On Monday 18 November 2002 11:14 am, Ryurick M. Hristev wrote: > On Mon, 18 Nov 2002, Christopher Sawtell wrote: > > On Mon, 18 Nov 2002 10:20, you wrote: > > [...] > > > > Let's assume Linux didn't exist. What would we have? > > > > A properly working HURD, and quite possibly be better off for it. > > The fact that Linux is the one who made it may be a historical accident. > > The fact that a freely available Unix-like for the PC's emerged in the > early '90s is IMHO much less so. > > Even Linus said it that he started the development because in 1991 he > could AFFORD a 386 (my capitalization). I.e.: > > a. AFAIK the 386 was first produced in Nov or Dec 1987. But for several > years is was too expensive for personal PC's, it was used mainly in > servers. > b. The 386 was the first Intel CPU with a real MMU > c. The 386 begun to be affordable for the desktop only in early '90s > > Motorola may have had a MMU earlier (don't know) but anyway it was > basically trapped inside the Apple: very expensive and in particular > totally closed.
The MC68000 doesn't have an MMU, and it was used to power the Mac Plus; however, it was also used to power the Amiga 500, which definitely _could_ multitask, so that is neither here nor there. The MC68200 was expensive, and the 68300 and 68400 even more so; in 1991 Apple was using them to power its Mac IIfx, which could run AUX, the Apple version of the Unix OS, which apparently was six tenths BSD and the rest SysVR5. (The comments about the Mac II etc, remind me that I have a Mac IIci minus a floppy drive and with two hard drives - I was intending to get it up and running with System 7 or 8 and Linux or NetBSD. (Unless someone in the University has a spare, unused copy of AUX lying around?) Does anyone have a spare Mac floppy I could use? Or a spare Mac Plus keyboard and mouse I could use, as well? (That last's for use as a terminal, of course - I've managed to get myself a SCSI-2-RJ42 connector!)) > > This combination: cheap and powerful CPU on an "open" platform and in the > hands of many is what triggered the birth of an free OS. IMHO this was a > historical force at play, not an accident. > > Also the groundbreaking work done by the FSF in the late '80s should > not be neglected. > > I know personally somebody else who started a similar project (but years > later, for several reasons): http://www.hulubei.net/tudor/thix/ > > It is very likely that similar projects have started in some other places > and also likely that many _may_ have started if Linux wouldn't have caught > on. > > In other words: this kind of project was floating in the air, awaiting just > a "trigger". Another thing worth noting - a fair number of state projects - TenDRA C/C++ compiler springs to mind - http://www.tendra.org/ - that would be languishing in some dark governmental dungeon if someone hadn't seen what was happening with gcc. Wesley Parish > > Cheers, -- Mau e ki, "He aha te mea nui?" You ask, "What is the most important thing?" Maku e ki, "He tangata, he tangata, he tangata." I reply, "It is people, it is people, it is people."
