Usenet has been the source of same major technological announcements over the years.
From Tim Berners-Lee announcing the World Wide Web back in 1991 to Mozilla’s recent announcement of Boot to Gecko.
Shortly after Berners-Lee unleashed the Web on the world, Linus Torvalds made his own splash in the comp.os.minix newsgroup on Usenet.
Yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of Linus Torvalds’ release of Linux to the world.
For those who don’t know, Linux is a computer operating system which is based on free and open source software.
Linux is in fact one of the most prominent examples of open source software. With open source software, generally the underlying source code can be used, modified and distributed by anyone.
This software is usually the result of many different people in many different locations working on the project for the benefit of all.
Usenet has long been a haven for the open source movement, providing a method for communication and distribution of large files among developers around the world.
Current versions of major open source projects such as Firefox, Ubuntu and VLC Player can be found on Usenet.
And today you can find Linux running everything from mobile phones to supercomputers. The 10 fastest supercomputers in the world all run Linux!
With technology changing at such a rapid pace, it is easy to see what is newest and shiniest as being the best.
But as Linux and Usenet continue to prove, only the truly great can last for 20+ years.