History of Linux

Written by Ragib Hasan


Continued from page 1

back

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

c. Confrontation & Development

Soon Linus faced some confrontation from none other than Andrew Tanenbaum,repparttar great teacher who wrote MINIX. In a post to Linus, Tanenbaum commented:

" I still maintainrepparttar 107878 point that designing a monolithic kernel in 1991 is a fundamental error. Be thankful you are not my student. You would not get a high grade for such a design :-)" (Andrew Tanenbaum to Linus Torvalds)

Linus later admitted that it wasrepparttar 107879 worst point of his development of Linux. Tanenbaum was certainlyrepparttar 107880 famous professor, and anything he said certainly mattered. But he was wrong with Linux, for Linus was one stubborn guy who won't admit defeat. Tanenbaum also remarked that : "Linux is obsolete".

Now wasrepparttar 107881 turn forrepparttar 107882 new Linux generation. Backed byrepparttar 107883 strong Linux community, Linus gave a reply to Tanenbaum which seems to be most fitting:

Your job is being a professor and researcher: That's one hell of a good excuse for some ofrepparttar 107884 brain-damages of minix. (Linus Torvalds to Andrew Tanenbaum)

And work went on. Soon more than a hundred people joinedrepparttar 107885 Linux camp. Then thousands. Then hundreds of thousands. This was no longer a hackers toy. Powered by a plethora of programs fromrepparttar 107886 GNU project, Linux was ready forrepparttar 107887 actual showdown. It was licensed under GNU General Public License, thus ensuring thatrepparttar 107888 source codes will be free for all to copy, study and to change. Students and computer programmers grabbed it.

Soon, commercial vendors moved in. Linux itself was, and is free. Whatrepparttar 107889 vendors did was to compile up various software and gather them in a distributable format, more likerepparttar 107890 other operating systems with which people were more familiar. Red Hat , Caldera, Debian, and some other companies gained substantial amount of response fromrepparttar 107891 users worldwide. Withrepparttar 107892 new Graphical User Interfaces (like X-windows, KDE)repparttar 107893 Linux distributions became very popular.

Meanwhile, there were amazing things happening with Linux. Engineers have tweaked Linux to run 3Com's handheld PalmPilot computer. Red Hat Software's version of Linux wonrepparttar 107894 1996 award for bestdesktop computer operating system from trade magazine InfoWorld. In April that year researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory used Linux to run 68 PCs as a single parallel processing machine to simulate atomic shock waves.The do-it-yourself supercomputer cost only $152,000, including labor (connectingrepparttar 107895 68 PCs with cables)-about one tenthrepparttar 107896 price of a comparable commercial machine. It reached a peak speed of 19 billion calculations per second, making itrepparttar 107897 315th most powerful supercomputer inrepparttar 107898 world. Three months later it still didn't have to be rebooted.

The best thing about Linux today isrepparttar 107899 fanatic following it commands. Whenever a new piece of hardware is out, Linux kernel is tweaked to take advantage of it. For example, within weeks afterrepparttar 107900 introduction of Intel Xeon® Microprocessor, Linux kernel was tweaked and was ready for it. It has also been adapted for use in Alpha, Mac, PowerPC, and even for palmtops, a feat which is hardly matched by any other operating system. And it continues its journey intorepparttar 107901 new millenium, withrepparttar 107902 same enthusiasm that started one fine day back in 1991. As for Linus, he remains a simple man. Unlike Bill Gates, he is not a billionaire. Having completed studies, he moved to USA and landed a job at Transmeta Corporation. Recently married, he isrepparttar 107903 proud father of a girl, Patricia Miranda Torvalds. But he remains asrepparttar 107904 world's most favorite and most famous programmer to this date. Revered by Computer communities worldwide, Linus is by farrepparttar 107905 most popular programmer on this planet. He deserves it.


Epilogue 2000 The year 2000 started asrepparttar 107906 beginning of a new century, and of course, a brand new millenium. Withrepparttar 107907 ever increasing popularity of Linux sky-rocketing to new heights, it was clear that Linux was to stay as an inevitable part of computing inrepparttar 107908 3rd Millenium. Andrepparttar 107909 father of Linux, Linus Torvalds also created headlines when his company Transmeta Corporation deliveredrepparttar 107910 ultimate result of their secret product,repparttar 107911 amazing Crusoe(TM) processor. Linus worked fromrepparttar 107912 beginning as a project member, andrepparttar 107913 resultant Crusoe processor is another testimony to his remarkable abilities as a dreamer. One thing is clear, The Future Belongs To Linux!

