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I think you're over-romantascizing the past here. Linux dropped the cost of using UNIX down to zero. And it's not like everything was this cross-UNIX Utopia wh

I think you're over-romantascizing the past here. Linux dropped the cost of using UNIX down to zero. And it's not like everything was this cross-UNIX Utopia where things worked from system to system consistently and reliably. We went from a set of highly proprietary and expensive OSes that ran on hardware that a common person had no access to to something that nearly anyone can use. That's way more important than having to adjust your skill set for new tools over time!

rosser 8y ago
> Linux dropped the cost of using UNIX down to zero. "Linux is only free if your time has no value." I've been using it personally and professionally for over 20 years now. Unless you're specifically using the term "cost" to mean solely money, it is in no conceivable way without cost. There is, for example, a significant cognitive burden involved in keeping up with the ceaseless parade of travesties committed by people trying to "make things better" in Linux, who instead just compromise the system for those of us who disagree with their notions of betterness. I'm reminded entirely too much by some corners of the Linux community of Apple's "We know what users want, and give it to them good and hard" attitude.
jhayward 8y ago
> Linux dropped the cost of using UNIX down to zero. BSD had already done that, better, and earlier. Let's not try to rewrite history.
- hollerith 8y ago
  Not true. AT&T claimed that the free versions of BSD violated their copyright on Unix with the result that even though anyone could download and install BSD at no cost, you never knew whether a court ruling would make your continuing to use it legally risky (at least if you want to use it in an enterprise or keep it connected to the net). The legality of the free versions of BSD did not get resolved till there were many Linux users -- probably more Linux users than there were users of the free BSDs.

rosser 8y ago

> Linux dropped the cost of using UNIX down to zero. "Linux is only free if your time has no value." I've been using it personally and professionally for over 20 years now. Unless you're specifically using the term "cost" to mean solely money, it is in no conceivable way without cost. There is, for example, a significant cognitive burden involved in keeping up with the ceaseless parade of travesties committed by people trying to "make things better" in Linux, who instead just compromise the system for those of us who disagree with their notions of betterness. I'm reminded entirely too much by some corners of the Linux community of Apple's "We know what users want, and give it to them good and hard" attitude.

jhayward 8y ago

> Linux dropped the cost of using UNIX down to zero. BSD had already done that, better, and earlier. Let's not try to rewrite history.

hollerith 8y ago
Not true. AT&T claimed that the free versions of BSD violated their copyright on Unix with the result that even though anyone could download and install BSD at no cost, you never knew whether a court ruling would make your continuing to use it legally risky (at least if you want to use it in an enterprise or keep it connected to the net). The legality of the free versions of BSD did not get resolved till there were many Linux users -- probably more Linux users than there were users of the free BSDs.