Compiled by Larry Cafiero
Marcus Nestor of 9 to 5 Linux, among a plethora of other publications, wished Linux a happy 35th birthday on Tuesday.
“Today is August 25th, which marks 35 years since Linux was first announced,” the article states. “Grab a glass of your favorite beverage and join me in celebrating the 35th birthday of Linux!”
We’ll let Marcus drive here. “It was on August 25th, 1991, that the 21-year-old Finnish student Linus Benedict Torvalds made his now-famous announcement on the comp.os.minix newsgroup that he was working on a free operating system for 386 (486) AT clones, just as a ‘hobby’ ”.
Hello everybody out there using minix –
I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since April, and is starting to get ready. I’d like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things).
I’ve currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work. This implies that I’ll get something practical within a few months, and I’d like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I won’t promise I’ll implement them.
Linus
PS. Yes – it’s free of any minix code, and it as a multi-threaded fs. It is NOT portable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never will support anything other than AT-hardisks, as that’s all I have :-(.
Happy Birthday, Linux!
But wait, there’s more . . .
Happy Birthday, Linux Mint
That’s not the only birthday this week. On Thursday, Linux Mint turned 20 years old.
Linux Mint was first released on August 27, 2006, marking the beginning of its journey as a popular Linux distribution.
Key milestones include the initial release of Linux Mint 1.0 “Ada” – and the naming convention, so far, is a woman’s name going down the alphabet ending with an “a” – followed by the introduction of Linux Mint Debian Edition in 2010.
In 2014, Linux Mint shifted to long-term support releases and in 2021, the distro – used worldwide and considered one of the key “gateways” to converting to Linux – celebrated its 15th anniversary.
Linux Mint continues to evolve, maintaining its reputation as a reliable and accessible operating system for users worldwide. Its user-friendliness makes the distro known for its ease of use and out-of-the-box functionality, while ofering a robust software manager with access to around 30,000 package. While it primarily uses the Cinnamon desktop environment, but also offers MATE and Xfce as alternatives.
Happy Birthday, Linux Mint!
But wait, there’s more . . .
Asahi Linux nears Mac M3 support
Bobby Borisov of Linuxiac reported on Thursday that Asahi Linux is nearing official support for the Apple M3 Macs, with webcams, microphones, USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt now working across the Apple lineup.
“Asahi Linux is almost ready to officially support Macs with Apple’s M3 chips, and work on the newer M4 and M5 models is already underway,” the article states.
Full webcam support is now available for all M3-series Macs with built-in cameras, however “the hardware is mostly the same as before, but the M3 Max needed a small driver tweak to work correctly,” the article says.
“Built-in microphones now work across the M3 lineup,” according to the article. “Apple changed the audio hardware for this generation, so the team had to do extra reverse-engineering before Linux could use it properly. USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt now also work on all M3 Macs.”
The article also says that the display support for M3 Macs is almost as complete as it is for M1 and M2 systems. “Asahi says its M3 display controller support is nearly on par with what’s available for the older Apple Silicon models,” says the article. “With all the recent progress, the project is now close enough to an official release.”
Editor’s note: We at Distro of the Week have decided to change the schedule of Bits & Bobs to go from a semi-weekly Monday-and-Friday posting to a single weekly posting starting next Saturday. The Distro of the Week will remain on Wednesdays, but Bits & Bobs will run on Saturdays ONLY starting next week.
And that’s all for today. Don’t forget: Distro of the Week appears Wednesday – and it’s always a good one on hand – and Bits and Bobs will return with news over the week on Saturday.