Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> I Blew It on Microsoft
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | We pro-regulators were making an assumption that history has shown
> | to be completely false: That something as complex as an OS has to be
> | built by a commercial entity. Only crazies imagined that volunteers
> | outside the control of a corporation could successfully create a
> | system over which no one had exclusive command. We knew those
> | crazies. They worked on something called Linux.
> `----
>
> http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.01/posts.html?pg=6
Of course, in 1974, who could have imagined that a college drop-out
would become the richest and most powerful man in the world, more
powerful than the President and the Primier of the USSR combined?
The microprocessor made it possible for hobbiests to create computers
on a kitchen table with very little complexity. Eventually, companies
turned those hobbiest computers such as the Altair, COSMAC, SWTP, and
Ohio Scientific computers into 2nd generation computers such as the
Commodore PET, the TRS-80, Apple ][, and the Atari 400 and 800. Then
3rd generation computers became more identified with their operating
systems - machines designed for CP/M, MS-DOS, and OS/2. Linux and
Windows are 4th generation operating systems, along with Solaris.
These are much more complex workstation operating systems which support
full preemptive multitasking, Smalltalk style graphics, and component
based software.
Linux has actually evolved into a 5th generation operating system based
on clusters of processors and SMP processors, combined with networking
and smart peripherals, these Linux machines combine component software
and component hardware "appliances" and offer virtualization.
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