Many paths, nothing definitive....

In the past forty years there have been numerous operating systems for computers of all sizes. The first commercially successful operating system was UNIX and it only ran on "big iron" mainframes in the '60's. At the time there were no copyrights on software so it was shared by many and modified as well since the code was not hidden. Then in the late '70's a company called Microsoft came along and started raging about copyright infringement and that people were stealing programs.

True, they may have been sharing amongst friends, but it wasn't likely that it was enough to cause any company to lose much money at the time. Of course, there was Apple Computer with their own personal computer and operating system which many people know and fell in love with. Then in the 1980's, Windows came along.

It was a copy of other software which had been developed by Xerox and Apple, an operating system which allowed you to see the programs graphically on the screen. Up until then everything had been done by command line, something unheard of today by most computer users.

Some of you may be wondering, "Where is this going? It is just a blog entry about the history of computers.". THAT IS IT EXACTLY!!! There are many people out there using these contraptions and they have no idea when or where they came from or why. I also know that many don't care one way or another, but I do! Our history, and yes computers have been around long enough to be counted as artifacts of history, has shown that if people never learn about something it will just be tossed out like the trash eventually.

Now, where was I? Oh yes, the 80's, the decade of greed. Everyone seemed to be out to make as much money no matter who they stepped on or over to do it and some are still doing that. Before I get too preachy, the development of operating systems during the 80's did improve but not much. Not until the MacIntosh came along did people talk about computers with any feeling. Between 1981, when the IBM PC (for Personal Computer) came out and 1991 when Linus Torvalds created Linux there was much ado about little or nothing, with the exception of Apple Computers. They were busy showing people how easy it was to use a graphical interface in business, the arts, and education.

IBM's personal computers during that time were used by businesses and some schools and by some people who wanted to try this new "thing" out. The PC's popularity grew because of the existence of "clones". Many different companies were allowed to produce computers which were "clones" of the IBM and were listed as IBM-compatible. Radio Shack (not now), Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, Packard-Bell, Dell, Gateway, etc. all still make these "clones" of the IBM personal computer. The one I am using right now, I built myself but it is a home-built clone.

The hardware was and is getting better and faster all the time. The operating systems are not keeping up with it though. Most OS's have too much "bloat" to be as responsive as the system they run on. Linux, no matter what distribution you use, is usually faster and more streamlined than others. I have heard and read many posts on forums about it having too much code in the kernel, but compared to some, it is rather svelte. If my memory is correct, I think I remember something about Microsoft XP and Vista both having something around forty seven to fifty million lines of code in their core kernel. The number of lines in the Linux kernel has been reported as between nine and ten million. That is still a large number but only one fourth or one fifth as much as Microsoft's offerings.

It is no wonder that Linux can run on virtually any machine from cell phones to mainframes, especially since the code can be customized for the target by the vendor as long as the revision is released back to the community. I think Microsoft should do this and just make their money on subscriptions so people can update their systems as long as they need or want to. What do you think? Be creative.