人活着，总要有一些可以固执坚守的信仰。
一、从爱好者到贡献者，不疯魔不成佛
1995年的一天，长沙电信局局长正在听取一个汇报，这是一个关于长沙信息港建设的项目，汇报者是一个身材瘦削、娃娃脸的男生，看起来可能才刚过20岁。
这位局长脸色一变，直接问了句：“你们公司没人了吗，怎么派一个小孩来汇报？”
这里不能怪局长看不起小孩子，实在是那个项目太大了，预算的经费在2700万元左右，如果按照实际购买力计算，可能相当于今天十亿级的项目。正常人想象的汇报者都应该是一个年龄较大的资深专家。
投标公司的领导见状，于是赶紧解释，这个男生叫章文嵩，是国防科技大学培养的高材生，也是整个公司最懂网络TCP/IP协议的人，而且整个项目的规划方案都是他写的。
最终，章文嵩还是成功完成了汇报。
实际上，章文嵩此时还没有完全毕业，他虽然本科读完了，但仍然在校继续读研究生，长沙信息港项目只能算是他课外的兼职。
项目的劳务不是很多，最大的好处是可以上网，起码比学校的网速要好一些。
学生时期的章文嵩每天泡在BBS上，总会接触到一些跟开源有关的东西，他希望从网上下载一个最新版Linux，但是看着龟爬一样的网速，他终于忍受不了了，于是就求着在美国的姐姐给他邮寄了Linux发行版的光盘。
章文嵩拿到Linux光盘后，于是到处装机，而且发现安装速度变快后，电脑很容易就成为一个类Unix的工作站，便开始尝试基于Linux的一些开发编程。
他自己觉得这件事很有意义，就努力游说兼职的长沙信息港公司，让公司从美国引进一些开源软件的光盘在网上售卖。
多年后，章文嵩对雷峰网谈起这段生意经历，笑道：“有好几个朋友告诉我，自己那段时间在长沙买过开源的光盘，没想到是我在背后推动的。其实这个生意并不赚钱，我主要是觉得能对国内开源有点推动作用。”
雷峰网也做过粗略估算，这些光盘成本相当高，唯一的优势就是公司可以批发拿货，但中间还有国外代送的费用，他们顶多只能维持大概的盈亏平衡。
章文嵩通过Linux，看到了一个更开阔更自由的软件世界，慢慢的也想做一个开源软件。
硕士期间，章文嵩想把花了两年时间写的一个数据库开源，但导师不同意，因为那是国家的课题，当时也没有相关的政策支持。这个程序后来慢慢消亡掉了，其实蛮可惜的。
等到硕士毕业时，他又想把过往的课题成果开源出去，但依然不被允许。多次受阻后，章文嵩一想，自己不如从头做一个软件再将它开源出去吧。
几年后，章文嵩开始念博士。他终于攒了一个成熟想法——基于Linux内核做网络的负载均衡。
不到两周时间，LVS（Linux Virtual Server）便被写出来了，章文嵩用它成功实现了调度两三台机器的目标。
终于可以开源了，章文嵩赶紧将LVS放在网上，并且在Linux内核的邮件列表上广而告之，告诉大家都可以来免费下载使用。
下载的人很多，欧洲、美洲、澳洲的用户都将LVS用了起来。
过了不久，章文嵩收到很多用户的使用反馈，他便根据这些建议不断改进优化LVS。有开发能力的使用者则直接基于原程序修改，并将修改后的补丁寄给他。
章文嵩收到后再将这些补丁一起合到LVS里，并给每一处修改都署上贡献者的大名。
他坚定的认为，每一个贡献者都必须要署名，这是属于他们的荣誉。
这个过程中，章文嵩认识了一个来自保加利亚的天才开发者Julian Anastosov，他们一起重构后的LVS 灵活度变好很多，性能也得到很大优化。
因为LVS在世界范围内的广泛传播，章文嵩在国际Linux圈内都有了影响力，开始由国防科技大学老师陪着出国参加一些国际会议——没错，正常情况下都是老师带着学生参加顶会，章文嵩这里情况正好相反，变成了老师陪着学生去参加。
章文嵩多次想着让Julian也出来参会，两人可以见见面，甚至提出对方的差旅费由自己来出，最终也没能说服对方。
