A retrospective <https://www.zdnet.com/article/linuxs-remarkable-journey-from-one-devs-hobby-to-40-million-lines-of-code-and-counting/>
on how the Linux kernel project got to where it is today. Quotes:

“We're always building on the kernel, despite the fact that a lot
of things were happening in the world over these three decades. We
had the dotcom crash in 2000. We had the SCO lawsuit. In 2008,
there was the global economic crisis. And of course, we had the
COVID pandemic. But you don't really see an effect on the
development speed of Linux from any of these events. We have
somehow managed to sustain everything we can do despite all the
stuff that has happened in the world.”

...

Of course, for years, no one took Linux seriously. It was
dismissed as a toy in an era when Unix fragmentation and the rise
of Windows NT dominated industry thinking. The prevailing wisdom
held that only large corporations could build operating system
kernels, leaving little attention for a community-driven
initiative. Yet, as Corbet noted, Linux exemplified Clayton
Christensen's concept of disruptive innovation: a technology
dismissed as inferior that quietly matures until it overtakes
established players.

Why did the BSDs lose their early lead?

Another factor, Corbet explained, was that in the early 1990s, the
BSD Unix systems were much more mature than Linux; they were
capable of doing more and were more usable. Still, their
permissive BSD license model led to a whole bunch of forks. None
of them gained the critical mass in terms of either the
development community or adoption to dominate Linux.

Instead, the Linux kernel stayed one thing. It stayed together, in
part because its GPLv2 copyright policy meant everybody retains
their copyright under the same license.

Some other open-source projects (including GNU) insist that
contributors sign a “Contributor Licence Agreement”, turning over
their copyright to some official body in charge of the project. The
Linux kernel does not, and there are others that don’t.

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Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

A retrospective <https://www.zdnet.com/article/linuxs-remarkable-journey-from-one-devs-hobby-to-40-million-lines-of-code-and-counting/>
on how the Linux kernel project got to where it is today. Quotes:

<snip>

Corbet believed that what has set Linux apart is its radical
openness.

At the time, I would say thus is true, but now it is a different
story :) Interesting there is no mention of the BSD/AT&T
lawsuit around 1992. That slowed down *BSD growth at a critical
time period. Even Linus mentioned this as a reason for starting
Linux.

Of course, for years, no one took Linux seriously. It was
dismissed as a toy in an era when Unix fragmentation and the
rise of Windows NT dominated industry thinking.

No mention of the 1 Billion USD investment IBM made in Linux
in 1999/2000, that allowed many people to get paid for their
work. *BSD had and still has nothing close to this.

Linux was also successful, Corbet believes, because "Linus
had no pride. He threw open the door to everybody, and anybody
who could send him a patch could participate.

Something to say about this, *BSDs at the time was known for
their infighting and was less welcoming (IIRC). Now of course
I think it is the opposite. I think *BSD are very welcoming
to contributors.

--
[t]csh(1) - "An elegant shell, for a more... civilized age."
- Paraphrasing Star Wars

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On 7/2/25 18:36, John McCue wrote:

because "Linus
had no pride. He threw open the door to everybody, and anybody
who could send him a patch could participate.

Linus has as much pride as anyone on the face of the planet.
Remember he remains in a position to protect his work and the
idea of Free Open Source Software. He is wise to do so as
he resists the foolish idea of Poettering embodied in the systemd
trojan and other attempts to inject the trappings of a corporate
system into the kernel.

Of course corporate systems are happier with a systemd
as it may make maintenance easier for fewer corporate
IP members, the guys in charge of updates and upgrades
that users and developers do on their own. Some people
have a model of computer use that is like a toaster and
so they skip leaning how to use their systems until
a problem arises.

bliss -hates the toaster approach as it leads people back to sheeple status

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On Wed, 2 Jul 2025 18:53:28 -0700, Bobbie Sellers wrote:

Linus has as much pride as anyone on the face of the planet.

There is a difference between “pride” and “insistence on quality”. Open Source is not conducive to ego massaging, because it is too easy for
someone to get fed up with you and take a copy of the code (along with
some crucial contributors) to go work on it elsewhere. Linus stays in
charge by maintaining his credibility through his technical skills and judgement, nothing more or less.

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On Thu, 3 Jul 2025 01:36:35 -0000 (UTC), John McCue wrote:

Interesting there is no mention of the BSD/AT&T lawsuit around 1992.
That slowed down *BSD growth at a critical time period. Even Linus
mentioned this as a reason for starting Linux.

