Open Source Computing

Week 6, Sept 30


Godot Truck Town:

To open scripts, go to Scene (the very upper-left-most "Scene") -> Quick Open Script. Note that VehicleBody3D is a predefined Godot class.

Monday: Start with 386BSD

Wednesday: git

Start with Linux detailed release history, at around 2000

386BSD

What made Linux such a successful open-source project? Why did Linux beat BSD?
The email from Linus Torvalds to Mauro Carvalho illustrates two things:
  1. Torvalds' somewhat abusive style
  2. Torvalds' firm no-regression policy: user code that used to work should never be broken by a kernel update.

How do these factors play out in the success of Linux?

A third factor is Torvalds' policy on contributions: all are welcome, but they start out as non-mainline extensions, patches or modules.

LibreOffice, bash