Word: linux
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Surveys in recent years have shown that corporate computer attacks are commonplace, and that the victims typically bury them rather than acknowledge security breaches. As much as anything else, the incident highlights the ongoing problems with Windows NT security, and the advantages of using more secure operating systems -- Linux, for one. One might be tempted to use Bill Gates's deposition rhetoric about Java against him: That the problem with the virus and Windows NT is evidence of sloppy programming on the part of Microsoft...
...workers -- may have a greater chance of realizing concrete gains, one could also argue that the suit has had a galvanizing affect on the industry as a whole: Witness the dramatic AOL-Netscape deal, and the renewed interest in wacky, alternative computing strategies, such as the free operating system Linux and the so-called networked computer. However long the trial may drag on, in just nine weeks it has already changed the face of history...
...idea is that the best way to build and market truly great software is to give it away and then enlist the collective talent of the thousands of programmers on the Net who will use it, debug it and ultimately improve and extend it. Case in point? Linux, a hugely popular version of the Unix operating system that is even overtaking Unix in some markets...
...also became the beneficiary of that tradition, since thousands of freeware programs originally written to run on Unix also run on Linux. A CD-ROM loaded with Linux and a library of software can be purchased for $49 from Red Hat Software in Durham, N.C., or downloaded for free on the Net www.linuxresources.com) There is even a Windows-type front end that makes Linux a little easier for ordinary mortals to use. Today the number of machines running Linux is estimated at 7 million...
Meanwhile, juggling his job at Transmeta and his ongoing obligations to Linux--which he continues to manage as it changes and grows--leaves him little free time. If he is not sitting in front of computers, he is talking about them--to the press, industry conference attendees or like-minded souls on the Net. When pressured, Torvalds concedes that Linux is unlikely to dethrone Microsoft Windows, at least in the short term. Technical merits aside, it is still largely a programmers' tool; it doesn't offer a lot of programs for the office or home, and it isn't backed...