This historical discussion prompted me to look online at http://www2.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-VM, where I see the earliest monthly logs of this list, LINUX-390, start in Dec 1998 as a list named LINUX-VM which Marist apparently hosted specifically for the Bigfoot participants' use.
> -----Original Message----- > From: Linux on 390 Port [mailto:linux-...@vm.marist.edu] On Behalf Of > David Boyes > Sent: Monday, September 28, 2009 9:43 AM > To: LINUX-390@VM.MARIST.EDU > Subject: Re: Fall 2009 NEUVM.org meeting tomorrow 09.25.2009 Reminder > > >>> This is a bit revisionist, methinks. At best, this statement needs > a > > big "where IBM's involvement began", but it's just not true that > Marist > > started >> it all. The Bigfoot project came before it, and there were > no > > Marist participants to be seen there. > > > > Citation notwithstanding. I open the floor for adjustment; > > Summer, 1998: Bigfoot really gets rolling for Linux on S/370. > > Main participants (at the time): > > Neale Ferguson, Software AG > Rick Troth, BMC Software > David Boyes, Nortel GPS (I primarily did doc and testing) > Linas Vepstas, IBM Israel > > Some (lots of) input from: > Arty Ecock, CUNY > Dave Jones, V-Soft Software > Adam Thornton, Flathead Software Foundry > > (apologies if I left anyone out -- my memory is starting to go and it > was 10 > years ago...) > > No Marist people, although I'm sure they knew about it. > > First running Bigfoot kernel was July 1999, I recall. Neale had a > mostly > running libc and some userspace apps along with that mid-August. > > Fall, 1999: IBM releases joint study "technology preview" project with > Marist (late Sept/October, IIRC) > > Both projects were coexisting, but completely independent, and the IBM > one > was a completely black project. Marist released the internal IBM > skunkworks > version; a running kernel and a big chunk of userspace were availble > from > Bigfoot before that time. There was a lot of discussion with IBM (via > SHARE > and other channels) pre-tech preview project release where the words > "with > you or without you (IBM), Linux on S/390 is going to happen" figured > prominently. > > The Bigfoot effort petered out mid-2000 when it was clear that IBM's > endorsement of the Marist and later SuSE 7.0 release on the G5 hardware > would be the survivor -- if nothing else, due to having more and better > hardware available and being better funded. > > See Harold Prichett's SHARE presentations for Spring 2000 SHARE for > some > fairly good docs on the Bigfoot effort and the later grafts of IEEE FP > emulation for G2 and G3/4 9672s from the Bigfoot prototype into the > Marist > release. > > So, it's fair to say that Marist was where IBM publically engaged with > Linux > on S/390 hardware, but it's not accurate to say that Marist started it > all. > I don't want to take credit away from IBM and Marist for their release, > but > it's not fair to forget about the history (and the amount of work) that > had > a lot to do with it. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@vm.marist.edu with the message: INFO LINUX-390 > or visit > http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 This e-mail, including any attachments, may be confidential, privileged or otherwise legally protected. It is intended only for the addressee. If you received this e-mail in error or from someone who was not authorized to send it to you, do not disseminate, copy or otherwise use this e-mail or its attachments. Please notify the sender immediately by reply e-mail and delete the e-mail from your system. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@vm.marist.edu with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
