GNU & Linux Past - Part 1

How did the free software movement get started? How did the tools which the Free Software Foundation create and what was it lacking? How did Linux Torvalds Linux kernel become part of the equation to create a distribution which could be installed and run on almost any computer system. How did something that was free and open source become part of the solutions landscape for both the corporate and the home user. Today I will explore all of these things including a bit about what makes a operating system and its surrounding utilities popular and successful.

I used some video clips from that need attribution:
Revolution OS, for Eric Raymonds comments on open source
Ted Talks 2016 interview with Linus Torvalds

Chapters
00:00 - Intro
00:25 - GNU & Linux
00:49 - Quote
01:45 - Influencers, Developers and Evangelists
02:12 - Founders, Thinkers and Makers
02:31 - Leaders, Dreamers and Architects
02:59 - Richard Stalman on Free Software
05:04 - Linus Torvalds on Open Source
07:25 - Patrick Volkerding - Slackware
08:14 - Ian Murdock Debian
08:41 - Eric S. Raymond OSI
10:05 - Richard Stallman on Open Source
10:34 - Bill Gates - Letter to Homebrew Computing Club
13:14 - The Killer-App
14:05 - IBM PC Killer-App
14:47 - Apple Macintosh - Killer-App
15:51 - Microsoft Windows - Killer-App
16:50 - Linux Server - Killer-App
17:28 - Linux Desktop - Killer-App?
19:04 - Netscape - First to Move to Open Source
20:45 - 1998 - Linux Growth is rapid
21:20 - Microsoft Halloween documents
22:46 - Microsoft Windows Refund Day
23:45 - IBM offerred PCs and Laptops with optional Windows
25:03 - Red Hat firts company to go IPO
25:34 - VA Linux IPO
26:13 - 1999 Linux continues to grow rapidly
26:47 - Final Thoughts

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Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Werq by Kevin MacLeod

Industrial Cinematic by Kevin MacLeod

Music Used in this video
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

#linux #freesoftware #iopensource

[cleightthejw]

Maybe the 'killer app' for Linux is simply the fact that it isn't Windows :)

[KuleRucket]

Proton probably has a fair change of becoming the killer app. After 25 years of dual booting this is the first time my Windows partition hasn't been needed,

[satnififu]

I see a lot of people citing Proton as Linux's killer app, however I argue that Linux has had a killer app for decades now: development. If you want to write any sort of code there's no better platform than Linux

[andrewpalm]

During most of the 1980's I was working as an applied mathematician in a polypropylene film factory just north of Terre Haute, Indiana. Although I had a Perkin Elmer minicomputer available to me, plus SAS on the corporate mainframe, what really grabbed my imagination was Lotus 1-2-3 (on a Radio Shack "laptop"!). It allowed me to automate exploratory and routine mathematical and statistical calculations and plots. This included solving differential equations, matrix operations, and so on. Even though the spreadsheet software didn't include most statisticial distributions, one could use time-honored approximations from Abramowitz and Stegun that worked just fine. The quick turnabound for results and the plotting capability allowed for short iteration loops when developing solutions. Later in another job I could send clients calculation solutions that worked on their own PCs on Lotus. It truly was a killer app for me.

[fraternitas]

7:34 casually says, "a lot of people could come and take advantage of your work and I decided, what the hell." Legend!

[rcdenis]

Not sure what the next killer app will be but it will most likely dumb the typical user down even more.

[robbin_goat]

Thanks alot! All your videos have full of information. feel nostalgia since all of these people created all these great open source softwares and we just happen to be there to experience and use them and follow the trend and we don't feel a great deal out of it.

[fossmanmedia]

Great content as always. Thank you for all your hard work.

[leibaleibovich]

An off-topic comment, if I may:

Thank you very much for answering my comment regarding semi-conductor shortages during a live-stream! Your take is appreciated. I followed on your answer and got myself a low-end "reComputer" (by seeed). Essentially, it is a more expensive substitute for JetsonNano developer kits, which are impossible to get. Now I am thinking whether I should buy "reComputer" with Xavier NX board (if I have some extra cash). Don't need it now, but when I do, it might be gone, as Raspberry Pi's and Jetsons.

[bradm]

Great video. The "killer app" question is one of the biggest challenges with Linux on the desktop. Most of the GUI apps people highlight as alternatives to proprietary software are available for Windows and/or Mac. So, that's not a differentiated benefit for Linux.