Julian不太愿意露面出来和人交往，他一直醉心于技术研究。
按照章文嵩对Julian的描述的说法，Julian写程序非常厉害，但也很神秘，两个人一直通过邮件联系，即便时间已经过去二十多年，两人至今仍然没见过面，却始终维持着一段基于开源信仰的珍贵友谊。
后来，几乎所有的互联网公司都用过甚至还在用LVS，它已经成为互联网的基础构件，是Linux内核里使用最广泛的开源软件，没有之一。
时间回到1998年，在章文嵩重构LVS的时候，也曾经得到过国内开源界的支持，当时他作为一个学生，却独自运营着一个LVS开源社区，非常缺乏设备，就在此时一个网名叫Dfbb的人找到他。
这位Dfbb也很年轻，喜欢穿一身白色T恤，戴着白色鸭舌帽，腰间别着大哥大，外貌与《中国合伙人》里的邓超颇有几分相似。
他也不是凡人，而是Linux中文化最积极的推动者，也是水木清华BBS的 Linux斑竹（即版主），名叫方汉。
方汉这时候已经在拓林思公司工作，这次来的目的是代表公司向章文嵩捐赠两台服务器，以支持LVS的社区发展。
方汉对雷峰网谈起这段经历，曾经感慨过：“虽然大家所处的分类不一样，没有谁高谁低，但是国内第一个进Linux内核的项目肯定是LVS，章文嵩的历史地位应该是永远无法被追赶了。”
这次相识后，两人便一直断过联系。
方汉是国内第一代触网者，比雷峰网之前写过的那些黑客们还早很多。
黑客们和很多人一样都是从教育网开始接触互联网，而方汉是从专线开始的。
1994年正值本科毕业的方汉曾到中国科学院高能物理研究所实习。
高能所因为要跟国际物理同行进行数据交流，方汉一位师兄的博士生导师许榕生，便拉了一条64K的国际DDN专线，先拉到日本KEK(高能物理研究所)，然后从日本KK再接入到美国能源部斯坦福线性加速中心SLAC国家实验室。
他们建起了中国第一条互联网专线，也建立了中国第一个Web 服务器。这段中国早期接入互联网的经历，详见科技史著作《沸腾十五年》1995年篇目。
适逢其时，方汉这些人便率先用上了互联网。
两年后，有“中国Linux第一人”之称的宫敏博士用软盘从芬兰将Linux源代码第一次带回了中国，同时带回了80G容量的自由软件，也掀起了一波热潮。
这些事情引发早期触网的年轻科研人争相迷上Linux，大伙争做贡献者。
方汉那时候很喜欢MUD游戏（大致可以理解成没有图形，全靠文字和字符运行的网络游戏，特别需要玩家的想象力），尤其是当时比较流行的武侠类游戏，方汉的网名dfbb其实也是武侠风格的“东方不败”。
年轻的方汉很喜欢玩这个游戏，喜欢到自己上手研发，因此开始自学Linux架服务器。结果他发现Linux比MUD还好玩，兴趣自然转向了Linux。
因为Linux是开源的，方汉上手很快，便开始给Linux做各种工具，有中文打印、中文显示……甚至写出了EMACS上第一个支持联想的中文输入法，而且他只花了三天时间。
真切地受惠于开源后，方汉从这时开始理解到开源的好处。
为了专注研究Linux中文化，方汉当时还有了一个小团队，成员包括他高能物理所的两个师兄陈向阳、于明俭。
他们一起解决了很多Linux中文化的问题，在圈内一时有了“中文Linux三剑客”的名头。
1998年，TurboLinux（当时世界级Linux发行商）想要进入中国市场做Linux中文化业务，方汉等师兄弟三人便走进他们的视野。
现在年轻人可能不知道TurboLinux当时的地位，这里举个例子，TurboLinux总裁柯栗富（Cliff Miller）来中国开展业务的时候，曾经得到朱镕基总理的接见，并且参加了在人民大会堂举办的招待晚宴，讨论的都是“Linux在中国的使命”之类的话题。
柯栗富当时委托一个清华的学生去邀请方汉等人，方汉等人高兴的答应了下来，成为了该公司在中国的前三号员工，方汉还为TurboLinux翻译出了“拓林思”这个中文名字。
