4 ms·

So it is 10 years before GNU and 15 years before Linux... It is also in the era that Microsoft are convincing people that software should have copyright for the

by amoss 12y ago

So it is 10 years before GNU and 15 years before Linux... It is also in the era that Microsoft are convincing people that software should have copyright for the first time. Create the open source movement in a time when there is no dominant, entrenched, competitor. Try out a timeline where an OSS operating system arrives before its commercial competitors in the late 70s.

walterbell 12y ago
This would require motivated students with access to university computers. Would the universities own code created on their systems? OSS likely wouldn't be permitted for employees of most companies that could afford computers in the late 70s. Also need to find Chuck Peddle and tell him to either avoid Jack Tramiel or not to quit Commodore.
- vidarh 12y ago
  > Also need to find Chuck Peddle and tell him to either avoid Jack Tramiel or not to quit Commodore. My first thought was that that this was the perfect time for 8-10 year of a ton of 6502 based home computers coming out and dominating the home computer market. And I know 6502 assembler... And had a development environment more advanced than anything they had. And the knowledge of what would be popular. And when 1985 comes around, I have a version of AROS sitting on my laptop, that while still not a perfect reimplementation of AmigaOS at present, could still boot and run on Amiga hardware... And would leapfrog several years worth of OS development. And I'd have ten years to go through it and make changes to make it more amenable to e.g. memory protection. The big question at that point would be: Snap up Amiga before Commodore had the chance (assuming the timeline was not ridiculously altered at that time), or let them go ahead, but try to prevent Commodore's ridiculous face plant. But in the meantime, I'd have until 1980 to prepare an alternative to MS-DOS and prepare to try to get into IBM at the right time and try to undercut/prevent Microsoft from getting the deal...

by amoss 12y ago

walterbell 12y ago

This would require motivated students with access to university computers. Would the universities own code created on their systems? OSS likely wouldn't be permitted for employees of most companies that could afford computers in the late 70s. Also need to find Chuck Peddle and tell him to either avoid Jack Tramiel or not to quit Commodore.

vidarh 12y ago
> Also need to find Chuck Peddle and tell him to either avoid Jack Tramiel or not to quit Commodore. My first thought was that that this was the perfect time for 8-10 year of a ton of 6502 based home computers coming out and dominating the home computer market. And I know 6502 assembler... And had a development environment more advanced than anything they had. And the knowledge of what would be popular. And when 1985 comes around, I have a version of AROS sitting on my laptop, that while still not a perfect reimplementation of AmigaOS at present, could still boot and run on Amiga hardware... And would leapfrog several years worth of OS development. And I'd have ten years to go through it and make changes to make it more amenable to e.g. memory protection. The big question at that point would be: Snap up Amiga before Commodore had the chance (assuming the timeline was not ridiculously altered at that time), or let them go ahead, but try to prevent Commodore's ridiculous face plant. But in the meantime, I'd have until 1980 to prepare an alternative to MS-DOS and prepare to try to get into IBM at the right time and try to undercut/prevent Microsoft from getting the deal...