Forum Discussion

gaines_wright's avatar
gaines_wright
Tutor
7 years ago

Linux

  Is anybody out there running Linux?     I get the feeling that most of the people around here are WIMPs ( windows icon mouse pushers ). I used to be a ClUB ( command line user bigot ), but now I'...
maratsade's avatar
maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

I run Linux on one of my laptops. I have Mint and love it.  

gaines_wright's avatar
gaines_wright
Tutor
7 years ago
maratsade wrote:

I run Linux on one of my laptops. I have Mint and love it.  

 

Linux will conquer the world!  :<)>

      Hey that's an idea.   I'll end every post here with those words.  Sort of like Appius Claudius who ended all his speeches with :"and I think Carthage should be destroyed".

  • debbie.jean.bro's avatar
    debbie.jean.bro
    Advanced Tutor
    7 years ago
    Well, Carthage eventually was destroyed, so Claudius' tactic worked, ha! Who was it who, much much later said, "The HRE is neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire."? Maybe another tag line could be, "MS OS is neither operating nor a system!" 😜
    • MarkJFine's avatar
      MarkJFine
      Professor
      7 years ago

      It's one of those 'zen'-type questions:

      If an operating environment absorbs the operating system, does that make it an operating system?

       

      Microsoft DOS was a real operating system (stolen from DEC VAX, if I'm not mistaken - yeah, I'm old). Eventually Windows absorbed it. It's still there, just hidden.

      • gaines_wright's avatar
        gaines_wright
        Tutor
        7 years ago
        @@@MarkJFine wrote:
        Microsoft DOS was a real operating system (stolen from DEC VAX, if I'm not mistaken - yeah, I'm old). Eventually Windows absorbed it. It's still there, just hidden.

             Actually I think MS bought DOS  The story I heard, was that when IBM was looking for an OS for the IBM PC. they came to MS ( at the time their only product was BASIC ), and Gates sent them to see another guy who wasn't home, and whose wife balked at signing all the stuff IBM wanted her to sign

         

          So they went back to Gates, who got on the phone and bought what would become DOS for ten thousand dollars, and as they say "the rest is history".  Oh, to have bought MS stock in those days!

          

         BTW. I'm also old (71) and have used DEC machines  PDP-11-73s, Vaxs, and Alphas, running RSX and VMS. 

         

         The VMS  command to change directories was: "set def".  Not very DOS like,  I soon wrote a macro so I could use "cd" instead

         

        You are right in some ways though. Apple stole ( reverse engineered ) their GUI from Xerox Palo Alto and  MS stole it  from Apple for Windoze.  The stupidity of Xerox is this case was incredible.  Their thinking was:  "We don't do software.  We're a document company "..

         

        "A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits."   Lazarus Long