[TUHS] Mach for i386 / Mt Xinu or other

Steve Nickolas usotsuki at buric.co
Wed Feb 22 12:25:12 AEST 2017


On Tue, 21 Feb 2017, Dan Cross wrote:

> If I may, I think there was an additional thing at play: Linux was
> essentially Unix.
>
> Linux "won" because people wanted low-cost or free (as in gratis) Unix with
> source that could run on modest commodity hardware, and Unix wasn't
> available at a price point that was reasonable for most individuals
> (certainly not with source). The people working on successor systems
> weren't trying to reinvent Unix: they were working on new systems that
> weren't Unix, but that's not what people wanted: Unix was good enough and
> people were familiar and comfortable with it and that's what they wanted.
> So Linux comes along and it's basically a "simplest possible solution"
> Unix, freely available, runs on a PC, comes with source, and wasn't mired
> in a lawsuit brought by a major US company. It was the right thing in the
> right place at the right time.
>
> I think there's a network effect that blinds a lot of folks to this
> reality. Most of the folks on this list had access to Unix source and, with
> no disrespect intended, it's easy to lose sight of what a big deal that
> was. But unless you were in a position to already have access to it, it was
> remarkably difficult to come by. Linux filled a gap that a lot of people
> were looking to have filled.
>
>        - Dan C.
>

I started screwing around with Linux in the late 90s, and it would be many 
years before any sort of real Unix (of the AT&T variety), in any form, was 
readily available to me - that being Solaris when Sun started offering it 
for free download.

-uso.



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