back to article Linux turns 25, with corporate contributors now key to its future

On August 25, 1991, an unknown Finnish developer posted the following to the comp.os.minix newsgroup: Hello everybody out there using minix - I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready. I'd …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hey Broadcom why does your Linux support till suck?

    If you are contributing so much to the Kernel why does the support for your NIC's still seem like picking Lotto numbers. Sometimes you will get a working link and sometimes you won't.

    Or is everything you contribute based around the RPi and you just don't care about anything else?

    1. James Hughes 1

      Re: Hey Broadcom why does your Linux support till suck?

      Brcm contribute little to the Rpi kernel AFAIK. At most it's the drivers for the WIfi/BT on the PI3. The rest of kernel dev for the Pi is the Foundation or contributors.

      They do however provide support elsewhere IIRC.

  2. paulc

    I would consider GIT to be

    an even bigger contribution to the software world...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I would consider GIT to be

      indeed, it makes other SCM look like poorly designed wannabes in comparison.

      a good enterprise wrapper around git, and you have something that will destroy all other commercial offerings. Microsoft seem to see this, TFS with git backend seems to be the direction they are heading these days

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Ok, someone has to say it...

      ...Linux is just the kernel, and wouldn't be anywhere without the rest of the GNU stack to enable it to actually do anything.

      And yes, GIT is a Very Good Thing, but I still think I'd vote for the GNU stack as being the biggest contribution to the software world.

      1. Lars Silver badge
        Linux

        Re: Ok, someone has to say it...

        And I suppose I have to add that GNU without the Linux kernel would have come to nothing. Haven't checked the progress of the Hurd kernel for years but as far as I remember it needed stuff from Linux to get anywhere.

        This is a bit like claiming the wheels are just the wheels on a car. Kudos for both and all of it.

        Git was also mentioned and for those who need more background to it try, for instance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_%28software%29

      2. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

        Re: Ok, someone has to say it...

        Android does just fine without most of the GNU stack...

        1. asdf

          Re: Ok, someone has to say it...

          Honestly IMO the GNU stack is a mixed bag. Yes it tends to be more user friendly than its proprietary UNIX replacement but a lot of the more complex pieces like bash are such hairballs they also increase the attack surface of your system. Even going the FOSS route I still tend to prefer the BSD equivalents when they exist.

  3. naive

    World without Linux

    MS desktop license: $ 2000,- + obligation to read adds for 5min during startup

    Cost basic of Intel CPU: $1000,- (since it is coupled with MS OS)

    Windows server licenses: $ 3000,- for basic OS, adding more $$ per GB memory and CPU

    The world has many reasons be grateful to Linus and the community which develops and maintains Linux.

    Linux is enabling an enormous boost in development of technology, new CPU architectures, applications such as robotics and IoT. Also startups like google and facebook use Linux to develop global services which would not be possible if they had to pay MS for every CAL they needed to make this happen: http://www.zdnet.com/article/red-hat-ceo-google-facebook-owe-it-all-to-linux-open-source/

    Linus should be awarded a Nobel prize for empowering the world with great technology.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: World without Linux

      I wish I could upvote and downvote at the same time.

      While the last part is valid and true (although the use of present tense when describing Google and Facebook as startups is a little confusing), the first part is utter bollocks.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: World without Linux

      On the flipside. Im greatful for MS.

      They are the baseline. Without them we wouldnt know how good Linux is.

      1. Ellipsis
        Windows

        Re: World without Linux

        By that measure, Linux gets better by the day without having to change a single thing…

      2. oldcoder

        Re: World without Linux

        Those of us that used UNIX certainly would know.

        Without Microsoft, hospitals would still be secure... As would government systems, banks, ...

    3. Teiwaz

      Re: World without Linux

      "http://www.zdnet.com/article/red-hat-ceo-google-facebook-owe-it-all-to-linux-open-source/"

      - Just great, now I'm depressed.

    4. Crazy Operations Guy

      Re: World without Linux

      Even if you were to ignore the existence of Apple, MS and Intel would still still quite a lot of competition coming from the *BSD camps and several of the pure-Unix OSes, such as Solaris.

      Linux is not, and was not, the only free OS out there. It just happened to have the right mix of resources at the beginning to build a proper community and attract as much attention and support as it did. It could have happened with any OpenSource OS; NetBSD might be king if a few things happened a little differently.

      Although at this point, I believe Linux itself needs more competition in the Open-source world. Its getting to the point where you have a small number of software projects that weld ridiculous amounts of control over the eco-system that are breaking everything because they can't be bothered to fix the lumbering beasts that their projects have become (Looking at you Gnome, OpenOffice, systemd...).

