2019 - Fifty years of Unix and Linux advances
Channel: FOSDEM
Date: 2019-03-05

by Jon 'maddog' Hall

At: FOSDEM 2019
https://video.fosdem.org/2019/Janson/keynote_fifty_years_unix.webm


2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Unix, but it is also the fiftieth anniversary of the ArpaNet/Internet, and people walking on the moon.  It marks the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, the beginning of America's LGBTQ movement at the Stonewall Inn in New York City, and maddog wrote his first program fifty years ago.  It was also in 1969 that he shaved for the last time. 

2019 marks the 30th year of the World Wide Web, the 25th anniversary of V1.0 of the Linux kernel, and of many GNU/Linux distributions starting.  2019 also marks the twentieth anniversary of the Linux Professional Institute. 

All of these years, and anniversaries.....but why has Unix (and its younger offspring Linux) lasted so long?   What was different about Unix that caused it to survive and flourish?   Why is it important today, and how can we take it further?  How should we celebrate 2019?  While maddog does not have all the answers, he tries to make the answers he does have interesting and fun to know. 

Room: Janson
Scheduled start: 2019-02-03 17:00:00+01