这年冬天，在方汉等人的努力下，拓林思发布了第一个中文版Linux软件产品。
方汉记得特别清楚，大年初一那天特别冷，但是他根本顾不上回家过年，他一直在印刷厂待着哪也没去。为了盯用户手册和包装盒印刷，他整整三天三夜没睡觉。
拓林思后来成为了世界公认的Linux中文化方面的领导者和奠基者。
二、不爱学历爱经历，挡不住的创业热情
方汉自从研究上了Linux就暂时放下了武侠游戏方面的爱好，他本来是水木清华武侠版第一任版主，后来又改任Linux 第二任版主，再后来他把Linux版主的位置又传给了那个邀请他来拓林思的清华学生，那个学生因此成为了第三任版主。
这个学生长得也很帅，名叫利启诚，当时他还在清华念书，只能以兼职员工身份在拓林思工作，他专攻Linux内核。
事实上，利启诚早就已经是水木清华Linux版的积极分子。
水木清华BBS是清华官方BBS，也是中国教育网第一批BBS，当年一经发布便很受欢迎。当时清华有一个现象，学生们到机房上实验课，许多人下课后都不肯走，喜欢赖在机房里蹭网上BBS，讨论各种前沿技术。水木清华 Linux 论坛聚集了一大堆对Linux感兴趣的年轻人，启蒙了至少一代开发者。
利启诚接任版主后，更加积极的聚拢这方面的活跃分子。
除了BBS，清华校园内还有一个特别积极讨论技术的线下组织——AKA。AKA组织由一帮清华北大学生自由组成，他们因崇尚国外的自由软件精神而聚在一起，该组织每周都有一次聚会，成员水平极高。当时，AKA组织在推广Linux和开源软件文化上也发挥了很大作用。
为了壮大拓林思，利启诚从这个组织中薅了大量人才。
他说服拓林思老板在清华大学附近租了一间办公室，并且在里面置办了不少计算机上网设备，作为免费的开源活动基地提供给AKA组织成员，以此吸引对开源和Linux感兴趣的人来玩——其中不少厉害的人后来都加入了拓林思。当然没有加入拓林思的也很厉害，据说当时清华97级的王兴（美团创始人）也经常去那里参加活动。
在利启诚、方汉等人的努力下，拓林思的发展引发了一波国内Linux热潮，许多本土Linux公司也应运而生，其中势头最猛的当属邓煜、李凌、廖生苗三人1999年创立于深圳的蓝点。三人创立蓝点仅一年时间，便将公司上市并且做到了4亿美元市值，堪称一时传奇，具体怎么做到的，《沸腾十五年》中也有详述。
随后Linux圈便爆发了著名的北京拓林思与深圳蓝点的大战。
当时，Linux在国内最大的痛点是不支持中文，毕竟国内用户看不懂，就很难大面积普及以及商业化。
两家公司为争夺Linux中文化的战略高地打的天翻地覆，对外都在使劲推自己的Linux中文化技术，在市场上也相互攻讦。
蓝点最先发布了一个内核和控制台都可以显示中文的版本，之后便开始声称拓林思是伪中文化，蓝点Linux才是真正的中文化。
此话一出，利启诚只用了三天时间便写出了一个内核代码在字符终端上显示中文的Linux版本，这让所有人都吃了一惊。以至于多年后拓林思成员（现欧拉开源社区技术委员会委员）陈祺德回忆自己从业几十年时，谈到最深刻的三件事之一就是，利启诚那一天展现的高超研发能力。在当时科技媒体上，利启诚也被形容为一时之传奇。
因为整天在拓林思做事，利启诚自然被学校老师视为“不务正业”，他研二时更是因为大量挂科面临着退学的危险。
这一学期期末考试过后，指导老师只能找他谈话，语重心长的说：“现在你要么专心学习，要么退学去做你喜欢的事算了，你这样两边都忙不过来，结果肯定不行的。”
利启诚特别苦闷，于是去找自己的好友，也是Linux新任版主、AKA社区活跃分子的苏哲征求意见。
苏哲最近对雷峰网回忆了自己当时给出的建议，他对利启诚说：“你为什么要退学呢，好不容易都读到现在了，再坚持一年吧，最少坚持拿个文凭。”
