I was using the PDP-11 at WPI in 1976, but that was a very challenging system compared to what came a few years later. There were no monitors, just teletypes. It was very painful to write program on that thing! As a scientist, I see no substitute for Linux. OS X just isn't going to cut it for me, but on a laptop computer or desktop machine, maybe OS X has potential. I'm not going to find out because Linux is working for me everywhere. I do keep one Windows box for the odd program that won't run on Linux. The Free Software model seems also to be working great in the sciences and I think it is performing very well for operating systems, too. The big problem with it is that programmers have to make a living somehow, but writing a great program with no bugs that just works with minimal documentation doesn't seem to pay back much if it can't be sold, not even if 100 million people are using it. Fame is nice, but it won't put your kids through college, buy you a house or pay for dinner. That said, Linux is a great OS for programmers and for programming cooperatively in groups to produce some really nice software. It is wonderful for spare-time contributors, or people who just want to make something better for their own use. I have been amazed and very impressed by what I have been able to get for free. That massive free-software code base creates opportunities for developers -- they don't have to start from nothing because a lot of what they want is freely available to them, at least if they are willing to stick with GPL. What will the future bring? It seems like nearly everyone believes that the next phase will be about smaller devices and ubiquitous computing, and that is where most development is occuring today -- tablets, smart phones, wireless (WiFi, G4, etc) connectivity. The big corporations behind all of this want a lot of interaction with "the cloud," which means that they will be storing a *lot* of information about you -- your physical location, identities of your contacts, what you like, which web pages you go to, where you eat dinner, etc. Google is even collecting your DNA (23andMe), if you'll let them! I would like for people to use their own Linux server as their personal "cloud", allowing for backup and other kinds of information transfer while limiting sharing of info with corporations. I guess the corporations don't want that because they've done away with the old kind of "syncing" with the home computer. The NSA revelations should help Linux. Mike On Mon, 25 Nov 2013, Rick Engebretson wrote: > 1980 was a scary time. Nobody knew how to get our economy going. We had > some (Altair) microcomputer stuff in Otto Schmitt's lab, but I never got > access because the VietNam vets hogged it. My chem lab had a PDP11, > pre-Unix, hooked to a teletype, and computer automation was a big push. > I don't think I was important starting the internet, but I never knew > anybody else pushing it earlier, and I still don't believe it. I believe > it was like crowd-funding, everybody just pushed their weight and we all > made something move. > > So here we are again, a country in debt, uncertain future. And now > everything runs on computers. Iran is still in the news. The > environment, too. > > And now we have a truly amazing open source Linux, on all kinds of > hardware. I sincerely believe we will need better computer skills if we > hope to compete. Cars, power plants, factories, all industries will need > computer (Linux) skills. > > TCLUG should be where leaders grow.