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Happy 24th birthday, Linux kernel (Opensource.com)

Opensource.com wishes Linux a happy 24th birthday, with a brief timeline of Linux history. "There's some debate in the Linux community as to whether we should be celebrating Linux's birthday today or on October 5 when the first public release was made, but Linus says he is O.K. with you celebrating either one, or both! So as we say happy birthday, let's take a quick look back at the years that have passed and how far we have come."

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Happy 24th birthday, Linux kernel (Opensource.com)

Posted Aug 25, 2015 22:11 UTC (Tue) by ccchips (subscriber, #3222) [Link]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LINUX KERNEL!

Good heavens, it's been that long?

When Linux came available, I was learning system administration for an IBM 370 mainframe and the VM/CMS operating system. One of the things I had to learn how to do was "generate" the "nucleus" of that operating system. There was only one computer, and my company relied on it heavily, so I was scared to death about that process.

Well, around the same time, I had a really cheap 5 megabyte laptop on which I had installed Linux. The install went OK, but there were issues with the kernel that came with the Slackware system I was using due to the laptop's oddball use of I/O addresses. Long story short, to really use Linux well on that laptop I had to compile my own kernel, which took over 12 hours on that thing. By the time I was done getting the laptop working the way I wanted, I was no longer afraid of working with the VM nucleus.

This was a very important turning point for me, and I'm glad of the experience.

Once again, Happy Birthday! Linux has been a wonderful experience for me.

Happy 24th birthday, Linux kernel (Opensource.com)

Posted Aug 30, 2015 1:45 UTC (Sun) by hubcapsc (subscriber, #98078) [Link]

I was the system administrator of hubcap.clemson.edu back then... a VAX running ULTRIX that many people on campus used. I remember a particular day walking across campus - I ran into some of the physics guys. They told me they had their own Unix machines now... they'd put something called Linux on their PeeCees!

-Mike


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