利启诚觉得有道理，但最终选择仍然是退学，他后来还是全身心投入了拓林思，并在后来追随拓林思创始人柯栗富去了美国，再后来在美国成为VMware早期员工之一，并在EMC收购VMware后就实现了财富自由，这都是后话了。
回到当时，利启诚退学的时候还是很苦闷的，苏哲等至交好友也非常惋惜。
这段时间前后，苏哲也被利启诚拉进了拓林思。
其实在此之前，苏哲就已经成名很久了，他在乌鲁木齐读高中就写出了风靡一时的工具软件SBM（Smart Boot Manager，可以简单理解为操作系统引导程序）。
在被保送到清华大学物理系后，苏哲很快就成为了远近闻名的攒机王。
当时的电脑并未统一操作系统，使用时要在Windows、DOS、Linux间切换，用户装上SBM就能做自动切换，非常方便。
苏哲便免费把SBM给中关村卖配件的人使用。
经由老家乌鲁木齐一个卖电脑配件的朋友介绍，苏哲认识了很多中关村卖配件的人，众人得到SBM后争相使用，他也能趁机拿到内部优惠价，从此便开始在清华校园发展起了攒机业务。
大家都知道苏哲会攒机，有门路买便宜货，甚至把他的名声传到隔壁北大、北航，以至于各校学生都来找他攒机。
认识利启诚后，两个人又一起做了改进版，在公开发布后，新版SBM引发了一阵下载热潮，其中不乏港澳台乃至国外的用户。
看到Smart Boot Manager如此受欢迎，苏哲便把源代码开放出去，作为自己首个开源项目进行维护。
这一次合作让两人关系更进一步，在苏哲心中，利启诚已经是一个大牛般的存在。
苏哲笑着对雷峰网回忆了两个人的友谊，形容道：“我那时候一直是跟利启诚混的。”
拓林思与蓝点大战时，苏哲还在学校念书，并未正式加入拓林思，只是作为外援部队时常跟这群人混在一起。
当利启诚的中文化软件面世后，苏哲感觉不够好用，其只能输入中文，且只能应用于单一系统，最后他便自己写了一个全新的输入法平台SCIM——这个平台可以支持多语言输入，后来成为了有名的开源软件。
老实说，苏哲、利启诚这些人都不是计算机专业出身，没有经过专业的编程训练，全凭自身兴趣专研才有的很高的造诣。不过自由软件之父理查德·斯托曼似乎也是物理系博士，也不是科班出身。兴趣和信仰在这类人成长中起了关键作用。
看到利启诚这帮朋友在外面厮杀，苏哲只能旁观，最后逐渐对念书拿学位也越来越没动力。在读博士期间，苏哲实在是撑不下去了，也开始整天“不务正业”，最后终于下定决心博士转硕士，提前毕业正式加入拓林思。
当利启诚为了Linux事业退学时，苏哲还曾力劝他不要冲动，没想到几年以后，他自己也放弃了更好的学历。
不过，苏哲选择的时间实在不好，国内Linux第一场大战结束于本世纪初的互联网泡沫中，此后拓林思和蓝点两家公司迅速衰败。苏哲又加入了Suse linux继续做开源软件，利启诚和方汉则追随柯栗富继续创业，做一个NAS相关的项目。
蓝点在此之前就已经选择转型，把当时刚刚兴起的嵌入式Linux作为重点方向。
就是这段时间，廖生苗等蓝点几位创始人找到了苏哲、利启诚的清华同学魏永明。
三、嵌入式的时代，机会不再重来
魏永明也是水木清华Linux活跃分子，AKA社区成员，与苏哲是一起在机房赖着上网的好友。
不过，他的方向却与众不同，他主要做的是嵌入式Linux（可以不严谨的理解成当年的物联网操作系统），这也是2000年时圈内最热门的方向之一，他也有自己维护的著名开源项目——MiniGUI。
魏永明一开始接触开源还是在清华精密仪器系读硕士的时候，他所在的课题组收到一个武汉来的研究生，对方提议大家可以看看在国外很火的Linux。
魏永明一听觉得有意思，就开始专研了解，惊喜地发现Linux是开源的。
他在对雷峰网谈起这段经历时，言词中仍然还保留着当年的喜悦之情：
