this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2024
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Linux

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] [email protected] 251 points 2 months ago (15 children)
[–] [email protected] 108 points 2 months ago

He was 22 years old. Pretty incredible.

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[–] [email protected] 222 points 2 months ago (7 children)

Just look at those nested parentheses. A true sign of (pedantic) greatness, when a person needs to clarify something in their earlier clarification.

[–] [email protected] 101 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I love it™ (The nested parentheses are one of the greatest tools known to mankind (And to all other creatures))

[–] [email protected] 91 points 2 months ago (1 children)

To paraphrase an old tweet: "parentheses - for when every thought comes with bonus sub-thoughts".

[–] [email protected] 40 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I always tell myself I am reading minds when I read inside parentheses

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I have been stopping myself from using those and instead restructure my sentence. But if people like it, guess I can start keeping it.

I do find it more useful, however, to have a kind of a reference to the thing written at the end instead [1], but markdown doesn't seem to have anything for that, and using the syntax for Markdown references, is only useful for hyperlinks, or if the reader is willing to read the hover text 2.

[1]: Like This. I would love it if the markdown viewer would link the above [1] to this line. Maybe with a scrolldown effect.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (6 children)

Lemmy's markdown does actually have footnotes!^[they work like this: ^[text here]]

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I've had a teacher in elementary school scream at me for doing so. (Nesting parentheses is forbidden. [You are supposed to use brackets.])

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago

It's wild seeing square brackets for something other than array indexing.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I had a teacher that screamed at me for “taking the lords name in vain…” They’re definitely wrong from time-to-time ;-)

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (7 children)

Some of those parens could've been replaced with commas and retain their meaning (that's what I do to avoid nesting, so that it doesn't get confusing).

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[–] [email protected] 182 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Funny how he made it basically for his desktop computer.

33 years later, and Linux is dominating in every part of the OS world except ... the desktop.

(I'm paraphrasing his quote -- he said something like this years ago, can't find it, though.)

(Edit: to be more fair with quotes, it might be the case that I "hallucinated" the quote. he might not have said that, or he might have just said part of it and other part would be someone else's comment. This cio.com article is probably a better source on his position )

[–] [email protected] 41 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (8 children)

I would argue that it does dominate the desktop now as well, just not by usage numbers.

If I was told I had to use a windows desktop these days at home I think I'd start investing in a very large book collection.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You have to use a Windows desktop at home.

Sincerely,

Barnes & Noble

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You might be thinking of this:

https://youtu.be/ZPUk1yNVeEI?feature=shared

Where he mentioned that the desktop is unique in that it has to support thousands of different devices for all kinds of people, and that most people don't really care what their computer is running as long as it works.

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[–] [email protected] 139 points 2 months ago (2 children)

“Just a hobby, won’t be big” - he really didn’t think it will be one of the most sought after projects.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 months ago

Or wanted to appear non-threatening

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[–] [email protected] 113 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

I for one really appreciate the effort of supporting non-AT drives despite the initial skepticism.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 months ago

I'm glad someone was able to donate a non-AT drive because Linus could not afford it :-(

[–] [email protected] 101 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

...probably never will support anything other than AT-harddisks,as that's all I have. :-(.

Cuteness.

As in hilarity.

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[–] [email protected] 76 points 2 months ago (2 children)

(just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu)

Aged like fine milk. Looking at you, GNU Hurd.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

not really, gnu is still a big professional project

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There’s no guessing what will catch the world by storm. At a party once, Bram Cohen tried to get me interested in his ideas for a a peer-to-peer protocol, and I thought nothing of it.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

My cousin's buddies asked him to build the website for their new ride hailing app but he didn't feel like doing some rinky dink thing, apparently Travis and them took it in stride though.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 2 months ago

Yeah, I was looking at it today actually.

Happy Birthday, Linux.

[–] [email protected] 53 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago (3 children)

We should make a donation campaign, pretty sure somebody has a spare SATA drive around. This minix clone sounds good

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago

Poor Linus :c

[–] [email protected] 41 points 2 months ago

Ehh, it'll never take off.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 months ago (2 children)

This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It was about as prescient as "640k is enough for everybody", but in a good way.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 months ago

That post changed my life, gave me a great hobby, which became a career, and still puts food on the table for me and my family to this day. Thank you, Linus.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 months ago

Truly humble beginnings.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 months ago (14 children)

GNU is older than Linux? Neat.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This somehow makes me feel both old and young at the same time.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Has he come up with a name yet ?

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It's a minix clone, so... mimix?

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago

Ahh man only ata?

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