5 myths about the computer technologies and their refutation

The world is full of myths and high technology sector is no exception. Sometimes the reason for this is the lack or distortion of information, and sometimes human nature itself is in need of tales of good youth and insidious villains. Some myths are so deeply ingrained in our minds that take the form of immutable axioms doubt that causes resentment. In this article, we recall a few of these myths and try to refute them. You will learn that in fact Bill Gates said about the memory, whether Microsoft stealing design elements from Apple, and who actually invented Linux.

640K of memory is enough!

The first of the legends we have considered states that Bill Gates once said that, well, it is unlikely someone once might need more than 640K of RAM.

In fact, Gates never said these words, and even later in an interview, denied the right: "Perhaps I spoke in my life, some stupid and wrong things, but certainly not this. None of computer professionals will never say that a certain amount of memory is enough for all time. " Computer edition of Wired also conduct

Competition among readersWhich could be called the exact place and date of this statement. However, the prize was left without a winner.

Microsoft stole graphic design at Apple

Another myth about Bill Gates says that he stole elements of the user interface for your operating system from Apple. In fact, many familiar to us today, interface solutions, such as resizing windows, overlapping windows with the caption, scroll bars, and so on, we have been licensed to Microsoft from Apple for use in Windows 1.0.

However, the Microsoft continues to use these UI elements and in future versions of Windows, which, of course, caused anger Apple and a lawsuit in court, in which they tried to prove that the license agreement is valid only for one issue Windows. In his defense, Gates said: "We affirm that these elements of design are the ideas that are not subject to copyright". The judge stood up as a result on the Microsoft side. Therefore, from a legal point of view, Microsoft did not steal anything.

The word "bug" appeared thanks to insects

In the computer lexicon the word "bug" (eng. bug) Indicates an error in a program or operating system. There is a legend that the term appeared in 1947 at Harvard University, where scientists first tested the computers on electromechanical relays. One day was revealed numerous errors and the reason for malfunction - a small bug (bug), stuck between the contacts.

In fact, this word was used to refer to faults with the equipment well before the staff even the first telegraph and telephone companies. Even Thomas Edison in 1878, wrote about his work: "This was repeated again and again with all my inventions. The first step was the intuition, it was followed by the flash, and then there were obstacles - and they disappeared, then appeared bugs - the so-called small shortcomings and difficulties - and you need months of constant searching, research and hard work to success or failure. "

Android - an Open Source

Another common misconception is that Android is a system with completely open source. Although, of course, the OS is more open than iOS, there are still a number of things that make this claim not entirely true.

Despite the fact that 21 October 2008 was published the source code of the Android platform (operating system, middleware, core end applications), later president of Google's Andy Rubin's mobile division, said that the discovery of a new source code system version will be postponed due to the fact that the system was poorly prepared to run on phones and requires a significant optimizations. However, in 2011, was partially open source next Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. In any case, this system contains both open open source components, and closed proprietary development.

Linus Torvalds created the Linux operating system

Linus surely made a huge contribution to the birth and development of the Linux operating systems. But in fact, he only developed the operating system kernel, which is the central part, providing application access to resources, hardware, file system and network protocols. Modern operating system Linux family consist addition of custom shell, additional software and many other elements, the development of which Torvalds has nothing.

What kind of computer error, and you know the legend? They tell us it in the comments!

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