    5. Christian Berger

      Well actually...

      ... regarding Microsoft the biggest contribution Linux (and the BSDs) did was to force Microsoft to clean up their business. Before that, Microsoft simply didn't care about security bugs. Security was no priority. Eventually they put it onto their priority list and even hired external consultants. They simply told their programmers to fix bugs.

      So in theory you could now have a decently secure Windows machine.

      Of course now the problem is that the Windows ecosystem (along with the Android and Apple one) constantly trains their users to behave insecurely. Software is distributed as binary files you download from random locations, or you have an AppStore harboring all kinds of malware.

    6. Afernie

      Re: World without Linux

      "MS desktop license: $ 2000,- + obligation to read adds for 5min during startup

      Cost basic of Intel CPU: $1000,- (since it is coupled with MS OS)

      Windows server licenses: $ 3000,- for basic OS, adding more $$ per GB memory and CPU"

      Pish. No further response required.

  4. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
    Happy

    There are no keys to Hell

    "There are no keys to Hell - the doors are open to all men. - Albanian proverb"

    quote from "The Keys of Hell" by Jack Higgins

  5. Lars Silver badge
    Linux

    More on

    http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/08/on-linuxs-25th-anniversary-development-has-gone-corporate/

    1. foo_bar_baz

      Re: More on

      I wonder how much of the corporate contributions are drivers to support their hardware. Not a bad thing, just saying.

  6. Oengus
    Pint

    Happy Birthday Linux

    It's Friday. Have a beer to celebrate.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Started out with 0.96pl5 and a stack of SLS floppies ... blimey, how time flies.

  8. BobChip
    Linux

    El Reg on Linux

    Nice to see a simple statement to the effect that The Register runs on Linux. After all, "everyone knows" that businesses don't use Linux.

    One of the initial drivers that made me look seriously at Linux, years ago, was that so many of my clients were making the move anyway. The other was Vista and a serious lack of support for very wide format (£3000+) printers. Ubuntu did support them. Thank you, Microsoft; that really helped the decision making process. Glad to see that you are keeping up the good work.

    Linux users as a "silent majority"? Discuss.

    1. Chemist

      Re: El Reg on Linux

      "that businesses don't use Linux."

      Years ago (~~2003) the large Pharma that I worked for at the time moved gradually from SGI to Linux workstations (~200) mainly for cost reasons at the time. This was for the scientific groups involved in computational chemistry & protein structure determination etc.. All the workstations were dual Xenons with frighteningly expensive 3D graphics/ LCD specs and backed with IBM fileservers and compute servers and several large Linux farms (1024-4096 nodes).

      So certainly the business of science did use Linux even in the early 2000s

    2. Electron Shepherd

      Re: El Reg on Linux

      "Thank you, Microsoft; that really helped the decision making process"

      Why is it Microsoft's fault if a printer manufacturer doesn't provide a driver for a (probably, but you don't give a date, new) operating system? Surely you don't think they write all the drivers themselves?

      "The Register runs on Linux"

      It would be interesting to hear from the El Reg staff what proportion of their

      a) web servers

      b) internal "business" servers

      c) desktops

      use Windows, Linux and OS/X respectively.

      For most businesses, it's

      a) mostly Linux

      b) some Windows, some Linux

      c) almost all Windows

      1. Crazy Operations Guy

        "It would be interesting to hear from the El Reg staff what proportion of their..."

        I would wager that El Reg is:

        99% Linux on webservers

        75% Linux on business servers with 20% running Windows for random applications and Active Directory and 5% or so Running FreeBSD on file servers (well FreeNAS). Maybe some OS-X boxes for "time machine"

        95% OS X on the user machines with 3-4% Windows (Mostly to test software or reporting on the Windows world) and 1-2% Linux.

      2. TVU Silver badge

        Re: El Reg on Linux

        "c) desktops...c) almost all Windows".

        However, even that is changing thanks to Windows 10's ongoing stuff ups which are forcing exasperated people to move elsewhere. For example, April this year saw Windows' share of desktop operating systems go below 90% for the first time according to netmarketshare.com.

        Not only that, when you start looking at operating system market share in individual developed countries, the unices, i.e. OS X, Linux and Chrome OS (a customised version of Gentoo Linux) are anywhere between 12%-25% and in Switzerland that figure was 27% last time I checked.

        Larger corporations will possibly be OK with the sanitised and controllable (but more expensive) enterprise edition of Windows 10 but smaller businesses running the cheaper domestic versions of Windows 10 might feel in the need to move across to the unices to avoid all the ongoing unforced errors that are occurring with Windows 10.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: El Reg on Linux

      Which printers were they? I routinely work with large photo printers (44" and the like) and usually they come with OSX and Windows support (not only drivers), but no Linux support. After all they are going to be used with software that doesn't run on Linux.

