Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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How would Linux have been today if locked bootloaders were as common in the 90s as they are now on ARM devices? (programming.dev)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Basically the title

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

competition in the x86 OS space back then

Oh yeah: there were a stuuuupid amount of OSes.

On the DOS side you had MS, IBM, and Digital Research.

You also had a bunch of commercial UNIXes: NextStep, Solaris, Xenix/SCO, etc. along with Linux and a variety of BSDs. There were also a ton of Sys4/5 implementations that were single-vendor specific so they could sell their hardware (which was x86 and not something more exotic) that have vanished to time because that business model only worked for a couple of years, if that.

There was of course two different Windows (NT, 9x), OS/2 which of course could also run (some) Windows apps, and a whole host of oddballs like QNX and BeOS and Plan9 or even CP/M86.

It was a lot less of a stodgy Linux-or-Windows monoculture, and I miss it.