“代码是开源的，这样我遇到问题就能自己研究改进，实在解决不了还能找世界范围内懂的人解决，不像Windows是一个黑盒，出了问题不知道找谁。”
心里有了底气，魏永明便向导师建议使用Linux来做课题。
导师是精密仪器系的，不是很懂计算机知识，但是他知道，魏永明是公认的编程高手。
导师便同意下来，但也明确告诉他，如果出了问题，他要自己负责。
最后，在魏永明的带领下，课题组首次尝试使用Linux，就成功完成了国内第一台产品化虚拟轴机床数控系统的研发工作。
在这个过程中，魏永明产生了写一个开源软件的想法。
在使用Linux时，他发现Linux很好用，唯一忍受不了的是其复杂且不成熟的图形界面系统X Window。
他觉得 X Window 的性能很差，很影响内核的实时性，无法用于需要强实时性的数控系统，于是决定重写一个轻量级的图形用户界面系统MiniGUI。
在这之前，圈内就很流行在DOS 上写一些小的GUI工具，魏永明也写过一个运行在DOS 之上的MiniGUI。
为了不断精进Linux技术，魏永明活跃于多个开源组织，先后认识了章文嵩、利启诚、谢华刚等人。
硕士毕业后，魏永明成功留校清华当老师，时间更自由以后，他便决定把MiniGUI在Linux重写一遍。魏永明带着几个研究生基于Linux重新设计了数控系统的架构，并利用业余时间为Linux系统重写MiniGUI。
在Linux上重写后的MiniGUI功能更丰富，用户体验更好。
现在，这个系统仍然应用于目前世界上最大的单孔径球面射电望远镜——贵州天眼中。
事实上，魏永明当时写MiniGUI时并不知道能被应用于如此大的项目里。
那年中旬，魏永明把MiniGUI的初版本发布在水木清华BBS上后，引起了大量讨论，很多人便鼓励魏永明继续做嵌入式Linux开发。
当时，嵌入式系统这一领域才刚刚兴起，国际上只有不多的几个开源项目是针对嵌入式 Linux的，有解决实时性问题的，也有解决GUI问题的。在魏永明开源发布 MiniGUI后，包括台湾在内，很多项目开始使用MiniGUI来开发各种各样的嵌入式系统，比如机顶盒、功能手机、MP4播放器等等，甚至还有欧美企业使用MiniGUI来开发嵌入式系统。
实质上，从2000年起，国内便迎来嵌入式Linux的发展机遇。此时，国外的嵌入式Linux也刚起步，海外的嵌入式基础软件（如Qt/Embedded）也刚开始做，国内外事实上没有谁强谁弱。
MiniGUI流传到国外后在国际上争锋，魏永明也就此开始了自己在嵌入式Linux方面的深耕。
2000年初，当时红极一时的深圳蓝点公司的几位创始人找到正在清华读博的魏永明，希望招揽他去做嵌入式系统。
在清华东南门外，包括蓝点三位创始人约魏永明吃饭。
他们告诉魏永明，蓝点在深圳赛迪大厦办公，腾讯就在他们楼上。
当时蓝点发展正如日中天，在一众Linux公司中锋芒毕露，而且刚在纳斯达克挂牌上市，股价曾一天涨超400%，影响力巨大。
魏永明真心觉得蓝点未来有可能成为腾讯第二，想着自己一定要抓住机会，便答应加入。
放弃留校清华的机会后，魏永明进入蓝点北京的研发中心做嵌入式项目。
但是好景不长，互联网泡沫破灭，蓝点股价随之暴跌，北京研发中心停止发展，魏永明只能离开，之后又加入中科红旗。
在红旗待了1年三个月后，魏永明选择出来自己创业，便基于MiniGUI创办了飞漫软件，将开源做成了产业。
在此期间，MiniGUI曾先后用于大量的嵌入式产品中，其中出货量较大的主要有功能手机、机顶盒、数码相框等消费类电子产品。即使到今天， MiniGUI仍然在监控、门禁、仪表、家电面板等产品中广泛使用着。
大家都知道目前全球最大的两大手机操作系统是Android和IOS，十五年前Android凭借开源抢占了全球大部分市场，国内手机品牌基本使用的都是Android操作系统。
