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Our overnight success (1998).

With Sun Microsystems on board, Linux developments made their way from Internet discussions to the trade press. Outsiders were suddenly interested, but mostly technical outsiders. Then came IBM. By July, Informix announced that it would port its databases to Linux. Within weeks, from out of nowhere, Oracle followed suit.

Technical people, who had long known about Linux were being approached by their companies’ leaders who had been seeing articles about Linux in the trade press, or hearing about it. They would ask their technical folks what the fuss was all about. Then, once they learned the benefits, they would make the decision to have their servers run Linux.

It was rarely a decision based on the non-cost of Linux, because the software itself actually represents a small part of such an investment. The service and support are much more costly. What tended to sway the suits were the simple technical arguments: Linux was stronger than the competition, which consisted of Windows NT and the various flavors of Unix. And, importantly, people just hate having to do things the way Microsoft or anybody else says they have to do them. You can do things with Linux that you can’t do with the competition. The original people who used Linux did so because they could get access to sources in ways they couldn’t with commercial software.

— Just for fun por Linus Torvalds, David Diamond

V: The Beauty of #Programming

I don’t know how to really explain my fascination with programming, but I’ll try. To somebody who does it, it’s the most interesting thing in the world. It’s a game much more involved than chess, a game where you can make up your own rules and where the end result is whatever you can make of it. And yet, to the outside, it looks like the most boring thing on Earth. Part of the initial excitement in programming is easy to explain: just the fact that when you tell the computer to do something, it will do it. Unerringly. Forever. Without a complaint. And that’s interesting in itself. But blind obedience on its own, while initially fascinating, obviously does not make for a very likable companion. In fact, that part gets pretty boring fairly quickly. What makes programming so engaging is that, while you can make the computer do what you want, you have to figure out how. I’m personally convinced that computer science has a lot in common with physics. Both are about how the world works at a rather fundamental level. The difference, of course, is that while in physics you’re supposed to figure out how the world is made up, in computer science you create the world. Within the confines of the computer, you’re the creator. You get to ultimately control everything that happens. If you’re good enough, you can be God. On a small scale. And I’ve probably offended roughly half the population on Earth by saying so. But it’s true. You get to create your own world, and the only thing that limits what you can do are the capabilities of the machine—and, more and more often these days, your own abilities.

— Just for fun por Linus Torvalds, David Diamond

Birth of an OPERATING SYSTEM

So I spent close to $2,000 for the Sinclair QL. Most of what I did with it was one programming project after another. [..] What got me interested in operating systems: I bought a floppy controller so I wouldn’t have to use the microdrives, but the driver that came with the floppy controller was bad so I ended up writing my own. In the process of writing that I found some bugs in the operating system—or at least a discrepancy between what the documentation said the operating system would do and what it actually did. I found it because something I had written didn’t work. My code is always, um, perfect. So I knew it had to be something else, and I went in and disassembled the operating system.

— Just for fun por Linus Torvalds, David Diamond

Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1999 14:12:27-0700 (PDT) From: Linus Torvalds torvalds@transmeta.com To: David Diamond ddiamond@well.com

[..] Let’s cut a deal: If you think we can make a fun book, and more importantly if you think we can have fun making it, let’s go for it. You’d drag me (with family) camping [..] So maybe I wouldn’t read a book about me when it’s done, but at least I’d have fun with it.

— Just for fun por Linus Torvalds, David Diamond (Página 9)

En 2004, la media de tiempo que dedicaban les usuaries de internet a mirar una pantalla antes de pasar a otra era de 150 segundos. En 2012, 75 segundos. Para 2021, 47. No es que tengamos menos atención: atendemos a muchas cosas, lo que se va acortando es el periodo de tiempo que dedicamos a cada una de ellas. En el entorno laboral, compensamos las interrupciones trabajando más rápido para completar cada tarea. Lo pagamos con más estrés, frustración y esfuerzo. Lo pagamos con salud. Nos vendieron las bondades de la multitarea, pero no es eficaz: cuando dejamos una actividad, nos cuesta unos 23 minutos volver a concentrarnos completamente en ella. La productividad baja[^65].

[^65]: Son datos de Microsoft Research recogidos por la académica Gloria Mark, investigadora de UC Irvine y autora del libro Research Attention Span. A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity, Hanover Square Press, Nueva York, 2023.

— Las redes son nuestras por Marta G. Franco (Página 110)

Aquellos años de jefatura intermedia fueron mi única experiencia que podríamos llamar de poder. Yo asistía a reuniones donde se decidían futuras parrillas, posibles fichajes, nuevos programas, el cese de otros... Es estimulante que una idea tuya tenga Juz verde y que esa idea movilice en los días posteriores a todo un equipo que surge de la nada. De pronto, conocí esa sensación de que otros trabajan y tú te llevas los aplausos -o los abucheos, en su caso- en base a simples decisiones. También conocí por primera vez la sensación de que te hagan la pelota, y también esa otra de que te hagan la cama. La sensación de soledad cuando estás con todo un equipo de un programa que trabaja para ti es enorme, de modo que agradeces mucho que te traten bien y eres especialmente sensible a quienes se muestran más bordes o distantes. Pero eso es engañoso. Con el tiempo comprendí que algunos de esos supuestos bordes eran, simplemente, buenos profesionales que querían hacer bien las cosas y dejarse de chorradas. En cambio, ciertos encantadores solo trataban de ganar favores a base de jabón, y desaparecieron de mi órbita en cuanto dejé de ser interesante.

— Puto Boomer por Roberto Moso (Página 35)

Con el paso de los años, como suele ser habitual, la fórmula acabó perdiendo fuelle, pero Vaya Semanita sigue siendo una marca referencial para ETB y un motivo de numerosas conversaciones desternillantes entre amigos rememorando momentos célebres. De hecho, se sigue repitiendo una y otra vez en las diversas cadenas de la casa.

— Puto Boomer por Roberto Moso (Página 34)