Acknowledgements


History is always boring, but history of Computing and that of Linux are very interesting. Much ofrepparttar 107914 source of this article has been taken fromrepparttar 107915 Internet. It was inspired byrepparttar 107916 questions asked by many would be Linux users at meetings and postings of Bangladesh Linux Users Group.Thanks to all. All materials taken from various sources belong to their respective authors. All trademarks belong torepparttar 107917 respective corporations and companies. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft corp.

The author fully reserverepparttar 107918 right torepparttar 107919 portions of this article written solely by himself, under Gnu GPL. However all are requested to distribute this article freely and vigorosly provided my name and email address is given clearly with this article. ( If this legal things bore you, don't blame me. Who knows, Microsoft lawyers might find a way to sue for their Logo or name... :) ).

For all mistakes and suggestions Contact me: Ragib Hasan, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

mail me at ragibhasan@yahoo.com

Ragib Hasan is a senior year Student of Computer Science and Engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. He is an ardent follower of the Linux movement for free and open operating system and the GNU free software project. His other interests include Computer Programming (He is an award winning programmer), writing and Science fiction. A member of IEEE and BDLUG, he hopes for a better tomorrow. He can be reached at ragibhasan@yahoo.com


How to Tame Your Mouse

Written by By Stephen Bucaro


Continued from page 1

A DOS mode mouse driver may be interfering withrepparttar Windows mouse driver. Ifrepparttar 107877 file autoexec.bat exists inrepparttar 107878 root directory ofrepparttar 107879 C drive, openrepparttar 107880 file in Windows Notepad and look for entries like Device=mouse.sys. Ifrepparttar 107881 file config.sys exists inrepparttar 107882 root directory ofrepparttar 107883 C drive, openrepparttar 107884 file in Windows Notepad and look for entries like c:dosmouse.com. To disablerepparttar 107885 statement typerepparttar 107886 letters REM (for remark) in front ofrepparttar 107887 line.

Ifrepparttar 107888 file System.ini exists inrepparttar 107889 folder c:windows folder, openrepparttar 107890 file in Windows Notepad and look inrepparttar 107891 [boot] section forrepparttar 107892 entry Mouse.drv= Ifrepparttar 107893 file win.ini exists inrepparttar 107894 folder c:windows folder, openrepparttar 107895 file in Windows Notepad and look for entries like load= and run=. If a line refers to a mouse driver, disablerepparttar 107896 statement by typing a semicolon (;) in front ofrepparttar 107897 line.

If you operating system is Windows 98/Me/2000, then you can userepparttar 107898 System Configuration utility andrepparttar 107899 System Information utility to studyrepparttar 107900 startup configuration of your computer. To openrepparttar 107901 System Configuration Utility, select Start | Run, and type c:windowssystemmsconfig. To openrepparttar 107902 System Information Utility select Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools and click on System Information.

Check The Display Driver

Sometimes a mouse will work erratically becauserepparttar 107903 display driver is not working properly. The first thing you can do is disablerepparttar 107904 graphics drivers hardware acceleration. Select Start | Settings | Control Panel, and openrepparttar 107905 Display utility. Inrepparttar 107906 Display Properties dialog box, selectrepparttar 107907 Settings tab and click onrepparttar 107908 Advanced... button.

Inrepparttar 107909 dialog box which appears, selectrepparttar 107910 Performance tab and moverepparttar 107911 hardware acceleration slider control to None. If this doesn't solverepparttar 107912 problem you might try updatingrepparttar 107913 display driver. After locating a proper driver, this is done inrepparttar 107914 same dialog box onrepparttar 107915 Adapter tab by clickingrepparttar 107916 Change button to openrepparttar 107917 Update Device Driver Wizard.

Try a New Mouse

Most problems withrepparttar 107918 mouse are caused by dirt or miscalibration. If cleaningrepparttar 107919 mouse doesn't solverepparttar 107920 problem,repparttar 107921 procedures described above may guide you torepparttar 107922 source ofrepparttar 107923 problem. However, a computer mouse is a cheaply manufactured mechanical device. As such they don't last long. If nothing else works, maybe its time to retire that old mouse. ---------------------------------------------------------- Resource Box: Copyright(C)2002 Bucaro TecHelp. To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web site and make money onrepparttar 107924 Web visit: http://bucarotechelp.com To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter Send a blank email to bucarotechelp-subscribe@topica.com

Stephen Bucaro is the webmaster at bucarotechelp.com


    <Back to Page 1
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use