IEEE Computer Society YouTube Channel

A large collection of videos here <https://www.youtube.com/user/ieeeComputerSociety/videos>. Some interesting-looking ones (none of which I’ve watched yet): Eben Upton on the (original) Raspberry π <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVU5QBg5l6g> Linus Torvalds, 2014 Computer Pioneer Award <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMmo0Nyleg4> Computing Conversations: Andrew Tanenbaum on MINIX <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS_LFeZA7p8>. And no doubt lots more I’ve missed. :)

I wrote:
A large collection of videos here <https://www.youtube.com/user/ieeeComputerSociety/videos>.
Just watched this one: Massimo Banzi on how the Arduino came about <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VAbvQ2Ti50>.

I wrote:
A large collection of videos here <https://www.youtube.com/user/ieeeComputerSociety/videos>.
Just watched Andrew Tanenbaum talking about the origins and impact of MINIX <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86_BkFsb4eI>. The original AT&T UNIX was a wonderful teaching tool, widely used in Computer Science departments the world over. But AT&T, in typical corporate mindless-reflex fashion, worried about threats to its Intellectual Property rights, and did its best to kill this culture off. (Spoiler: it succeeded.) Seems like nobody (not even Tanenbaum) can talk about MINIX for more than about 5 minutes without mentioning Linux. I think there is a bit of irony, though, in how MINIX seems to be currently developing. When Torvalds first announced his Linux project, there was the famous argument between him and Tanenbaum where the latter proclaimed that Linux was “obsolete” right from the get-go, because it was not microkernel-based. But in the above talk, far from having “obsoleted” Linux, Tanenbaum says he is now “trying to find a niche” for MINIX in specialist high-reliability scenarios. Though I suspect, even there, he is not going to get away from the spectre of domination by Linux.
participants (1)
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro