Open source software development

[asap2go]

There are a number of reasons why I do not own/use a 'smart' phone, the primary being control. A smartphone is a hardware blob that runs multiple binary blobs. The user is greatly isolated and has only the smallest degree of control that the manufacturer or app developer grants. For me, this is entirely contrary to the concept of FOSS, its promise always having been access to the code which also implies control.

@jgreco What is/was 'Eternal September'?

The internet was "becoming a thing" in around 1991, even GNOME had its logo discussion around then. I would guess that the explosion of commercialism on the internet was happening near 2000, up to then they still mailed out those shiny AOL coasters. By 1994 or so I had largely left BBSes behind in favor of a shell account from a local isp. We all hoped and wished, back in those imperfect modem days, that fiber-optic service would be rolled out, but we were "gifted" broadband instead. Now they are trying to get fiber-optic rolling *finally* but they may as well be crawling up Everest bare kneed.

In Germany in 1981 chancellor Helmut Schmidt pushed for fiber infrastructure. Project was started and entered planning phase.
In the next election he sadly wasn't reelected and his successor - being the human counterpart of a proprietary blob - scraped it all in favor of coaxial.

 

[KendalGuerrero]

Your reference to Plato (computer_system) on Wikipedia is a fantastic trip down memory lane for many of us. It's incredible to see how far technology has come since those early days.

 

[joeschmuck]

Plato, wow, memories here too but slightly different. GE (General Electric) company had a training system for the military (Navy and maybe Army too) that taught a person electronics and hydraulics as well as launch scenarios. We even had a squirrel running in the pump. It used 8" Floppys. It also had a static pen, where you pressed the pen on the screen, the tip would go in and activate a switch, then a spark would occur a the tip of the pen and the sensors around the perimeter of the screen would translate this into an X-Y coordinates and feed that into the program. When I used the system it was already really aged and in the beginning of the 1980's then it was tossed into the landfill by the mid 1980's, or that was when I saw them disappear. Fond memories of when I was 19 years of age.

 

[ChrisRJ]

In the next election he sadly wasn't reelected and his successor - being the human counterpart of a proprietary blob - scraped it all in favor of coaxial.

Allegedly, the then-in-charge-of-telecommunication secretary of postal affairs also owned a factory that produced, you guessed it, coaxial cables.