Another cool discovery today. Completely by accident found a manual for some third-party Apple Lisa software.
I guess this makes sense, although Lisa was so unpopular I never ever even thought of non-Apple software for it.
But here we go, desktop publishing software for the poor Lisa!
It’s funny how at work I am basically building software like this, 40 years later.
cc @glennf
Announcing: https://justaqrcode.com.
Tired of "free" QR code generators that are full of ads and trackers, that share your data, and that want to sell you something? Me too. Here's my act of resistance: I made a one-page site that works entirely in your browser to generate a simple QR code. And that's all it does. You can download the HTML page and run it locally, even. Read the source; nothing up my sleeves. Just a QR code.
My offer to you -- I will continue to pay for the domain name and web hosting for it, myself. If you find it valuable, you can pay it back by creating your own useful thing for the world and releasing it for free. Let's take back the friendly web, one vexingly-monetized utility at a time!
OTD 2005: #SunMicrosystems open-sources #Solaris. 20 years!
https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/sun-begins-open-source-solaris-era/
RIP #BillAtkinson (1951–2025). During his time at #Apple, he was central to the development of the graphical user interface of the Lisa and later the Macintosh, and is best known for creating MacPaint, QuickDraw, and HyperCard.
Atkinson is also credited for designing Venice, a chancery script bitmap font. Along with #SusanKare’s designs, it was one the “City” fonts that came with the original #Macintosh. https://fontsinuse.com/type_designers/6337/bill-atkinson
Macintosh Animation Showcase
https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/macintosh-animation-showcase
Spotted this earlier on archive.org. A Hypercard-driven multimedia CD introducing CDROM technology and Discovery Systems' products. Has an audio (multimedia!) interview with Bill Atkinson and a colour
OTD 2005: #SunMicrosystems open-sources #Solaris. 20 years!
https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/sun-begins-open-source-solaris-era/
@aka_pugs I loved #OpenSolaris, and I'm still mad at #FTC & @EUCommission for allowing #Oracle to buy #Sun!
@kkarhan @aka_pugs
By 1998, Solaris was a popular choice among the Top500 supercomputers. By 2005 it was down to crumbs as Linux had largely taken over, and the rest is history. Today, the OS share is 100% Linux.
I still run OpenSolaris in a VM box on my home laptop just for old times' sake, but alas the ship has sailed.
@DenOfEarth @aka_pugs I know.
Cade in point, #OpenSolaris did have avid users just below that range, and a lot of #ScientificComputing used it, as they previously used #IRIX.
And #Sun being #OpenSourve-friendly was the right direction...
@ytc1 @DenOfEarth @aka_pugs I know.
And espechally in #ScientificComputing a lot of researchers loved working with #SunMicrosystems and when #Oracle took over that relationship got sour'd instantly due to #Oracle #CEO #LarryEllison...
-> https://infosec.space/@kkarhan/114682503920794745
One of the big successes of #Sun was that they basically declared a unilateral "ceasefire" in terms of #IP & #Patents re: #OpenSource. Whereas Oracle didn't seem willing to honour that.
Obviously #Linux with it's #GPLv2only-Kernel and most of it's Userland could not get 'closed-sourced' like #OpenSolaris which instantly got stomped out by Oracle as they wanted to sqeeze #Solaris for profits and milk their clients in typical Oracle fashion...
Now granted, I do know someone who for most of their life made their money dealing with the intricacies of setting up #postfix, #sendmail and #courier #MailServers on Solaris and if I ask said person about that they give me a kilometer stare, so OFC like a #SysV - #Unix systems Solaris and #SunOS really are one of the reasons #WindowsNT won the "#WorkstationWar" and why - if anyone - #Apple won the last "#UnixWar"...
@DenOfEarth@mas.to @aka_pugs@mastodon.social I know. Cade in point, #OpenSolaris did have avid users just below that range, and a lot of #ScientificComputing used it, as they previously used #IRIX. And #Sun being #OpenSourve-friendly was the right direction...
@kkarhan @ytc1 @aka_pugs @libreoffice @openzfs
Agree with you on everything except why NT won the server battle.
Solaris had a lot of very elegant mechanisms that could only be configured and controlled from the command line. And while this means you can script things, it's also a pain in the ass and hard to find expert staff.
NT had similar tools, but everything was point and click. Resize a partition? Drag this bar. Anyone can figure it out, which makes apprenticeship and hiring easier.
@DenOfEarth @ytc1 @aka_pugs well #WindowsNT owned the workstation market because #Vendors like #SGI & #Sun failed to innovate...
#SunMicrosystems at least didn't stall in terms of #Software, but once #Oracle acqured them and started shaking down Sun Technology users for "#IP infringement" and "License Violations" they basically made using anythibg but #Linux a bad choice on #Servers!
@aka_pugs Still have the "First 5000" T-Shirt, and it's in a pretty good condition despite heavy use.
As one would expect from something associated with OpenSolaris.
Marcin Wichary
Gabe Schuyler
Tom Lyon ✅
Marco Arment
Riccardo Mori
Fonts In Use
MacintoshGarden Feed
Kevin Karhan 
Den of Earth
Bruce D Porter
KarelGardas
Bonkers
Patrick Georgi