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> Linus's biggest contribution to the world was the modern open source development methodology. OpenBSD made a pretty big contribution as well. http://www.op

• mikekchar 10y ago
  It's a fair point. I often wonder what would have happened without the potential BSD lawsuits hanging over everything. I remember at the time being torn between installing Linux on my box or BSD. When mmap was finally implemented on Linux, I decided (rather unhappily IIRC) to go with it thinking it was the "safer" choice. One thing to keep in mind, though, wrt OpenBSD is that by the time it arrived on the scene, Linux was well and truly established. The better comparison is NetBSD, which showed up in 1993, but even then Linux was in the fabled 0.99 version (and rapidly running out of letters). It was really Linus's actions before that time that cemented Linux as a legitimate contender -- he had attracted a really large number of very talented programmers. NetBSD, if memory serves, was suffering from a fair amount of internal infighting which eventually ended up with Theo de Raadt being ousted.