Subject: Linux Innovation (was Language Paradigms)
From: Ted Goranson (tedg@infi.net)
Date: Tue Jul 03 2001 - 15:09:53 MDT
Err, John, those aren't exactly innovations. Instead, they are
implementations of rather mature ideas.
Let me take a shot: The Gnu/Linux community can take credit for:
--Revolutionizing and standardizing the notion of an editor. I know
many here will scoff at emacs because it is too big or complex for
their tastes, but it is what the big boys use and is a landmark for
everything else (excepting GUI). It is really what got the FSF going,
and is still their major achievement.
--Because of the need to support distributed relatively unmanaged
development, we have CVS. It is a bear for sure, but it does satisfy
a pretty complex need.
--Because Linux opened the world of the kernel, in the past year it
has brought new attention to practical innovation in SMP. While the
principles have been known for some time by illuminati, now we have
some widespread debates which means innovation.
--Open source notions spread to the design of languages. Some new OS
languages are quite innovative (I won't name my picks) and some are
ordinary languages that have grown or been extended in innovative
ways like Perl and Python. (As a corollary, no significant university
research is done with Windows now, so nearly all new ideas can be
found in or related to Linux in some fashion.)
The first two are GNU, the third Linux, the fourth Open Source
generally, but based in Linux.
YDL/MacOSX people, like us here, will have the best of the two
approaches to SMP to play with. Linux can offer some practical tools
to just get the job done. But in my opinion, if you want to be in the
heart of the adventure, you'll be in xemacs on YDL, playing with new
language ideas with like minds, and keeping an eye on xnu (the MacOSX
microkernel). That's my target with all my newbie setup questions.
Best, Ted
>On Mon Jul 2 19:00:31 2001 Patrick Callahan wrote:
>>
>> Where exactly is the innovation in Linux. Can anyone out there with more
>> experience than me, name the things in Linux that are truly original in the
>> last few years. Is there anything new in linux that is not found in other
>> operating systems before it appeared in linux? What's the historical
>> perspective?
>
>Well, we'll start with the kernel. You have the source code to the
>kernel. You can read through it and learn a lot about how an operating
>system works. You can easily add device drivers to it. In fact, Linux
>is one of the few operating systems that will work just about every
>imaginable ethernet card you can install in your computer.
>
>The next thing that Linux offers is the ability to run on almost any
>computer you may have at your disposal. You don't need to have the
>latest Mac or Intel box. We have a number of 486s running Linux at my
>office that perform much better than any machine running Windows 98.
>
>Linux is a combination of the Linus' kernel and a host of software
>written by the folks at GNU. The GNU folks have been innovating for
>quite some time. In fact, their C compiler has pretty much become
>the defacto standard for C compilers; it's the one you want to beat
>if you are writing a new compiler.
>
>If you enjoy surfing the web, you are also benefiting from two other
>features of Linux. The first is the open source project known as
>apache. It is the web server that serves the majority of web pages
>around the world. The second is Linux's sense of security. Granted,
>this came from Linux's Unix heritage, but it's still something that
>can't be matched by single user OSs such as Windows or Mac OS 9.
>
>Are those enough examples?
>
>John
-- _____________ Ted Goranson Fusecap and Sirius-Beta, Virginia Beach USA 757/426-6704 tedg@sirius-beta.com Symmetry Conference: http://www.isis-s.unsw.edu.au
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