on Wed, Oct 24, 2001 at 09:53:35PM -0500, Jim Choate ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> This entire view misses the(!) one most important component of Unix's (and
> Linux's) success, they were first.
Not hardly.
I wasn't keeping notes when K&R were designing their gaming platform,
but history seems to recall OS/360, Multics, TICO, ITS, VMS. A bit of
quick Googling suggests the PDP-7 had its own native operating system
(the PDP-11 certainly did), certainly more than what a couple of guys
hanging around a broom closet could hammer out in a few days.
Throughout the 1970s and 80s, Ken Olsen was selling VAXs running VMS and
complaining bitterly about snake oil (I guess there's a bunch of snakes
out there). However, to quote someone's response to Tim May in this
list recently, I'm just one of the dilettants posting here out of
ignorance for some free research on the part of the rest of you.
Someone who was around at the time is going to have a better answer than
me.
When Linus started Linux, he was bootstrapping with Minix, and trying to
get around its limitations. For PC Unix, there was alread Xenix and one
or more of the very forgettably named SCO products (not Xenix). The
Jolitzesi were wresting BSD from Berkeley. FSF had been working on the
HURD since 1983 (originally as TRIX), in fits and starts. By the time
Larry McVoy wrote "The Sourceware Operating System Proposal" in 1993, it
still wasn't clear whether or not FreeBSD or Linux was the cart to hitch
the horse to.
http://www.redhat.com/knowledgebase/otherwhitepapers/whitepaper_freeunix.html
The ultimate success of Linux doesn't have a single factor -- it meets
most of the marks set in the exerpt I posted from K&P, I'd argue that
licensing played a role, as did the fact it wasn't encumbered by the
AT&T/UCB lawsuits, and most people give Linus himself strong credits for
his project management skills and personality. Topics covered
extensively elsewhere.
Peace.
--
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