11 Jun
2009
11 Jun
'09
4:06 p.m.
On Jun 11, 2009, at 3:15 PM, "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com>
wrote:
On Thu, 11 Jun 2009, John Floren wrote:
Wow, there's one OS I always wanted to try just for the hell of it,
but never got around to... Does it have anything to recommend it?
Anyone on the list use it?
- josh
Linux filled a hole. To my knowledge, there
wasn't really any free
Unix-like available when Linux was first released, so everybody
jumped
on the bandwagon. When the *BSDs came along, Linux wasn't that
entrenched yet. By the time Plan 9 was released with a free license
(around 2000), the dust had settled--Linux was on top, with the BSDs
coming along behind. If we had released for free in the early 90s,
maybe everyone would be using Plan 9 (and it would be as warty and
ugly as Linux).
Work started on 386BSD prior to the initial release of Linux,
however, Linux
was more accessible. I'm not sure when HURD was actually started,
but it
went for *YEARS* with nothing to show for it.
Zane