也许有人会问，为什么国内没有一个原创的智能手机操作系统呢？
其实，魏永明经历过安卓系统开源历史，也亲自参与过国内手机操作系统研发，本来有机会做出一个基于Linux的智能手机系统。
早在2002年，国内就有人提前布局做基于Linux的智能手机操作系统方案。
飞漫成立之初时，魏永明遇到中国普天公司下面的一个子公司来找合作，对方说想在MiniGUI基础上做智能手机的操作系统，但这个项目最终因为经费审批效率问题停止。
2005年，魏永明又遇到一个美国公司来寻求合作，对方希望飞漫帮他们基于Linux和MiniGUI开发一款智能手机操作系统，但应用程序使用Java编程语言。
魏永明当时还拿到一个海外华人的投资——对方通过台湾朋友知道MiniGUI后，特意跑到北京找到魏永明，给这个项目投资一笔钱作为支持，但这个项目还没做完，Google那边就传来了开源Android系统的消息。
Google开源Android时，魏永明团队的智能系统实际上也快做成型了，但终究还是棋差一招。
魏永明后来才知道，那位海外华人当时是知道谷歌正在寻找一款面向智能手机的操作系统，所以在看到MiniGUI后便想利用飞漫的技术积累，快速开发出一个智能手机操作系统卖给谷歌，可惜晚了一步，时不我予。
2007年11月，Google正式开源Android。在没有竞争对手的情况下，安卓的扩张犹如坐上火箭，很快在全球的市场份额首次超过塞班系统，跃居全球第一。Android开源以后，美国公司很快便停止了支持魏永明的项目。
多年以后，魏永明对这件事也有过反思，“我们当时不能因为Android开源就放弃了，如果当时继续坚持，或许在安卓发展初期我们还能有一个系统能与之抗衡。”
魏永明在谈这件事时语气中充满了遗憾，但我们能感觉到这种遗憾并不单是对MiniGUI，更是对国内开源系统的发展。
很长时间以来，所有人都知道做开源是要做生态的，但是实际过程中，有能力的企业其实并不会愿意为了那么长远的目标去做事，以至于各家研究的很多关键技术都是兼容别人的操作系统，做来做去都是在丰富别人的生态，说到底还是为别人做嫁衣。
毕竟，大家都要考虑自己的现实利益。而且，公司如果不给出利益驱动，很多开发者个人即便有这个任务，也不会真的投入很大精力。
开源要想在中国长久发展，与产业深度绑定是一条必由之路。
四、一起搞事业吧，建立自己的生态
在魏永明刚创业做飞漫期间，一个叫谢华刚的人来找他帮忙，这是他清华的校友，也是水木清华Linux上的活跃分子。
当时谢华刚正在一起创业，但还没有注册公司，需要魏永明给些帮助。
而且，谢华刚的合伙人也不是别人，正是本文开头提到的LVS创始人章文嵩，两人都是魏永明的老相识了。
魏永明自然给予大力支持。
另外，谢华刚和魏永明一样，也是少数有自己独立维护Linux开源项目，并且具有巨大影响力的开发者。
巧合的是，谢华刚也不是科班出身，他本科读的是热能系专业，不过他一直对Linux和安全感兴趣，研究生时跟着导师白硕转到智能中心，开始做863项目。
正是这个机遇，谢华刚就此踏上安全这条路，也是这段时间开发了LIDS（Linux Intrusion Detection System）。谢华刚在清华读书时，也活跃在当时几个开源圈子里，例如拓林思在清华开办的开源基地，除了王兴，谢华刚也在里面兼职。
LIDS是用于Linux中的一个入侵检测系统。在Linux系统中安装了LIDS之后，文件系统、进程、访问控制都将得到保护。无论是普通用户还是超级用户都不能修改被LIDS保护的文件，也不能中断被Lids保护的进程；任何人对系统的访问都将受到ACL规则的严格限制。
当谢华刚想要对LIDS开源时，第一时间便找到正在中科院计算所访问的章文嵩。
