Linux
June 30, 2010 by jphilips
No Comments »
Good ol’ Linus Torvalds. He took a problem — the confusing multiplicity of Unix variants undergoing constant and far-flung development — and turned it into a virtue by creating a system in which anyone could have a go and the best bits would become a part of the whole.
By the time version 0.99 was released (at the end of 1992, just to show you how quickly things were coming together), Torvalds had ensured that Linux was released under GNU’s General Public License (a decision he’s referred to as “definitely the best thing I ever did”). It wasn’t the LAST thing he ever did, but since then Linux (or, more accurately, GNU/Linux) has become the child of a thousand parents, so to speak…
Did these strategies include:
- the publication of a ridiculously slanted book (“Samizdat”) attacking open source and the Linux kernel in particular? Well, the Alexis deTocqueville Institution, the publishers of the book, were funded by Microsoft…
- SCO Group lawsuits against several major companies over alleged (as in, fictitious) ownership of Unix source code, which had been allegedly (as in, not at all) misappropriated into Linux? Well, SCO has received over $112 Million from Microsoft…
Posted in: