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The Significance of the Open-Source Act and Linux Essay

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The Significance of the Open-Source Act and Linux

In the 1980's hardly anyone knew what a DOS attack was, most people hadn't ever seen a computer. There was one great OS for companies back then, UNIX. Unix was commercially made, very expensive, but was a very strong Operating System. Because of the price of equipment, many people wouldn't get into computers, but there was no reason to. Nothing of great significance was stored on computers.

By 1985, computers hit the mainstream, providing many universities with links to each other and their libraries. This all came along with the invention of the Internet. Suddenly there was a great amount of information available to those who had access. There were many people who wanted to have …show more content…

Before long, every hacker and their brother knew how to find a big error in the Unix code on any server. They exploited the servers with many different attacks, mostly being troublesome for no reason. Phone lines and networks were taken down left and right, and many devices came about to help deal with the phone system. Many phreakers had developed boxes, named by color, that would do things to the phone network, just by holding it up to the reciever to play recorded tones. There was the red box: A box that could get you free long distance calls. There was a beige box: A box that would make any calls you made untraceable by the FBI or "Mamma Bell," a nickname for the Owner of Packard Bell, a large phone company.

With the growth of the hackers, many new ways of protecting your systems had to come about. Routers, firewalls, and many other types of security precautions came about. They prevented many hackers from breaking in, but all it took is one to find a way around, and everyone would know. But with the FBI and Mamma Bell handing out arrest warrants left and right, many hackers gave up on their former lifestyles.

For the companies and the government, everything was taking a turn for the best, until 1996. In 1996 Linus Horswald released Linux under the Open-Source Act. He originally made it for a calculator for his grandfather, but it advanced into much more. By the time he was done with

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