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Linux is the brain child of Linus Torvalds, a Swedish-speaking Finn who now lives in California. He wrote the Linux kernel while a student at Helsinki University www.helsinki.fi/english/. Dan says that "since its introduction in 1991, Linux continues to grow in popularity and functionality and challenge the paradigm of vendor-developed operating systems." It is a "widely accepted open source operating system" which "offers a wealth of applications to its ever-growing user base" and that "no other operating system in history has grown as quickly, across as broad a range of systems, as Linux". He adds that "IBM was quick
to recognize the value of Linux, forming alliances with Linux
Distributors, contributing to the open source community and enabling
IBM products
and services for Linux. Today, Linux is supported across all
IBM eServer
platforms." In the late 1980s, an online programmer offered to send me Linux on about 30 diskettes. This was before Red Hat, IBM and others even talked about Linux. I declined the offer because I would not have known what to do with Linux. In the late 80s, DOS was the operating system I used and I was proficient in making it do what I needed at the time. Now, I admit I don’t even remember basic DOS commands. What I would like to hear from Don Powers is whether Linux is only for power users or what new use I should have for Linux in 2002, both in business and home applications that I did not have in the 1980s. I have to admit that the more I use computers—like, for example, cars—I don’t really need to know what makes it work. I just need the computer to do tasks, which are about everything nowadays in my life. Did you know that DACS has a Linux SIG (Special Interest Group) headed by Don Pearson. The SIG is called Advanced Operating Systems and it explores and develops OS/2, Linux, and Windows NT operating systems. Follow the link on the DACS web page (www.dacs.org). The meeting begins with Random Access at 7 p.m., with the presentation at 8. |
At
the next General Meeting on January 8th at Danbury Hospital Auditorium,
Dan Powers, IBM’s Vice President - Worldwide Linux Sales,
will present the Linux operating system.