I was wondering what the first open source apps were used by others in the forums? In my case it was Python. I wanted to teach myself to program, and it looked like the best place to start. Simple, elegant, easy to learn but still powerful. You can dig right in with a text editor and a terminal. My first Web development job used Python.
A few years later developing in .Net, I discovered that to get support for the newest .Net libraries in Visual Studio, I had to upgrade the IDE. Not wanting to do this, I found some awkward workarounds, but eventually ran into SharpDevelop. It was a complete IDE that broke the lock-in for me and led Microsoft to release their free “Express” packages.
Honestly that’s difficult to remember.
Probably VLC
chief sealth wrote:
>
> I was wondering what the first open source apps were used by others in
> the forums?
It is some time ago so I had to check if it was really true by looking to
the books which I bought at that time and the scripts on my book shelf.
One of the first was a ms dos port of the gnu compiler collection (with a
32bit dos extender) in 1994, my intention was to learn c++ (and it helped me
a lot).
I used ghostscript somewhat earlier and gnuplot and latex (also on ms dos
and windows 3.1).
A modula compiler, I forgot the name and I am not sure if it was freeware or
open source , so I do not count it.
There was probably more open source in the beginning 90s I used but I forgot
about.
The very first I remember was tex (not even latex) back in 1990 (on ms dos
on a xt with 8088 processor) and it was pure fun (no joke, really true, I
will never forget).
Linux (which is itself open source) I started later in 1995.
This programs in that early days made things possible for me which I never
could have done if I had to use proprietary software (for which I had not
even money at that time).
–
openSUSE 11.2 64 bit | Intel Core2 Quad Q8300@2.50GHz | Gnome 2.28 | GeForce
9600 GT | 4GB Ram
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gosh, i hardly remember what i had for lunch yesterday…lets see,
i’d guess the first open source app i use was something that came with
the Red Hat 5.1 disk included with my Linux Unleashed, Third Edition
from 1998…
that could’a been any of the installed apps, which i now can’t
remember what they might have been…
–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]
I was using open source before it was even called that or the FSF existed. Even before the Internet. There were loosely connected sites on Usenet and people would post source code for Unix utilities they had written. There were no established open source licenses, so authors would put things like public domain, or very liberal licenses on their works. One of the earliest open source licenses was Larry Wall’s Artistic License.
I hardly remember what was the first open source app I used, but some I remember are Perl, TeX, the X Windowing system, and the less pager.
Looking back, the first app I used that was not part of the vendor distributed Unix was probably rn(by Larry Wall, of Perl fame), my first newsreader for Usenet. That lead me into more Unix, and that lead to emacs, make, sendmail, and the BSD panoply.
But even before that, I was sharing source to many utilities with other users/syspros on Univac mainframes; no licenses on those codes at all. This goes back to the late 60s/early 70s, so sharing meant writing a mag tape and physically delivering it in person or via USPS.
chief sealth wrote:
>
> I was wondering what the first open source apps were used by others in
> the forums?
JES328x for MVS/XA.
–
Per Jessen, Zürich (17.7°C)
http://en.opensuse.org/User:pjessen
On Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:36:02 +0000, chief sealth wrote:
> I was wondering what the first open source apps were used by others in
> the forums? In my case it was Python. I wanted to teach myself to
> program, and it looked like the best place to start. Simple, elegant,
> easy to learn but still powerful. You can dig right in with a text
> editor and a terminal. My first Web development job used Python.
>
> A few years later developing in .Net, I discovered that to get support
> for the newest .Net libraries in Visual Studio, I had to upgrade the
> IDE. Not wanting to do this, I found some awkward workarounds, but
> eventually ran into SharpDevelop. It was a complete IDE that broke the
> lock-in for me and led Microsoft to release their free “Express”
> packages.
Depends on how you define “open source”. In terms of “non-commercial
software where the source was available”, it’d be POV-Ray, which predates
most OSI licenses (if not all of them, if you go back to DKBTrace, which
is POV-Ray’s predecessor - which I actually played with a little bit).
But the POV-Ray license isn’t an OSI-approved license.
So if we’re talking OSI-approved licenses, it’d be gcc on SunOS back in
the early 90’s.
Jim
–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C