Glad there are a few people who can see my blog. Maybe it’s time to write something recent and current on it.
As far as writing, not only have I written a few blogs, over twenty years ago I was published a few times. Extreme Tech had a Linux distribution review series for a while back in the early 2000s and I wrote for them twice. I think I also wrote a few articles in Linux Review and maybe one or two elsewhere.
My longtime friend, dating clear back to 1985 in Merrimack, NH, Jon “maddog” Hall used to write books and magazine articles about Linux. The most recent article I read from him was only four years ago, so it’s possible that he STILL writes – this one was called “Maddog’s Doghouse @LinuxProMagazine.com. In fact, Jon specifically mentions “In 1986, I took a VAX computer with Ultrix-32 down to Richard Stallman so the GNU project could port its software to Ultrix”.
Around that same time, Jon and I ran into one another several times in the afternoon next to the popcorn maker near a coffee station. There, we’d share our ideas. I happened to be a member of Digital’s Telecommunications Systems Engineering Group, and we would sponsor development groups to write device drivers for new PDP and VAX systems in order that AT&T divisions and spin-off companies could run genuine UNIX System V on Digital Equipment computers. John wanted to go further than that: he wanted to unify features from BSD based UNIX systems, which Ultrix-16, Ultrix-32m and Ultrix-32 were at the time; that vision resulted in Digital UNIX; we both worked in that organization in the middle nineties, but by that time, both of us realized that large server systems were on the way out, to be replaced by Intel and AMD hardware running Linux! Naturally that was NOT a popular point of view, because about $200-300 Million per year was invested in each of Digital’s operating system groups; layered software products also had significant product investments.
It didn’t take very long; by the end of the first decade in 2000s, while UNIX wasn’t gone, it certainly was no longer bringing in a 20-30% or greater market. Even by 2000, many major companies, particularly IBM and Hewlett Packard, and later Dell, were bringing in 20-39% of their total server revenue from their Linux server business; desktop Linux never exceeded 1-2% ever, but when Google released Chrome at the beginning of the next decade, after making huge strides with their search engines in the early 2000s, that put Linux software squarely in both server and desktop configurations, though not always directly; Google stuff used Linux KERNEL components, not Linux-based window or desktop configurations.
Today, we have all kinds of stuff that has either a UNIX or Linux derived kernel; Apple products use system kernels derived from BSD-based UNIX kernels. Google still uses parts of the Linux kernel in many of their products. Automation manufacturers and automotive applications often put UNIX or Linux derived components into their software firmware that goes into many of their devices. Software from both UNIX and Linux communities, and also Linux-like code even in real time systems, is much more common than it was twenty or more years ago. Why completely reinvent something when you can use or reuse it? Some companies that want to copy WITHOUT acknowledging or recognizing the original source CAN sometimes do that with a BSD-based license, whereas that is never possible with Linux – you CAN use it, but you MUST cite the Linux license, which is the sticking point and why it’s not used even more.
I bring up the past and this history because all that is going on has evolved from the work that has taken place. The contested software licensing between 1984 and the period between 1989 and 1991 led to at LEAST four distinct branches that sought to protect themselves from AT&T or other expensive kernel licenses, which could be $3000 (on an individual small computer), or much more on larger servers at that time. With the cost of hardware plummeting, that was a major incentive to develop cooperative free licensed software. FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD were three BSD-based free approaches. Apple poached from parts of these; Linux, at nearly the same time, was written because those non-Microsoft licenses were prohibitive, as was Microsoft Xenix (the Unix license they once sold themselves). Torvolds couldn’t afford buying one; that’s what led him to write his initial simple kernel and share it.
Hall became familiar with all of these activities and sought to get Digital much more involved; he pretty much did so without much help and it eventually happened; once HP bought Digital some of the big companies finally realized that Linux in almost any form could be profitable; the servers were still definitely the main money makers, but as Google helped others see, there are MANY different ways to make money; the best way is to get into as many of them as possible, which has clearly taken place.
As for what we do, we carve our own niche; it’s not a money maker; it’s a money saver for those who are keeping old hardware alive.
