From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: usotsuki@buric.co (Steve Nickolas) Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2017 21:25:12 -0500 (EST) Subject: [TUHS] Mach for i386 / Mt Xinu or other In-Reply-To: References: <20170221120218.E07BA18C10B@mercury.lcs.mit.edu> Message-ID: On Tue, 21 Feb 2017, Dan Cross wrote: > If I may, I think there was an additional thing at play: Linux was > essentially Unix. > > Linux "won" because people wanted low-cost or free (as in gratis) Unix with > source that could run on modest commodity hardware, and Unix wasn't > available at a price point that was reasonable for most individuals > (certainly not with source). The people working on successor systems > weren't trying to reinvent Unix: they were working on new systems that > weren't Unix, but that's not what people wanted: Unix was good enough and > people were familiar and comfortable with it and that's what they wanted. > So Linux comes along and it's basically a "simplest possible solution" > Unix, freely available, runs on a PC, comes with source, and wasn't mired > in a lawsuit brought by a major US company. It was the right thing in the > right place at the right time. > > I think there's a network effect that blinds a lot of folks to this > reality. Most of the folks on this list had access to Unix source and, with > no disrespect intended, it's easy to lose sight of what a big deal that > was. But unless you were in a position to already have access to it, it was > remarkably difficult to come by. Linux filled a gap that a lot of people > were looking to have filled. > > - Dan C. > I started screwing around with Linux in the late 90s, and it would be many years before any sort of real Unix (of the AT&T variety), in any form, was readily available to me - that being Solaris when Sun started offering it for free download. -uso.