    4. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: El Reg on Linux

      ""everyone knows" that businesses don't use Linux."

      This drives me crazy every time I hear the fear. When I worked for HP, they were shipping Red Hat Servers by the thousands.

      By. The. Thousands.

      A very large international I worked for actually had quite a few Linux desktops and a small team to support them.

      Many companies I've worked with are testing Linux servers and desktops everyday. When the switchover comes, and it will, it will seem to happen overnight.

      1. Electron Shepherd

        Re: El Reg on Linux

        "HP ... were shipping Red Hat Servers by the thousands."

        How many Windows servers were they shipping, compared to the RHEL (or other Linux distros)? It's relative quantities that are important, not absolutes for just one half of a comparison.

        "A very large international I worked for actually had quite a few Linux desktops"

        A "very large" international probably had tens of thousands of Windows desktops, so "quite a few" Linux desktops is, relatively speaking, not significant.

    5. Afernie

      Re: El Reg on Linux

      "Nice to see a simple statement to the effect that The Register runs on Linux. After all, "everyone knows" that businesses don't use Linux."

      The 90s called, they want their persecution complex back. Every business on earth "uses" Linux somewhere, whether they know it or not (DNS, Cloud, routers, appliances, phones, etc)

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    Yeah, yeah...

    This time next year Rodney, there will be 100s of millions of desktops running Linux

    1. James Hughes 1

      Re: Yeah, yeah...

      Well, 10 million Raspberry Pi's at least.

    2. poohbear

      Re: Yeah, yeah...

      Well, doesn't that depend on ...

      "What Microsoft Broke Next," by Sarah Chauncey Woolsey ....

    3. Teiwaz

      Re: Yeah, yeah...

      100s of millions of desktops running Linux

      - Desktops are hardly any tech. companies focus any more. Might as well make a comment about how many of what OS is running the spinning jennys down 't mill 'next year'.

      Switch desktops for phones and tablets, and with android, Linux is already there, even if GNU/Linux never gets that far. Add in ChromeOS to give a more complete number of user facing devices using the Open Source kernel. Of course using a device with the Linux kernel and whatever googlised ad frosting is nowhere near as satisfying as GNU/Linux.

      A better thing to be concerned about is what is running your lightbulbs and fridges and spaffing your late night habits and food consumption peccadilloes all over the interweb in the next few years. When it comes to consumer IOT I'm firmly on #3 of Douglas Adams three rules on reaction to technology.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Yeah, yeah...

        http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/39828-i-ve-come-up-with-a-set-of-rules-that-describe

      2. PaulFrederick

        Re: Yeah, yeah...

        Google is making a new OS called Fuchsia so they do not have to use Linux anymore. Then Linux will not have all of those Android, and Chrome devices anymore either.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Contributor unknown. Please pass me the tin foil.

  11. Michael Habel

    Ya know it funny...

    That after all these years of chiding Linux as. Pirate, and a joke OS, it's suddenly them (e.g. MicroSoft), who are keen to hop in bed with the Penguin. Makes me wonder if the likes of Redhat, and Ubuntu feel like MicroSoft has something better to offer then say xFATxx, and NTFS for use under Linux?

    1. Teiwaz

      Re: Ya know it funny...

      "Makes me wonder if the likes of Redhat, and Ubuntu feel like MicroSoft has something better to offer then say xFATxx, and NTFS for use under Linux?"

      It's probably not .net nor powershell, and I doubt anyone craves the mentioned file systems that much. I think it's just ensuring and improving interoperability for enterprise setups. I'm at minimum hoping .net going OSS will improve wine somewhat. The whole bash subsystem is partly candy to lure devs back from OS X, partly to try to keep admins on Windows rather than any Linux instance.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Device drivers / ISA / core kernel

    I wish stats like the contributors and companies were broken up, so you could see how much of it was device drivers, how much as in supporting ISA (x86, ARM64 etc.) and how much involved the core kernel. For instance Nvidia's contributors are likely most drivers, Intel has a combination of drivers and ISA, and others doing stuff like improving TCP/IP, I/O scheduler, SATA and other core functions.

  13. hammarbtyp
    Happy

    Don't panic

    This open source idea will never work...

    1. Ashley_Pomeroy

      Re: Don't panic

      On a tangent, it's sad to think of Richard Stallman gnashing his teeth with frustration as the world talks about Linus Torvalds' Linux. I will always remember reading a review of the latest version of Debian a few years ago, and buried in the comments - amongst a load of spam - was a note from Stallman plaintively asking that the reviewer call it GNU/Linux (in that order).