When people claim, "If Linux could run the Adobe suite, AutoCad, MS Office, etc., more people would use Linux, " I want to ask them what they think the goal is for the Linux desktop. If people can't switch to Linux unless it runs certain proprietary software, then is the goal to just be an alternative to Windows? There already is one: Mac OS. "But Mac OS is a walled garden." OK, then use PC/Windows. "But Windows sucks!" Well, maybe try Chrome OS since that is maturing rapidly. "But Google is anti-privacy."

Computer enthusiasts care about operating systems. The average user? Not so much. People like choice, but markets generally coalesce around 2 or 3 major platform ecosystems. No platform is perfect, but most users will be content enough with one of the major options. Really, they're more concerned with apps.

This is why I sometimes think desktop Linux and open source go hand-in-hand. If you want to switch to Linux, it's not enough to just want an alternative operating system. Rather, you have to be open to switching your workflow to one based on open source software. But, is there any workflow based on Linux + open source software that is *better* than the proprietary alternative? "Almost as good as" or "enough for most users" isn't really a compelling value proposition...again for most average users. :)

[stellarorbit]

I love this video. I am a major history buff and this video is perfect!

[lolvivo]

Frankly gnu/linux lacks the polish in gui but it is versatile at scripting, is auditable and has great tools for network administration, supports IDE environments, excellent for learning. Plus if tried hard enough it generally does the job u normally do in other OSs.
If desktop publishing and CAD design tools and support get on par with others on Gnu linux its hard to see why anyone would say no to it.

[cameronmonks]

I feel like there are a few almost killer apps for Linux. I would go with either Wine + proton as it works best on Linux. Docker also runs better on Linux so that may be it. It’s definitely missing one or a few killer application that only runs in Linux that would be great for companies, governments and schools to use. Maybe one day.

Looks like there are not any killer apps for any os today. Most are just there cause they had that killer app at one point and the users continue to use it even though there are alternatives out there that are almost just as good if not better.

[wilsongo]

Well, sir really made me think to why i use linux and give me the answer to why general people does not use linux. Thanks,

[guilherme]

In my opinion the Killer-App for Linux today is Proton.

[charlinhow]

A a sysadmin, the killer app for Linux is obv having access to the same tools I would use in a server. Plus, Docker and virtualization are much more performant due Docker being Linux Native and KVM.

[sonicsaviouryouwillnotgetm]

True that apps make a marketshare. For creative people, everybody is using Mac because of the software for audio, video, animation etc. And that's exactly an era where Linux is always lacking. If specific hardware is involved (audio interfaces, electronic instruments, photo cameras/RAW files, etc) you can run out of luck pretty quickly. At the least, you have to spend a lot of time to make it work and that takes away from the actual creative work, that you want to do and instead you frustrate yourself hacking.
In the Windows World it is how the Office apps integrate with one another and with MS's Cloudservices (Sharepoints, DevOps etc.).

For academic/scientific work (papers, numerics, data analysis, plotting etc), or programming oriented work, however, I would say GNU/Linux is far superior. The Foss aps and desktops have come a long way and many are really well done nowadays and work well. The linux desktop comes from an academic background and its users have been developing killer tools for that application, ignoring business applications as well as multimedia oriented „normal“ users.
All the problematic data gathering aside, one big plus for me is that Linux does not feel comercial. You don't run into „you need to pay extra for this feature or buy this additional software to be able to do whatever like in windows“

[noam]

All my computers run Linux. The killer app for me is whatever I happen to need and use now. Mostly Firefox, Libre Office, and Okular ebook reader for me.

[bertnijhof]

For me the killer Linux stuff has been Virtualbox (2009 no more dual booting) and ZFS On Linux/OpenZFS (end 2017/begin 2018, snapshots; raid; backups; default lz4 compression). I appreciate and use Firefox; LibreOffice; Evolution; Openshot; Lollypop (music player); Quod Libet (music player); Ex Falso (audio tag editor) and SoundKonverter (running one audio file conversion per CPU core). In the past Windows Media PLayer, the only reasons why I still run Windows XP in a VM playing wma copies of my LPs and CDs. And around 1988 Girotel a MS-DOS banking application from the Dutch state owned Postbank :) Girotel used a 2400bps modem to connect to the Postbank and to exchange the off line prepared new transactions and centrally executed old transactions. Girotel was the main reason, why I bought my first PC, a 2nd hand Philips P3105 (XT clone; 768KB and 20MB disc) originally running MS-DOS 3.30.

[errorsofmodernism]

The killer app or compelling reason for Linux desktop is not a positive material app, it is the expression of negative and positive liberties, it is the negative liberty of removing the pain, obstacles and constraints of Microsoft (and to a lesser extent Apple) and the positive liberty of the freedom or exercising ones free will with software