It's even more funny and amusing when you remember that in the initial release mail for Linux, Torvals said "just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu".

https://groups.google.com/g/comp.os.minix/c/dlNtH7RRrGA/m/Sw...

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hu3 a day ago | parent | next [-]

Transcribed here for posterity:

> Hello everybody out there using minix - I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things).

> I've currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work. This implies that I'll get something practical within a few months, and I'd like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)

> Linus (torv...@kruuna.helsinki.fi)

> PS. Yes - it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs. It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I have :-(.

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chuckadams 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

He's also referred to Linux as "the GNU Emacs of all terminal emulators".

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Y_Y 2 days ago | parent [-]

> It's now the GNU Emacs of all terminal emulators.

> (Linus Torvalds, regarding the fact that Linux started off as a terminal emulator.)

http://neil.franklin.ch/Jokes_and_Fun/Linux_Quotes.html

That's the best reference I can find, but even if it's totally legit it doesn't make any sense to me.

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throwaway82332 2 days ago | parent [-]

Perhaps it's a reference to how Emacs does "everything" and some has also joked that Emacs is an OS with a text editor

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flykespice a day ago | parent [-]

Back then Emacs was considered what we call in modern software 'bloatware': resource hungry, big and full of feature creep.

BTW, in early versions of Slackware emacs was bundled in its own software category due to its huge size when selecting which packages to install on first boot.

	▲	chuckadams a day ago \| parent [-]
		Probably even had its own floppies too. Remember that install method?