Author Archive

Who created Linux? Sure, Linus
Torvalds has been there from
the start, hacking the kernel
and nurturing its growth. And
for the most part, Linux has been built by developers just like him — individual contributors writing software for their own, individual reasons. But today companies, as well as individual developers, are looking for ways to contribute to Linux. Big companies. Firms like IBM, SGI, and Intel all want to bring their big company technology and big company resources to the Linux community.

April 1, 1999, April Fool’s Day.
It was supposed to be a celebration of the one year anniversary of Netscape releasing their browser
code as Open Source. Code maestro and Mozilla project leader Jamie Zawinski again
rented the Sound Factory in San Francisco for a party. Strobe lights flashed as
projectors spewed scrolling Mozilla source code across the walls. Mozilla CD
ROM’s mixed with pumping music. But amid the festive atmosphere Jamie Zawinski
played a cruel joke on us. At least we hoped it was a joke. We hoped with our
hearts that it couldn’t be true.

I’m 36 years old, and it seems that makes me an elder in the computer business
these days. The employees at my own company, VA Research, are on the average at least five years
younger than me. I first noticed the age difference when employees whose first computer was a 486
started showing up. They’d nod politely and smile with a humoring look as I described how to load a
program from punched cards on a General Automation 1830 by entering the jump op-code for the card
reader subroutine using toggle switches. I tend to tell people around the office I’m “in my late
twenties” lest they think it’s time to put me out to pasture.