Re: [LI] Re: [ilug-blr] Re: Times of India articles

["Gurunandan R. Bhat" <grbhat@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 19 Nov 1999, Atul Chitnis wrote:

> Several early adopters I recall were Sundar Nagarajan and Basant at TIFR
> Bombay. They already had some experience with early Linux kernels when I
> met them in mid-1992.

</sheepish, but illuminating confession follows...>

I was in TIFR just before this happened and we took the kernel sources,
but thought that the future was elsewhere. We thought that that the future
was in making DOS a 32-bit OS (protected mode, not real mode;
multi-tasking, but not multi-user). We called it "DOS on Steroids" --
DOSS. So we shamelessly used the linux kernel source to build a DPMI-based
boot loader and a protected mode initialiser. We then made changes to DJ
Delorie's DJGPP/GNU ports to DOS to build a complete environment. My GCC
ran, my emacs ran, my flex and yacc ran. And ran like hell. All daemons
were implemented through protected mode warappers to INT21 (Wait, Don't
laugh.). We had no X.

The problem of course, was that Linux had *potential*, our prospective DOS
on steroids didn't. Make no mistake about this point. Let me put it in
caps. Here it is: DOSS OUTPERFORMED LINUX OF THAT TIME, BUT IT HAD NO WAY
AHEAD. IT WAS STUCK BECAUSE IT FOLLOWED BAD DESIGN.  We had reached a
Dead-end. We had brains, but no vision. Linus and his co-developers had
plenty of both. I had a friend (G. V. Kulkarni, now with AMD I think) who
coded his heart out. I remember him telling me 7 years later: Our assembly
code was pure technique. No heart and no soul. It had no chance of ever
"growing up". Even today, I think the best code I ever wrote was in that
DPMI server.

Two years later, we stopped flogging DOSS. I left TIFR and settled down in
Goa. It was now very clear where the future lay and it was in following
that amazing kid from the North Pole. He was our Santa. And he came
bearing amazing gifts which had vision.

I sheepishly went to NCST, Bombay and brought the kernel and GCC sources
on floppies. No distribution. Just the kernel image and the sources.

</end of sheepish confession>

Why do I narrate this here? It is in part, to convey to my young student
friends (whose enthusiasm, and commitment made IT.com a memorable
experience) that quality in code is elusive and ephemeral. It does not lie
in the sources per se, but in looking beyond it. The question is not
whether your code works faster. The question is whether it has a future.

Sorry, couldn't help it....... 


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