Slashdot reminds us that Richard Stallman announced his intention to write GNU operating system 20 years ago today. GNU was to be an alternative to proprietry Unix system that could be shared freely among its users. Over the last twenty years,

• Unix vendors rose then fell (from early 1980s to mid 1990s),
• but free Unix like Linux and BSD picked up where vendors left (mid 1990s to date).
• The World Wide Web took off and the Internet expanded (early 1990s to date).
• And more and more users write their emails in Outlook Express or on Hotmail, read MSN with Internet Explorer and play games on PCs or XBox -- none of which existed in 1983 and all owned by Microsoft.