So many things wrong ...

Story: Free Software in Reality Isn’t FreeTotal Replies: 4
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Harat

Jan 18, 2005
9:17 AM EDT
> But since its inception in 1991, things have hardly changed in the corporate scenario.

In 1991 it was a fun hobby for a guy named Linus.

> Linux was initially designed to run on the Intel 32-bit platform.

No it wasn't.

> guarantee no support, no proper functioning of the software as well as hardware, no regular fixes, patches and upgrades ...

Well, if you download it for free and don't want to pay for support it is only supported by the community. As far as fixes, patches and upgrades ... thats all free and can be downloaded from the vendor. Red Hat has a yum update agent, Debian has apt, etc...
sbergman27

Jan 18, 2005
10:04 AM EDT
>> Linux was initially designed to run on the Intel 32-bit platform.

>No it wasn't.

I thought Linus started the project for 3 reasons:

1. He wanted a POSIX compatible OS for his 80386. 2. Minix was not capable enough. 3. He wanted to learn more about the i386 architecture.

-Steve
peragrin

Jan 18, 2005
10:57 AM EDT
As far as I know the orginial Linux binaries were designed only for 386 chips. Linus even made mention of that fact since that is all he had. I believe but have no facts to back up that the Linux Kernel 2.0 was the rewrite that allowed other arch's.

Also note that though it's a job and not a hobby Linus still has fun.
PaulFerris

Jan 18, 2005
11:01 AM EDT
peragrin, You are indeed right. It wasn't until Digital decided to loan chips that it got a second platform, and it morphed from there. As for the job and not a hobby, there were a lot of people that contributed code as part of their hobby, and it's still that way.

But man, what a serious hobby :)

--FeriCyde
peragrin

Jan 18, 2005
2:04 PM EDT
>> But man, what a serious hobby :)

The best always are.

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