Posted on 05/17/2004 6:51:16 AM PDT by N3WBI3
Torvalds claim to "invent" Linux probably false, says new study
Fri May 14, 5:49 PM ET
Washington, DC (FeatureXpress) May 14, 2004 - Popular but controversial "open source" computer software, often contributed on a volunteer basis, is often taken or adapted without permission from material owned by other companies and individuals, a study by the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution finds. Among other points, the study directly challenges Linus Torvalds (news - web sites)' claim to be the inventor of Linux (news - web sites). In one of the few extensive studies on the source of open source code, Kenneth Brown, president of AdTI, traces the free software movement over three decades -- from its romantic but questionable beginnings, through its evolution to a commercial effort that draws on unpaid contributions from thousands of programmers. Brown's account is based on extensive interviews with more than two dozen leading technologists including Richard Stallman, Dennis Ritchie, and Andrew Tanenbaum.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Money changed hands. Both MS and ADTI admitted it. Now we know that Bill Gates is also a private contributor. So henceforth, pro-MS "studies" coming from ADTI will be considered "works for hire" and given the credibility they deserve. As in nil.
How many years has MS been doing this BS? It isn't working any more. Linux installations are up. Windows sales are flat. You'd better phone your buddy Steve and tell him to save his money for the next SCO bailout.
AT&T apparently "stole" and "pirated" it from those communists at MIT who were working on Multics, just like Excel was stolen and pirated from Visicalc which also came from the greater communistic MIT community.
BTW, my buddy at work posed a funny question I think I'll pass on cause I'm still laughing. What's the only completely original piece of software MS ever produced?
I had to look it up, too. I kind of like it! :)
Elmer is its first name.
"Over time, hope was replaced by frustration as the group effort initially failed to produce an economically useful system. Bell Labs withdrew from the effort in 1969 but a small band of users at Bell Labs Computing Science Research Center in Murray Hill -- Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Doug McIlroy, and J. F. Ossanna -- continued to seek the Holy Grail." -- Lucent web page
"... the problem was the increasing obviousness of the failure of Multics to deliver promptly any sort of usable system, let alone the panacea envisioned earlier." -- Dennis Ritchie, "The Evolution of the Unix Time-sharing System"
Oh B.S. MS funds these folks. That in and of itself is sufficient to put the entire enterprise under suspicion and they must prove that they are NOT a Microsoft front. It's like saying "Oh, we found a Sarin gas shell in Iraq, but that's not enough proof of WMD... I must have proof of huge stockpiles" and of course, if stockpiles are found then a new hurdle will be invented. It's called "building a straw man." You asked for evidence, you were given evidence. You now say evidence isn't sufficient unless new stipulations are met. Go on with your bad self.
I'm not shilling for MS, but I think you owe it to the forum to be honest in your titling of posts.
suspicious, very suspicious. I think you owe it to the forum to lay out your entire employment history, your 401K and all of your investments to prove that you don't have a vested interst in defending the Redomnd Behemoth.
(That's sarcasm - I'm not really asking you to reveal anything, just making a point about your posturing)
I'd suggest that anyone who was even partly trained at MIT from that time on is tainted with the "theft" of IP that they carried away from the rest of the communists there.
It was purposefully based on an already existing peice of software, down to the exact command syntax. It almost even has the same name, also on purpose.
Go ahead and argue till you turn blue, but without Unix, Linux would have never existed. And without IBM taking huge chunks of Unix and porting them to Linux, it wouldn't even be a topic on this board.
Other modern day operating systems have been based on prior products, but none so much as Linux is based on Unix. And no amount of crying is going to change that.
Unless you live in the Stone Age as a hermit there aren't many independent pieces of work.
Bell Labs, credits Multrix, for early work on a time sharing OS. Unix however ain't Multrix, Unix actually works.
The BSOD?
Pushing the Start Button to turn off your computer?
640k memory limit?
The 10 MB Registry?
Basic?
Yeah but only the linux fanatics throw a hissy whenever anyone questions anything about their little baby. They feverishly claim that you lie, or are ignorant, or both.
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=20300852
A large MW university had a time-sharing system that used to be called Multics I think. Sounds like Multrix. I'll have to look up the history.
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