在章文嵩的指导下，谢华刚学会了写QA form list，开始往国外网站发布产品——那时开源圈还没有GitHub，开源产品一般都发布在特定的几个网站上。
一经发布，LIDS在海内外反响很大，该项目成为全球性Linux开发项目中由中国人主持的少数项目之一。
谢华刚也因此成为国内最早的一批白帽。
几个月前，谢华刚对雷峰网回忆早年开源经历，仍然忍不住谈起了章文嵩，“在Linux底层开源方面，章文嵩是做的最早也是最好的一个。”
两人那时候关系极好，又都是刚刚毕业，于是便一起创业。
当时章文嵩与国防科大的朋友正在做一个基于LVS的负载均衡器的盒子硬件，这是他第一次尝试创业，便拉着谢华刚一起干。
项目顺利融了350万人民币，但由于团队没有经验花钱大手大脚，虽然得到了各方支持，但很快便在春节后就关门了。谢华刚后来去了美国，跟随有着“硅谷安全创业教父”之称的弓峰敏闯荡硅谷安全圈。
章文嵩则继续留在国内，开启了自己创业六载，壮志难酬的艰难历程。
2003年，章文嵩从长沙北上，在北京联合创办了比酷——一个类似YouTube的视频网站，但YouTube是在两年后才成立的。比酷网很快有了很大的访问流量，初始公司因为巨大的带宽成本无法承担，就接着做阿比酷P2P下载，但很快就因为内容的版权问题遭遇挫折。
例如做语音聊天室Meet2Talk、网络电话TelTel、无绳IP电话、远程数码相框，这些项目在今天看来仍然是创新，但多走一步是先驱，多走三步就是先烈，他们的想法太超前总是很难实现。
在最后一次创业9×9.TV个人电视台也以失败告终后，章文嵩在家里闲赋了一个半月时间，琢磨下一个创业项目。
他妻子不忍心他的才华被浪费，于是开始下达“驱逐令”，催促他出去继续创业或者找工作。
当时章文嵩正收到阿里的盛情邀请，便答应了去阿里。
2009年9月，章文嵩再次从武汉出发，这次是前往杭州，在这里他遇到过许多难题和无数个挑灯夜战，但不再彷徨无助。
最初，核心系统部门只有章文嵩一个人，他是从淘宝其他部门的TFS（Taobao File System），Tair(Taobao Pair)两个部门的技术团队中剥离出大概十个人，才组建了核心系统初始团队。
为了搭建这个部门，章文嵩到处笼络人才，还找到当时已经在谷歌工作的苏哲，天天不厌其烦地游说其来淘宝。
但是，苏哲当时正要去美国，只能拒绝了章文嵩的邀请，但还是给他推荐了一个人李勇。
李勇是苏哲的老友，也是一个开源狂热爱好者，在SUSE Linux待了很多年。
李勇到淘宝后，牵头做了一个内核组，负责维护内部的Linux系统，这也是后来开源操作系统龙蜥的雏形。
章文嵩在帮助搭建淘宝底层平台的同时，也一直在推动阿里的开源进程。
章文嵩告诉自己的上级也是阿里联合创始人之一的吴泳铭，“淘宝有很多底层软件都是通过开源+自主研发的，用开源的特别多，淘宝是开源的受益者，淘宝也应该开源回馈社会；同时还能让外界知道淘宝的技术水平，让外界看到淘宝的开放”。
在得到吴泳铭支持后，章文嵩很快推动开源了淘宝100多款软件，把淘宝的底层技术大部分都开源了。章文嵩后来成为整个阿里集团的开源委员会主席。
这是国内互联网巨头首次成立开源委员会，并将自己的技术大规模对外开源，对其他互联网公司产生巨大影响。
在此之后，开源委员会已经成为各大互联网公司“标配”，开源与产业的结合更加深入人心。
五、后记
本世纪初的一天，章文嵩、方汉、利启诚、苏哲、魏永明、谢华刚这些人都还是帅气可爱的年轻小伙子。
自由软件运动领袖 理查德·斯托曼来中国宣传Linux。
章文嵩在演讲后请他到上海老饭店吃饭，理查德·斯托曼腆着个大肚楠，几乎是一个人吃完了整只糯米鸭，胡子和手上都沾满了油渍，没有任何拘束；
苏哲陪着理查德·斯托曼去爬长城，对方穿着一件朴素的蓝色外套，满胡子拉碴，天真的笑着与他合照；……
