[maestroia]

This fall marks 41 years since my introduction to computers and programming. In the fall of 1980, I got to start using my jr high's DECWriter II teletype terminal (with greenbar paper!) connected to a PDP-11 40 miles away via a 300 baud breadbox modem. BASIC! FORTRAN! Pascal!

But I digress.

Looking back on the three decades since I graduated college in '90 (with CompSci as one of my 3 majors), there were three things which I saw as big game-changers, and became both a user and ardent evangelist for: the TCP/IP Internet, Linux, and Free/Open Source.

Today, it's easy to think of these as a given. But in the 90's they were not, with many battles fought, the outcome of which was not always clear, not always successful. Competing protocols, OS', applications and platforms, business interia and ignorance (not in the negative sense, but unaware/uneducated), and commercial companies protecting revenue flow ("No one ever got fired for buying IBM/Microsoft/Novell/Oracle").