Free Unix (1983)

[WalterGR]

On Chrome, this will transform the entire web to look like that page. (It's very quick-and-dirty, so not everything works.)

1. Install the Stylebot extension (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stylebot/oiaejidbm...).

2. Click the "CSS" button added to the right of the omnibar.

3. Click "Options..."

4. Click "Styles" in the left sidebar.

5. Click the "Edit Global Stylesheet" button.

6. Enter the following:

    @font-face {
      font-family: GlassTTYVT220;
      src: local("Glass TTY VT220") local("Glass TTY VT220 Medium") url(http://waltergr.com/misc/Glass_TTY_VT220.ttf) format("truetype");
    }
    
    * {
      color: #e5b800;
      background-color: #0a0600;
      font-family: GlassTTYVT220;
      font-size: 20px;
    }

7. Click save.

8. Load / refresh a page.

9. Bask in the amber glow.

I didn't want to hotlink the font on someone else's server so I uploaded it to one of mine. You should probably put it on a server you own, which is accessible via SSH, and change http://waltergr.com/... to //yourserver.com/...

Here's a screenshot of the front page of HN: http://waltergr.com/misc/chrome-vt220-screenshot.png

[hauget]

Dude. Thanks for this. First thing through my head when I saw this was retro font FTW.

[mojuba]

> I have worked extensively on compilers, editors, debuggers, command interpreters, the Incompatible Timesharing System and the Lisp Machine operating system.

Glorious times! You might be given bare metal and full freedom to create new operating systems, invent languages and write compilers/debuggers/editors for them. Nothing can ever make a software engineer happier than this. In my view anyway.

Will this ever happen again?

[weland]

It does, especially in the embedded world. I spent a good portion of my two last years working on an operating system for very resource-constrained devices.

The web kids get all the rage, we get all the fun.

[nknighthb]

Rose-tinted glasses. New bare metal just means an all-new set of hardware engineer droppings to work around. It gets old real fast.

[nicholassmith]

Amazing how much more reasonable Stallman seems in that, a fantastic bit of history.

[dandrews]

The most innocuous mention of Stallman's name inevitably provokes an emotional remark.

I was struck most by the date of that announcement. Stallman has dedicated 30 years "[putting] together a sufficient body of free software so that I will be able to get along without any software that is not free". That represents a monumental commitment to principle.

You can call him unyielding, uncompromising, demanding, and I won't quibble. But unreasonable? That word has too many connotations of unfairness or lack of consideration, a bit ad hominem for my taste.

We need leaders at the extremes, the deep thinkers, the rabble rousers, for these are the people who actually change the world. The politicians moderate those influences, making the compromises that are necessary, preventing wild swings of the needle. Be glad that RMS isn't a politician - he is more effective where he is.

[saejox]

And it's yet to be released.

[dllthomas]

Only sorta. They've written a TON of valuable code, released and used by millions. They've yet to put together a competitive system of only GNU code, though nowadays Debian does let you install Hurd underneath (I'm not sure how much this breaks, but at least many things work).

[brokenparser]

This might be the empire game envisioned by Stallman, but it's not a GNU project: http://www.wolfpackempire.com/

[woadwarrior01]

I couldn't help but think, would Stallman have used something like Kickstarter?, had it existed back then. Or would he have perhaps added a bitcoin address for donations, if it existed?

[bencollier49]

"It's been three months since $425,000 was donated to this project and I still don't have a working version of HURD. I demand a refund!"

[NIL8]

Great post!

Did anybody else have quirks in their vision after reading this?

I went from reading this: http://article.olduse.net/[email protected] to this: https://37signals.com/svn/posts/3633-on-writing-interfaces-w... and had some weird focusing issues.

[finin]

I'd guess that he composed that message on a Lisp Machine and not a CRT, e.g., something like this: http://s7.computerhistory.org/is/image/CHM/500004885-03-01?

[acqq]

It also has a CRT (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathode_ray_tube)

[bobowzki]

That font.

[yankcrime]

DEC VT220, here's a recreation of that font's appearance: http://asdasd.rpg.fi/~svo/glasstty/

[jacquesm]

To me that font feels just like those old and comfy shoes feel to you.

[spongle]

That font is something quite a few of us have probably had to put up with.

[jvandonsel]

Though some of you are waxing nostalgic at that simulated CRT display, my first impression was "Good Riddance!". I still have a headache from reading that page.

[lcedp]

Not the font, those pixels.. no, that CRT resolution

[anuragramdasan]

Fascinating. Is that how it used to be back then?

[acqq]

It you were lucky! (* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAtSw3daGoo) Good amber glow screens were better compared to the green ones. High (invisible) refresh rates were also "professional" equipment. I worked at home by having the computer connected to the antenna input of the plain small black and white CRT TV. That's 50 Hz refresh of the screen. Interlaced. If you grew up on LCD screens you certainly don't know how 50 Hz refresh feels. And I saved the assembly code to the cassette tape recorder. If I was lucky, if it didn't crash and cause the whole RAM to be wiped out before. And I was lucky that I didn't have to key the sequence in with the switches on the front panel, that I also did earlier (not on this one, but the picture is good: http://www.vintagecomputer.net/MITS/680/altair_680_front_pan...). And that all is even not a joke (as in the video I linked first).

[swah]

Great copywriting! Go for it dude!