Linux had to face its own well-funded lawsuit from SCO (aided and abetted behind the scenes by other parties, very likely including Microsoft). That
went on for much longer, being pursued by some stubborn group that would
not accept “case dismissed” for an answer.

But that didn’t slow down Linux, did it?

No mention of the 1 Billion USD investment IBM made in Linux in
1999/2000, that allowed many people to get paid for their work. *BSD
had and still has nothing close to this.

How much does Windows get per year? That billion one-off is probably
peanuts compared to what is spent by Apple and Microsoft on their own proprietary platforms on a yearly basis.

Something to say about this, *BSDs at the time was known for their
infighting and was less welcoming (IIRC). Now of course I think it is
the opposite. I think *BSD are very welcoming to contributors.

But they still remain fragmented. Consider how the 300-odd Linux distros
offer a greater variety of application scenarios, and less fragmentation, whereas just a half-dozen or so BSD variants manage quite the opposite:
greater fragmentation, less variety of application scenarios.

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On 03/07/2025 02:36, John McCue wrote:

No mention of the 1 Billion USD investment IBM made in Linux
in 1999/2000, that allowed many people to get paid for their
work. *BSD had and still has nothing close to this.

You can imagine

IBM: "We need a free open OS to run on our tin and under our existing code" Linus: "well its gonna cost ya!"

Linux/s success is somewhat down to the fact that in the end, its easier
these days to make money out of selling hardware or software
subscriptions than software.

So all the IOT bollox promotes small gadgets, probably ARM, running some adapted version of Linux, simply because its there...

The desktop/workstation being the last bastion of windows and OS/X
because it is the only platform that may be expected to run a diverse
mix of specialist code.


--
I was brought up to believe that you should never give offence if you
can avoid it; the new culture tells us you should always take offence if
you can. There are now experts in the art of taking offence, indeed
whole academic subjects, such as 'gender studies', devoted to it.

Sir Roger Scruton

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Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

On Thu, 3 Jul 2025 01:36:35 -0000 (UTC), John McCue wrote:

Interesting there is no mention of the BSD/AT&T lawsuit around 1992.
That slowed down *BSD growth at a critical time period. Even Linus
mentioned this as a reason for starting Linux.

Linux had to face its own well-funded lawsuit from SCO (aided and abetted behind the scenes by other parties, very likely including Microsoft). That went on for much longer, being pursued by some stubborn group that would
not accept ?case dismissed? for an answer.

But that didn?t slow down Linux, did it?

There is no comparison between the BSD and Linux Lawsuit.
* Linux vs SCO was really SCO vs IBM, IBM a very rich and
large company, SCO a company on the verge of chapter 11.
In 2002, Linux already owned the free market.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_SCO%E2%80%93Linux_disputes
* BSD lawsuit was AT&T (USL) vs BSDI, a very large company
against a small company at a critical time when people were
looking for a cheap/free full featured UN*X.

No mention of the 1 Billion USD investment IBM made in Linux in
1999/2000, that allowed many people to get paid for their work. *BSD
had and still has nothing close to this.

How much does Windows get per year? That billion one-off is probably
peanuts compared to what is spent by Apple and Microsoft on their own proprietary platforms on a yearly basis.

The 1B USD from IBM put Linux on Large Corporation's Radar.
Without out that, it is quite possible M/S would own the
server space.

Something to say about this, *BSDs at the time was known for their
infighting and was less welcoming (IIRC). Now of course I think it is
the opposite. I think *BSD are very welcoming to contributors.

But they still remain fragmented. Consider how the 300-odd Linux distros offer a greater variety of application scenarios, and less fragmentation, whereas just a half-dozen or so BSD variants manage quite the opposite: greater fragmentation, less variety of application scenarios.

--
[t]csh(1) - "An elegant shell, for a more... civilized age."
- Paraphrasing Star Wars

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On Thu, 3 Jul 2025 10:50:20 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Linux/s success is somewhat down to the fact that in the end, its
easier these days to make money out of selling hardware or software subscriptions than software.

Services. The scarcity is not the software, but in the human skills
needed to get the most out of it. That’s what’s valuable and saleable.

The desktop/workstation being the last bastion of windows and OS/X
because it is the only platform that may be expected to run a
diverse mix of specialist code.

Oddly enough, “specialist” code mainly runs on Linux these days.

<https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/nvidias-newest-top-tier-ai-supercomputers-deployed-for-the-first-time-grace-blackwell-ultra-superchip-systems-deployed-at-coreweave>

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