Wednesday, April 22, 2026

You can't fool a microbiologist, Linux

Imagine if mainline linux were a species. Everyone who used it had to upgrade their systems. If they were a procaryote, they'd need to upgrade to a Eukaryote. This is what a version history would look like:

1991 We added a nucleus (MMU). Since 0.01.

1992 64 bit support address space added on DEC Alpha. (Larger genome supported!)

1998 uclinux developed. Loss of function (MMU) + Gain of function (performance/lower latency)  

2007 nommu (uclinux) integrated (Mitochondria!) into 2.5.46

2024 RTLinux merged into mainline- an improvement, but RTOSes also offered in nommu systems.

2028 nommu scheduled for removal: (Procaryotes can be procaryotes again.)

203x 32-bit support removal. Sometime. (Divergent evolution).

More may be added as the ideas arrive to me. 

Halobacteria is a photosynthetic archaea that feeds on salt and light. If photoheterotrophic bacteria can utilize light as an energy source, so can 32-bit and nommu linux machines. 

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