      It's like in Dune, where history forgets the princes and emperors and only remembers the hero and his friends. Imagine if thirty years from now Open Source rules the world, and someone has the clever idea of creating software privately, with a unique new "closed source" model. Will it take off?

      1. Teiwaz

        Re: Don't panic

        "It's like in Dune, where history forgets the princes and emperors"

        - Doesn't a Dune ref. inevitably come down to Microsoft being the God Emperor? 30 odd years of tyranny in tech years may well equate to 3000. Leto II had a plan in order to ensure humanities survival through the Golden Path, knowing after generations of being cooped up in an oppressive regime humanity would scatter further into the Universe. Microsoft unfortunately isn't planning on it's own demise (at least not intentionally), as Emperors go it's more a Shaddam IV. In Dune, history was a topic, Princes and Emperors were never forgotten, at least not their parts in the mythology of the religion of Mua'dib, their place in the Dune Tarot or their mistakes as academics once more plied their trade after the God Emperor (he killed historians).

        Apologies, I'm a complete utter nerd and geek when it comes to Dune.

        Closed Source will always be around, not least in the Military and Secret Services, the tin hat paranoiacs.

        I generally write 'Linux (quite frankly GNU/Linux is a hassle to write, where an apostrophe will do). I certainly don't underestimate the contribution of GNU. Linux the kernel would be nothing but a footnote on wikipedia without the GNU userland to fill it out in the early 90s, but perhaps the Hurd would be in a much better state today, and we'd all be either BSD or GNU Hurd users.

      2. oldcoder

        Re: Don't panic

        Unlikely - as only the owner will use it, and when that person dies... no users.

  14. W. Anderson

    Linux control to proprietary entities, particularly Microsoft

    For those that do not attend katest LinuxCon and do not "know" the intimate history of Jim Zemlin and the Linux Foundation, little by little, even in Zemlin's comments at most recent event he is trying to wrest Linux copyright authority from all the Linux and GNU copyright stakeholders to hand on a plate to top technology firms, particularly Microsoft.

    It has been reported on more than one occasion that several of largest proprietary companies "code contributors" to Linux want Linus Torvalds out of the way in regard control of kernel development, so that Linux foundation initially and then these commercial entities will ultimately gain ful control, especially as said before Microsoft that Zemlin basically worships.

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: Linux control to proprietary entities, particularly Microsoft

      Well we all know Microsoft's motivation: EEE.

    2. Fibbles

      Re: Linux control to proprietary entities, particularly Microsoft

      If there really was some immense conspiracy to remove Linus from the process why wouldn't they just fork the kernel? There's no reason anyone has to listen to Torvalds, they do so by choice.

    3. oldcoder

      Re: Linux control to proprietary entities, particularly Microsoft

      Even that won't work - Linux is GPLv2.

      And will always be GPLv2.

      The most they could do is fork Linux... And they don't even need to depose Linus.

      It would be quite hard to "wrest Linux copyright authority from all the Linux and GNU copyright stakeholders" - some are dead.

      You can't change the license without the permission - and you can't get it from them. Nor will you be able to get it from all the thousands of contributors.

    4. Anonymous Coward
  15. Tom 7

    corporate contributors now key to THEIR future

    They need to help Linux more than it needs to help them.

  16. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

    Corporate contributers

    That was an interesting list. Most I'd heard of, some I hadn't but the levels of contribution was more surprising than I expected, ie the various positions in the ranking order for the ones I'd heard of.

    And while I'm here, a minor El Reg rant. WhyTF publish articles on a Friday with comment by moderation only and then not have anyone to moderate them? "Submitted and awaiting moderation since 2 days"

  17. Christian Berger

    In a way it makes sense

    Most of the Linux kernel is drivers. It makes sense for hardware vendors to write their own drivers as they do have the full design specs.

    It would be more interesting how much they contribute to the non hardware related areas of the kernel. Commercial contribution is much more problematic there.

  18. Tim99 Silver badge
    Linux

    I'm surprised...

    ...that there is not a post about the potential evils of corporatism hijacking the direction of kernel development - Red Hat and the evils of systemd comes straight to mind. Please don't suggest that forking will solve this; because it won't. "Big Company" can put sufficient money into projects that most other developers will just go with the flow, then when you have a mess of binary blob crap that has so many interdependencies that only "Big Company" can support it everyone will wonder how it happened.

    "This is the UNIX philosophy: Write programs that do one thing and do it well. Write programs to work together. Write programs to handle text streams, because that is a universal interface." Quarter-Century of Unix (1994) - Peter H. Salus

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