Linus Torvalds: Linux succeeded thanks to selfishness and trust

Linux creator Linus Torvalds has won the Millennium Technology Prize and an accompanying cheque for 600,000 euros ($756,000; £486,000) from the Technology Academy of Finland.

He was nominated for the award in recognition of the fact he had created the original Linux operating system and has continued to decide what modifications should be made to the Linux kernel - the code that lets software and hardware work together.

Today a variety of Linux-based systems power much of the world's computer servers, set-top boxes, smartphones, tablets, network routers, PCs and supercomputers.

Ahead of the announcement Mr Torvalds gave a rare interview to the BBC.




http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18419231

Having used linux for years mainly ubuntu I'd say well done he deserves it.

56kevins wrote:Having used linux for years mainly ubuntu I'd say well done he deserves it.

only really got unix on my tivo, but as it stays up and running for years you have to say it is very stable.

Flap Meister wrote:

only really got unix on my tivo, but as it stays up and running for years you have to say it is very stable.

Tivo boxes have made abit of a comeback in the UK. They disappeared for years but now have made a comeback with virginmedia pushing them.
I keep meaning to have a go with mythubuntu but the set up looks that complicated it keeps scaring me off

56kevins wrote:

Tivo boxes have made abit of a comeback in the UK. They disappeared for years but now have made a comeback with virginmedia pushing them.
I keep meaning to have a go with mythubuntu but the set up looks that complicated it keeps scaring me off

For anyone more comfortable with 'Windows',then 'Linux Mint' is a more friendly seeming OS. They are all great, and FREE!!

wyatt1 wrote:



For anyone more comfortable with 'Windows',then 'Linux Mint' is a more friendly seeming OS. They are all great, and FREE!!

Yes mint is user friendly. It's based on ubuntu and last time I looked was the most popular linux distro. Pinguy and Zorin are two good distros as well imo.

56kevins wrote:

Yes mint is user friendly. It's based on ubuntu and last time I looked was the most popular linux distro. Pinguy and Zorin are two good distros as well imo.

Hey thanks, I have not tried Pinguy or Zorin, so I will be downloading them directly, (got 6 spare PC's ). Great fun messing around with OS's.

wyatt1 wrote:


Hey thanks, I have not tried Pinguy or Zorin, so I will be downloading them directly, (got 6 spare PC's ). Great fun messing around with OS's.

Best of luck. I used to be a bit of a distro hopper so I've tried most of them in my time. Bodhi Linux is another good one imo especially for a low specced old machine it uses the enlightenment desktop which is light on resources and it's a good looking system.

56kevins wrote:

Best of luck. I used to be a bit of a distro hopper so I've tried most of them in my time. Bodhi Linux is another good one imo especially for a low specced old machine it uses the enlightenment desktop which is light on resources and it's a good looking system.

Thanks mate, i will try that one as well.

This thread is well weird for a techno thicko like moi!!!

got unix on my tivo, (sounds like it could be painful) :shock:

I keep meaning to have a go with mythubuntu (and who is mythubuntu, has she got big wabs??)

Pinguy and Zorin are two good distros CBeebies??

distro hopper I used to have a space hopper when I was about 5 or 6 if that counts for anything

56kevins wrote:

Flap Meister wrote:

only really got unix on my tivo, but as it stays up and running for years you have to say it is very stable.

Tivo boxes have made abit of a comeback in the UK. They disappeared for years but now have made a comeback with virginmedia pushing them.
I keep meaning to have a go with mythubuntu but the set up looks that complicated it keeps scaring me off

I thought I had lost mine when I moved, but found it recently when I unpacked my books.
I then discovered that my lifetime licence was no longer any good as sky had sold it off, luckily there is a place online that still provides the TV data for download if you have a network card in it.
Of course I cannot really use the TV data here, but I do use the machine for a dedicated recorder of one of the english channels here.
I bought it must have been 10 years or so ago. I upgraded it to a 350GB HD and a network card and expanded memory and apart from the year when I thought it was lost it has been running almost continually. there have been a few reboots but it does run for years without the need.
It cost me about £200 when I bought it and I hooked it up to my sky box. and it would change the channels and do series records very nicely.
the only fault it has is having exact timings so if something runs over it cuts off. if you set the timer longer then if there is another program following it won't record it. not too much of a problem with the number of repeats the channels do.
I imagine the virgin one is pretty mush the same except for being able to do HD as well.
I still have about 100 hours left on mine recorded before I left the UK.
You should be able to do it with any unix system and a TV card, the only hard bit is getting the TV data

