THE so-called 'Linux' Foundation [1] -- with help from ZDNet [2] -- is once again perpetuating that insulting idea that everything started in 1991 when Linus Torvalds was a student in Finland. SJVN (ZDNet) hardly ever mentions GNU, except when he uses ZDNet to slander GNU and its founder. SJVN has long been in the revisionist camp of the Linux Foundation/Torvalds because that's where the money is (he also says "Open Source" -- never Free software -- as the big money is in extinguishing software freedom). But this isn't a rant about SJVN, whom we mentioned earlier. I choose to believe that SJVN is more like a victim of something, maybe even implicit blackmail associated with his salary giver. I already saw how his Microsoft-hostile stories get spiked/watered down after complaints from Microsoft, which owns his boss in the monetary sense. ZDNet is worse than a joke and it's sad that he ended up writing almost exclusively there (sometimes in IDG too, albeit very rarely).
"To me, personally, SJVN will always be a clever person who was misled and used, maybe even bamboozled or co-opted to the point of serving an agenda harmful to GNU/Linux (not that he's himself against GNU/Linux as I'm certain he isn't)."At risk of sounding rather opinionated and unreasonable, I think SJVN -- who already has his own personal site -- ought to return to editorial independence. Currently he does not have that, so he wound up becoming a megaphone for corporate takeovers of software, including the so-called 'Linux' Foundation and OIN/LOT (people who don't even use Linux).
To me, personally, SJVN will always be a clever person who was misled and used, maybe even bamboozled or co-opted to the point of serving an agenda harmful to GNU/Linux (not that he's himself against GNU/Linux as I'm certain he isn't).
The old media and the corrupted media (like publishers bribed by Bill Gates) is a growing problem, more so during COVID-19 lock-downs because it's hard to find a job and some people would write anything -- even lies (or things they know to be untrue) -- if it helps them get food.
While the so-called 'Linux' Foundation doubles the salary of its managers (to the point of operating at a loss) we're being led to believe that GNU and Stallman are objectionable and Bill Gates is saving the world. This sort of obscene spin is constantly being promoted in sites like ZDNet.
It's time to reverse this bogus narrative. For one thing, let's be clear what "Linux" actually means when people say it. ⬆
Related/contextual items from the news:
Over the last few decades, we’ve seen Linux steadily grow and become the most widely used operating system kernel. From sensors to supercomputers, we see it used in spacecraft, automobiles, smartphones, watches, and many more devices in our everyday lives. Since the Linux Foundation started publishing the Linux Kernel Development Reports in 2008, we’ve observed progress between points in time.
Since that original 1991 release, Linux has become one of the most successful collaborations in history, with over 20,000 contributors. Given the recent announcement of version 5.8 as one of the largest yet, there’s no sign of it slowing down, with the latest release showing a new record of over ten commits per hour.
While the Foundation has issued several Linux kernel history reports before, this one is unique. That's because, thanks to the work of Dr. Daniel German and his cregit tool, it's now possible to track all three of the kernels' different development stages: Pre-version control, September 1991 until February 4, 2002; BitKeeper, February 4, 2002 to April 15, 2005; and git, April 16, 2005 to today. Cregit enables developers and researchers to track who's responsible for significant source code changes.
If you're new to Linux, you may not know that version control was a hot-button issue in the 2000s. For over a decade, Linux had no version control system (VCS) at all. You'd post your patch to the mailing list, and if Torvalds accepted it he'd apply it to his own source tree and then post a new release of the whole tree.
There were VCSs available, such as Concurrent Versions System (CVS) and Subversion, but Torvalds didn't like any of them. Thanks to community pressure, however, Torvalds finally picked one: BitKeeper.