Linux and growth of Internet

[Gavin Thomas Nicol]

On Jan 13, 2005, at 4:08 PM, Steven M Jones wrote:
> Anyways, I hope that at some point you get a chance to write up
> what you saw happening around that time with the small ISPs and
> Linux, and share it with us. That goes for the other list
> members too; I was hoping for a wider response, and especially
> views from outside the US. I've been focusing on the 1993-4
> period because of the way it set the stage for growth once the
> Web caught on, but feel free to roll forward or backward too.

I was in Japan at the time... accessing the Internet via email gateways 
at work, and dialup to a VAX box at home. At least in Japan, I saw 
Linux have really little impact on Internet adoption... even now, I 
don't think Linux is as significant as most people think. I bet that if 
Linux went away tomorrow, that within 3 years, something would fill the 
void. As it is, *BSD remain very good alternatives, even though they 
don't have the same network effects going for them.

 From my perspective, a lot of the OSS hype came from somewhat 
self-serving people. Seriously... ESR seem{s|ed} like a traitor to me 
in some ways...