See also: last week's Linux History page.

This week in Linux history

Red Hat also (in this message from "bob@redhat.com") announced its fancy new web site, that was even "SEARCHABLE!".

Five years ago: Ulrich Drepper released the first, experimental version of glibc 2.0. Thus began a long and sometimes painful (but worthwhile) transition.

Four years ago (January 29, 1998 LWN): In a brief note to comp.os.linux.announce, an ambitious, if not too smart, little company called Eklektix announced an online publication called the Linux Weekly News. The first issue hit the web on January 22, 1998, though we got a bit more serious with the January 29 issue.

Netscape announced that it would release the source for Communicator 5.0. At this distance, it can be hard to remember the impact that announcement had; at the time, it was a huge thing. It was the event that made a lot of people aware of free software. The pace of events picked up thereafter. This was the beginning of the Mozilla project, which has resulted in several nice browsers for Linux.

The Debian 2.0 release roadmap was posted, along with a set of 2.0 release requirements.

Three years ago (January 28, 1999 LWN): The long-awaited 2.2.0 kernel release hit the net on January 25. No formal announcement was made, other than this rather terse note on the kernel.org site. Linus did announce that 2.3.x was not going to happen anytime soon, and that it was not time to start sending in patches. One patch had to go in quickly, however, once Dan Burcaw pointed out an easy way for any user to crash a 2.2.0 system.

Linus also said that 32-bit Linux systems would never support 4GB of memory. Of course, 2.4.0 did exactly that... Perhaps his crystal ball isn't so infallible after all.

Both HP and SGI announced plans to support Linux on their hardware. Back in 1999, this sort of thing was still a big deal.

Somebody broke into ftp.win.tue.nl and replaced the source for the TCP wrappers package with a new version that contained a back door. The problem was found within hours, and, apparently, no sites were compromised as a result of this change. This episode pointed out a real vulnerability in free software, however, and helped motivate the use of signatures on source packages. It is probable, however, that few users check signatures even now, and a repeat of this sort of attack is almost certain at some point.

What happens when Windows programmers start to switch to Linux?

Barring a sudden, unforeseen bursting of the Linux bubble, we're about to see the nontechnical aspects of programming take center stage like never before, not even when the rise of the IBM PC brought mainframe programmers to the desktop, or even when the Y2K fiasco made legions of programmers learn (or relearn) Cobol. From the standpoint of individual programmers, this will look like yet fiasco made legions of programmers learn (or relearn) Cobol. From the standpoint of individual programmers, this will look like yet another standards/mindset war, with coders once again serving as both foot soldiers and the short term prize. The difference is that this time there will be a distinct cultural aspect to the war, and if we're lucky, the outcome could be a significantly more competitive industry.
-- Lou Grinzo, Dr. Dobb's Journal.

Two years ago (January 27, 2000 LWN): Caldera, Red Hat, and Turbolinux all announced that they would ship IBM's Java implementation with their distributions, leaving Sun out in the cold. Sun, instead, announced the availability of "free Solaris 8," complete with source code.

In a move aimed at Linux, Sun said it will announce Wednesday that it is making the source code for its new Solaris 8 operating system "open." Webster's has lots of definitions for the word, including "not sealed, fastened, or locked." But when you dig into the details of Sun's announcement, you'll find that what it is offering doesn't come close to meeting the dictionary's definition, let alone that of the open-source movement.
-- Lawrence Aragon, Red Herring.

SGI, meanwhile, released its OpenGL implementation under an open source license.

DeCSS hacker Jon Johansen was detained for questioning regarding his role in the cracking of the DVD encryption system. The persecution of young Johansen continues. Last week the Norwegian government, under pressure from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), indicted Jon for crimes including contributory copyright infringement.

Lineo shipped the 1.0 version of its Embedix embedded Linux distribution. The Debian project ran into a little snag when, halfway through the nomination period, nobody had stepped forward saying they wanted to be the next project leader. Corel was claiming rave reviews for its Debian-based distribution.

The Journal of Linux Technology was announced by VA Linux Systems and O'Reilly & Associates. Only two issues were ever published. It was a nice idea though.

One year ago (January 25, 2001 LWN): Gartner Group analyst George Weiss was interviewed in vnunet.com about IBM's intentions toward Linux.

Weiss said he could see a day when "80 per cent of the revenues, indirect or direct, attributed to Linux will go into IBM coffers unless companies like HP, Red Hat and VA Linux smarten up their act. IBM will have a stranglehold on the community."

So far, at least, IBM has avoided the stranglehold.

Linus Torvalds expressed his opinion of device-to-device copy capability in the Linux kernel.

device-to-device copies sound like the ultimate thing.

They suck. They add a lot of complexity and do not work in general. And, if your "normal" usage pattern really is to just move the data without even looking at it, then you have to ask yourself whether you're doing something worthwhile in the first place.

Linus saw a trend toward connecting hardware with direct, point-to-point links that would not be amenable to direct operations between devices. Quoth Linus: "Just wait. My crystal ball is infallible."

SuSE Linux 7.1 for SPARC was released as a beta. The announcement came with a list of known bugs. The Slackware Linux Project announced the release of a current branch for Alpha processors. The SuSE Linux Groupware Server combined the Domino Messaging and Web Application Server with SuSE Linux.

The Open Source Development Lab opened its doors.

Backed by the support of 19 sponsor companies and more than $24 million in funding, the Open Source Development Lab is an 11,000-square-foot computing center located in Beaverton, Oregon, a high-tech district west of Portland.
-- Wired News.

Section Editor: Rebecca Sobol.

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

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