On Thu, 2006-11-16 at 10:31 -0500, Mike A. Harris wrote: > And yet, if all of a sudden magically for some reason - every single > electronic device across the entire spectrum from embedded systems to > desktop computers, laptops, routers, webservers, big iron systems and > other systems out there all immediately ceased to function by magical > means in the entire world - all on the same split second... > > I would speculate 99.9% of the world would be well aware of it, and not > simply because of mainstream media reporting on the issue. Rather, the > Internet would more or less cease to function, and all sorts of > businesses around the world would be totally screwed. > > So your implication that because 99.9% of the world's population is > unaware of Linux means that Linux has not changed the world is seriously > flawed. No, the implication just recognizes that Linux is just one variety of operating system and a subset of unix-like systems at that. > There's no question Linux has changed the world in a very major way, and > like I've claimed above, if Linux stopped working simultaneously > everywhere in the world all of a sudden, this fact would be > unquestionably clear to anyone who has any doubt. It is popular of course, but if it didn't exist it would not have left a void. The *bsd kernels could have been adapted to all the same things - and perhaps we would even be better off for it. It is impossible to say now what might have happened even if it had been a *bsd version that was the first user-friendly CD distribution instead of RedHat's. We might be far more advanced at this point if development had been focused on the more mature existing university code instead of being split by the introduction of Linux. -- Les Mikesell lesmikesell@xxxxxxxxx -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list