See also: last week's Linux History page.

This week in Linux history

David Miller released UltraPenguin 1.0, a version of Linux for UltraSparc processors.

Meanwhile, an obscure guy named Rob Malda was trying to get into the Linux T-Shirt business. He's since found better things to do.

Three years ago (July 16, 1998 LWN): The KDE/GNOME flamewars were at a peak. For those who have somehow managed to miss out, the debate revolved around KDE's use of Qt libraries, a Troll Tech product with a "less-than-free" license. Bruce Perens on Slashdot:

Because it is 100% Open Source, because it is technically quite good, and because of the wisdom of its development team, GNOME will become the standard GUI for Linux. A large portion of the free software community will simply not accept KDE because of the Qt license.

The screaming notwithstanding, KDE 1.0 was released that week. Meanwhile, three years later, the flamewars have dulled to the distant rumble of thunder.

These days ZDNet columns are mostly favorable to Linux / open source. This was less true back then. Here's a quote from a pro-MS column.

Lots of mail came from the Linux and the "put your source code up on the Web" camp. Many were the reasons why Linux or the Apache Web server or some variant was better than anything Microsoft could code together. But in the end my favorite came from a manager at a VVBC (very, very big company). He runs both systems and favors Linux, but he wisely notes that his VVBC "would never put their accounting system on an OS from somebody that they cannot sue--and get something." Microsoft wins at his shop not because it is better, but because it is good enough. So much for the free crowd.

"Who do you sue?" still comes up occasionally, but most critics seem to have gotten over that one.

The Debian 2.0 release was in its third beta, with only 39 release critical bugs left to be fixed. Transvirtual released Kaffe 1.0. And Netscape was proclaiming the success of the Mozilla project, with a Communicator 5.0 release expected by the end of the year. Of course, that one didn't turn out quite that way...

Two years ago (July 15, 1999 LWN): It was a relatively slow time in the Linux world. The development kernel was at 2.3.10. The allegedly stable kernel was 2.2.10, but the kernel hackers were working hard to be sure that a file corruption bug was truly stamped out before releasing 2.2.11.

The Debian project, meanwhile, pondered freezing the 2.2 "potato" version, with talk of a possible release in September (of 1999!). In fact the potato branch was not actually frozen until January 2000.

The annual DefCon hacker convention became a mainstream media focus, though in years past it was an obscure event ignored in more "professional" circles.. This Wired article perhaps provides an explanation for the event's obscurity, covering the friction between the hacker community and the mainstream media.

ABCNews.com's Michael Martinez presented a talk on the persistent rift between hackers and the press on Saturday. He provided a forum for hackers to confront a member of the tech media with questions like, "Since all these reporters want to learn to be hackers, why don't they just hire hackers to be reporters?"

A slightly different sort of endorsement for Linux was sent to LWN this week:

Once I explain what Linux is, I am certain you will understand why it is important for the Christian community of computer users to embrace it. More Internet sites use Linux on their servers than any other OS. Linux is revolutionizing the information technology (IT) universe just like the early Church changed the Roman Empire in the first century AD.

-- Darren Remington, Christian Computing.

One year ago (July 13, 2000 LWN): Oracle released the Linux-based "New Internet Computer" (NIC).

SSH 1.2.30 was released, with a new restrictive license. Fortunately the OpenSSH project provided open source software supporting this valuable protocol.

The current development kernel release was 2.4.0-test3. This was a large patch containing a great many architecture-specific updates. The current stable kernel release was still 2.2.16.

IceLinux announced its existence. Self-dubbed, "The Linux Gaming Platform of the future", this distribution was so new it was only in the planning stages. Now IceLinux's lead developer writes:

OK... Well, after a lot of spare time spent trying to keep up with the latest developments in the linux community and re-building IceLinux from sources more times than I'd like to admit, I've realised something; Building a user-friendly gaming system from scratch and sources is not something to be taken on without a lot of time and resources!

Now the plan is to start with an existing platform, Red Hat 7.1, and build from there.

Speaking of gaming -- LinuxDevices reviewed the Indrema entertainment system (IES). After reading this review many of the LWN staff wanted an IES of our very own. Alas, the IES was never finished and Indrema is no longer in business.

Section Editor: Rebecca Sobol.

LWN Linux Timelines
1998 In Review
1999 In Review
2000 In Review
2001 In Review

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