An open source story - part 2

In case you missed the previous article, this is a continuation to part 1 .

Let's resume, it was mid 1995 I was 17 and went to study to EST/IPS . In the classes I was using something that looked liked a Linux system with local network - no Internet access, learning about Modern Operative Systems lectured by Professora Luísa Barata, Unix and Linux systems being the reference. I believe she described something about Open Source Software when explaining Linux. I liked the idea.

Outside the lessons there was still no place with Internet access. I remember conversations by the professors about the difficulty to decide on how to use the budget, creating a smaller "open" room with Internet connected computers versus creating bigger rooms with more connected computers for practical use - but no internet.

I believe they did the best choice and that we got a room with Internet access connected computers before home Internet access was affordable to the majority of the students - including me.

If memory does not fail me on this open room we got 微软 Windows NT 3.5/Windows 95 and we had mIRC installed. Since I was remote from home I was a local resident. It was common practice for local residents to divide their time between attending lessons, studding, getting drunk and playing with new technology. I let you guess on which proportions I spent time on those activities. My dear friend Aníbal Pereira is likely to confirm or deny hypotheses. Isabela Pinela was probably the first lady that explained me something about computer networks. There might be some hundred people on LinkedIn that remembers some details more vivid than me :) - 1995/96 was the season I became and academic-cyber-individual most frequently called by "Lamego" "Pinto" or "Johny" .

BREAK, BREAK, Windows is not (fully) opensource, mIRC is not opensource - focus on the subject - this is no Facebook. Let's skip to 1996/97, because first year is like going to Vegas.

I bougth a magazine which included RedHat Linux 4.x, I was able to install it on my home PC, it was so cool, it had this thing called "man" where I could read about so many things despite not having internet access. The theory learned about Linux on the classes was actually true. I could do endless experiments with programming in C/C++ and bash scripting at home - without network. I could also read the programming (source) of all the programs I was using in Linux - It was really true this thing they told me about Open Source Software.

But I also liked that thing of the chat with people around the world which I had on the school Internet chat. I was connecting to the first Portuguese chat network, PTnet a project sponsored by some of the top Portuguese universities and later joined by the major Internet Service Providers, sometimes joined EFnet and some other major world chat networks to learn about things around the world. Keep in mind, there was still no Google, no LinkedIn no Twitter no Facebook and I was a big fan of Yahoo. Looked very small compared to the people I was able to find on chat.

You got banned (KLINE)

I have learned the hard way that some PTnet moderators did not like my 18ish behavior and ideals. Keep in mind that I was born 3 years after a dictatorship in Portugal and I was raised in a small town, different from the larger cities from which PTnet was managed. It's only fair that some of the professionals which had the skills to bring Internet to Portugal did not appreciate some of my actions.

I have learned that EFNet was running on open source software, and a cyberfriend of the time, MCS was able to provide the Internet access and the Linux virtual private servers required to run a chat network.

Me and too many Cyber friends to remember started an IRC Chat revolution in Portugal. The PTlink IRC network and the PTlink IRC Daemon distributed as Opensource under the GPL-2 license.

I have never learned about PTnet software being distributed under an OSS license - despite being managed by major public universities.

I learned that many years later back that the major critic of my C/C++ code, nick Shadow, later worked for 英伟达 . Based on his career path I must admit that he must be right. Sharing the code just for historical reference. At this point in time I thought Python was just a snake. I rarely look at C code this days, not even my own historical :)

Pedro Reis was my main cyber partner until we decided to shutdown PTlink because we found something more fun to do.

Other colleagues in the PT Chat/OSS revolution that might remember more details about PTlink: José Caneira ; Gon?alo Gomes ; Mauritz Antunes ; Marco..., skunk, etc (feel free to ask me to add you to some personal whatsapp group)