RE: OS/400 on a Sun unix

| -----Original Message-----
| [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of James Rich

| Brad Stone wrote:
| > They would generate sales from the OS.  Look how quickly
| > linux became "popular", and then look at it's roots.  If I
| > could sell hardware with software, and software alone, I
| > would think it would be advantageous.
|
| I don't understand the quotes around popular.  Linux is popular, whether
| or not that means anything is debatable.
|
| But looking at it's root is interesting.  Linux came to be because Linus
| Torvalds said, "Hey, I want to do this and this so I think I'll code it
| up."  He shared his work with others in a way that guaranteed the work
| would stay shareable.  People thought it was interesting, and decided to
| work on it too.  Linus wanted a unix system but couldn't afford one, and
| didn't like windows 3.1.  So he started coding something that was
| interesting, and others thought it was also interesting, so they pitched
| in.  No one thought, "Hey, I want to make money, so I'm going to work on
| this linux thing."  Business reasons meant nothing, and by and large
| still don't.

James,

I'm not on a first-name basis with Mr. Torvalds and have never met any of
the principles involved.  Nor have I been indoctrinated into the Linux
Religion or the whole *nix cult, in general.  So your understanding of the
details is probably better than mine...  However (I dunno who said
originally, but a lotta people have said more-or-less), "History is the
recollection of the winners".  Meaning the History we read in books, and the
press and Net for current events, is largely a convenient subset of the
facts.

The story you are telling is one I've heard many, many times before, told in
this same fashion (and I'm going to avoid calling it a fairy-tale because
the "facts", as presented, as somewhat accurate).  I'm have no doubt Linus
Torvalds intended more good than harm, as you imply...  However, the truths
you are expressing are /very *partial*/ truths...

I say that because you're telling of the story leaves out most of the key
players in the saga.

I would be curious as to your understanding of the roles of Eric S. Raymond
(ESR http://armedndangerous.blogspot.com/) and Bruce Perens, for example,
and the man whose shoulders they stood on, Richard M. Stallman (RMS).  This
story began WAY before Mr. Torvalds coded the first line, I'm sure of that,
and continues on (I believe) largely on the work of Dr. Lawrence Lessig
(http://www.lessig.org/blog/) among many others.

Perhaps you'd care to flush out more of the facts, (as you see them)??

jt