Embedded Software
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- Complex peripherals like printers become more and more dependent on
embedded software. Today's printers have more "computer" inside
than the original IBM System/360!
- In the early 1980s, all high-quality printers were very expensive,
so they were shared. Of course, they ran out of paper, so often you
would go to the printer, there would be no paper, and you'd have to
go to the storeroom to get some.
- A research assistant at MIT, Richard Stallman, wrote a program to
monitor the printer, but needed some key information about how to
"talk" to the printer. DEC (later acquired by Compaq, which is now
part of Hewlett-Packard) refused to give him the information. They
were afraid some special features would be copied by competitors.
- Stallman got so mad that he decided to create a whole suite of
software to run any computer: the GNU System, most commonly used
with the Linux OS kernel.
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