Linux was more based upon Minix, a Unix-like kernel. Linus developed Linux on Minix and referenced the source code of Minix extensively, but didn’t actually copy any of the code. These days doing this would be very much frowned on even if he didn’t copy code as it violates standard ‘clean room’ policy.
1 Like
OS family trees 
My one and only favourite is VM/370 (and the associated CMS) It came with source code too in the beginning.
2 Likes
I think based on its stretching it a bit. Inspired by is closer and the original system used the Minix file system which I think was sensible.
Pretty much all the early userspace was from the early GNU project
Tanenbaum was famously unimpressed by Linux and there was a sometimes prickly debate between the two see Appendix A - The Tanenbaum-Torvalds Debate
Did you know that Minix runs in the extremely low, super privileged rings on Intel CPUs so I guess Tanenbaum might have had the last laugh.
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you have to. The whole point with any piece of open source software is that the underlying programming language used to create the lines of code that can be filed into an executable program, be that C, C++, Rust, Python, or whichever obscure programming language has been chosen is accessible to read and modify if you so desire.
Many people who switch to using Linux aren’t interested in any of that, they just want something that has a desktop experience similar to either MacOS or Windows, and which provides the basics for them, be that email, word processing or spreadsheet calculations. As it turns out, there is a whole range of additional software that can be installed to do a range of other things from graph plotting to vector drawing to CAD, etc, etc.
Most of these programs are provided via what is called a Linux distribution, essentially like a flavour of tea, in which someone or a group of someones, has put together what they consider to be the best collection of software for their particular itch that needed scratching. Some of these groups of someones are commercial companies such as Canonical, or Suse or Red Hat, which offer enterprise support and other options for managing business use cases for their version of Linux. Some flavours of Linux, admittedly more likely to be a little more esoteric, are literally just a single person doing their own thing in their batcave/cellar/spare room at night or at weekends.
If you want to have an idea of what each Linux distribution looks like, you can check out Distrowatch.
2 Likes
Aah, VM and CMS … memories, memories. I even did some REXX programming in order to make some automated routines for myself.
[I guess this goes in the category: Say you used to work for IBM without saying you worked for IBM]
1 Like
1 Like
My seals are lipped.
1 Like
I didn’t work for IBM, but I did use REXX on OS/2.
1 Like
Ah. You were the one then 
1 Like
I think there was another OS/2 user in Southend or somewhere like that. 
1 Like
Poor OS/2. Microsoft deceit put an end to it.
Is that why it was called OS/2, for the second user?
2 Likes
Shame really, it was a great system for its day.
I am due to have the SSD installed Feb 04. The outfit doing it advised/insisted that they re-install the Mac OS and then partition it away from Linux if this is the way I want to go. They recommend a 2TB drive that is quite enough for what I need, they say (also recommending that storage is outside of the SSD)
I am just thinking of something that is easier to ask here - Do I need a new email and photo base peculiar to Linux, and importantly, will emails and photos still synch between my iphone and Mac using Linux??
Your email will work in any email client regardless of the operating system. I am not sure what you mean by “photo base”. There are photo editing apps available for Linux which will handle the same photo formats as a Mac or PC would e.g. JPEG, PNG, etc. The exception might be proprietary formats such as Photoshop’s PSD, though I think GIMP supports PSD files to some extent.
Syncing between iOS devices and Macs for things like iTunes and Apple Photos is done via Apple’s servers so has nothing to do with any Linux install that you may have. Your photos on the Linux side will not sync to an iOS photo library however.
if you want to use a Linux email client such as Thunderbird, make sure you set up your email account connection as “IMAP” not “POP3” so that mail synchronisation is done at the mail server end.
It was an operating system, not like DOS with windows on top, nor Cutler’s folly. NT 
1 Like
If your account is the email account through iCloud, then it provides IMAP access, so you shouldn’t need a new email address when working on Linux, but you will need to configure the mail client, whether Thunderbird, or Bluemail (also available on macOS), or some other email client application.
The basic premise always used to be that if you wanted access to your photo library from macOS, then you needed to export the images first to a drive/storage that can be read by a corresponding Linux photo library management software (e.g. Shotwell, Darktable) and then import them from that drive/storage.
Darktable is available for both Mac and Linux if you are interested in trying it. On my Linux machines, I still prefer Shotwell, possibly a question of habit as I’ve been using Shotwell for a very long time, and possibly because Darktable still has “stability” issues, especially when importing large volumes of files. I don’t find Darktable’s UI particularly user friendly either, but that is very much subjective, I guess.
As for synching directly to iCloud from Linux, there is apparently a snapcraft package, which I haven’t tried, as I’ve only just discovered its existence.
Second system effect?
I’ve never heard that term, but I do think VMS was a good OS. Is that what we’re talking about?
See “The Mythical Man Month”
1 Like