Linux (in the eye of the beholder)

#7 2009-04-29 11:41:54

Re: The History of Linux (in the eye of the beholder)

#8 2009-04-29 20:49:25

Re: The History of Linux (in the eye of the beholder)

#9 2009-04-29 20:54:13

Re: The History of Linux (in the eye of the beholder)

#10 2009-04-29 21:37:10

Re: The History of Linux (in the eye of the beholder)

#11 2009-04-29 21:41:31

Re: The History of Linux (in the eye of the beholder)

#12 2009-04-30 17:15:59

Re: The History of Linux (in the eye of the beholder)

#13 2009-04-30 19:23:10

Re: The History of Linux (in the eye of the beholder)

#14 2009-04-30 20:38:35

Re: The History of Linux (in the eye of the beholder)

#15 2009-04-30 22:05:09

Re: The History of Linux (in the eye of the beholder)

#16 2009-04-30 22:16:39

Re: The History of Linux (in the eye of the beholder)

#17 2009-05-02 10:35:58

Re: The History of Linux (in the eye of the beholder)

Board footer