Very interesting, Mike. The only thing I did with the PDP11 was get it to read the paper tape output from the scintillation counter, then do a curve fitting program that was previously all done by hand on a calculator. So I sort of knew computers and got a job in the NMR lab when they were doing FastFourierTransforms, and hoping to invent some imaging. But I had gotten physically strong lugging around heavy research journals at the various libraries around campus. So it was only natural that I move to the country and lug firewood instead when I burned out. You are right, some few sucked the money out of computing. But I forget who they are, now that Arduino programs over Linux. Mike Miller wrote: > 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. > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >