Word: linux
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...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...
...Linux was born when Torvalds bought his first PC and decided he didn't like the operating system that came with it (Microsoft's DOS) as much as the one that controlled the university's minicomputers (Unix). Since there wasn't a version of Unix that ran on the PC, he set out to write his own. The next few months are a blur. "Forget about dating! Forget about hobbies! Forget about life!" he says, remembering that heady time. "We are talking about a guy who sat, ate and slept in front of the computer...
Then he did something really unusual in the make-a-quick-billion computer industry. He made Linux available for free on the Internet. More important, he released his source code, the instruction set used to create the software, so that fellow programmers could hack, hone and redistribute Linux at will. In doing so he was following a freeware tradition that goes back to the earliest days of computing...
...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...