Flap Meister wrote:

I thought I had lost mine when I moved, but found it recently when I unpacked my books.
I then discovered that my lifetime licence was no longer any good as sky had sold it off, luckily there is a place online that still provides the TV data for download if you have a network card in it.
Of course I cannot really use the TV data here, but I do use the machine for a dedicated recorder of one of the english channels here.
I bought it must have been 10 years or so ago. I upgraded it to a 350GB HD and a network card and expanded memory and apart from the year when I thought it was lost it has been running almost continually. there have been a few reboots but it does run for years without the need.
It cost me about £200 when I bought it and I hooked it up to my sky box. and it would change the channels and do series records very nicely.
the only fault it has is having exact timings so if something runs over it cuts off. if you set the timer longer then if there is another program following it won't record it. not too much of a problem with the number of repeats the channels do.
I imagine the virgin one is pretty mush the same except for being able to do HD as well.
I still have about 100 hours left on mine recorded before I left the UK.
You should be able to do it with any unix system and a TV card, the only hard bit is getting the TV data

I remember seeing them about 15 or so years ago in Currys and I was tempted to buy one. Then they disappeared until quite recently until virgin media started pushing them.
I've got a linux box (ubuntu) with me tv and a dvb digital card installed with a ssd drive for the operating system and a 2tb second drive for recorded programs. I can schedule recordings and save them to the 2tb hard drive. It's a bit basic but everything works ok. There's some good media/tv software out there such as xmbc, windows media center and mythubuntu which are a bit more advanced. I'll probably have a go with either xmbcubuntu or mythubuntu when I get more time.

56kevins wrote:

Flap Meister wrote:

I thought I had lost mine when I moved, but found it recently when I unpacked my books.
I then discovered that my lifetime licence was no longer any good as sky had sold it off, luckily there is a place online that still provides the TV data for download if you have a network card in it.
Of course I cannot really use the TV data here, but I do use the machine for a dedicated recorder of one of the english channels here.
I bought it must have been 10 years or so ago. I upgraded it to a 350GB HD and a network card and expanded memory and apart from the year when I thought it was lost it has been running almost continually. there have been a few reboots but it does run for years without the need.
It cost me about £200 when I bought it and I hooked it up to my sky box. and it would change the channels and do series records very nicely.
the only fault it has is having exact timings so if something runs over it cuts off. if you set the timer longer then if there is another program following it won't record it. not too much of a problem with the number of repeats the channels do.
I imagine the virgin one is pretty mush the same except for being able to do HD as well.
I still have about 100 hours left on mine recorded before I left the UK.
You should be able to do it with any unix system and a TV card, the only hard bit is getting the TV data

I remember seeing them about 15 or so years ago in Currys and I was tempted to buy one. Then they disappeared until quite recently until virgin media started pushing them.
I've got a linux box (ubuntu) with me tv and a dvb digital card installed with a ssd drive for the operating system and a 2tb second drive for recorded programs. I can schedule recordings and save them to the 2tb hard drive. It's a bit basic but everything works ok. There's some good media/tv software out there such as xmbc, windows media center and mythubuntu which are a bit more advanced. I'll probably have a go with either xmbcubuntu or mythubuntu when I get more time.

I don;t know if this place would be any good for you but it is where you get the TV data for the series records etc

http://www.altepg.com/index.html

you can create a tivo disk from this page
http://www.altepg.com/altepgiso/index.php

Flap Meister wrote:you can create a tivo disk from this page
http://www.altepg.com/altepgiso/index.php

Thanks flap I'll check them out

56kevins wrote:

Flap Meister wrote:you can create a tivo disk from this page
http://www.altepg.com/altepgiso/index.php

Thanks flap I'll check them out

I am not sure if you would have had to have had a tivo account in the past to use it, but there does not seem much to lose.