让所有人印象深刻的是，理查德·斯托曼随身背着一个笛子和计算机，全身上下除了衣物再没有多余值钱的东西，这就是他全部的家当。
作为自由软件运动的斗士，伟大的理想主义者，他或许固执、落伍、过于倔强，但是他矢志不渝的信仰，却是无比珍贵的。
理查德·斯托曼来中国那年，身无长物，没有什么实际东西可以给中国的，但是他却在中国年轻的开发者们心里种下了一颗种子。
一代人做一代人的事情，章文嵩、方汉、苏哲、魏永明等等中国开源先驱们不断探索创新，让这颗种子在中国生根发芽，并且将开源的信仰发扬传承。
技术上的创新或许会随着时代发展慢慢褪色，可是精神上的影响却会一直光芒万丈。
翻译：
People alive, always want to have some can stubbornly adhere to the faith.
1. From lovers to contributors, no madness, no Buddha
One day in 1995, the director of the Changsha Telecommunications Bureau was being briefed on a project to build an information port in Changsha by a thin, baby-faced boy who might have looked just over 20.
The director’s face changed and he asked directly, “Is there no one in your company? Why do you send a child to report?”
I can’t blame the director for looking down on children, but the project was too big. The budget was about 27 million yuan. If calculated according to the actual purchasing power, it might be equivalent to a project of one billion yuan today. A normal person would imagine that the presenter would be an older, senior expert.
The leadership of the bidding company saw, so hurriedly explain, the boy called Zhang Wensong, is the National University of Defense Technology to cultivate high students, but also the company most understand the network TCP/IP protocol, and the whole project planning scheme is he wrote.
Finally, Zhang Wensong or successfully completed the report.
In fact, Zhang Wensong is not completely graduated at this time, although he finished the undergraduate, but still in school to continue to study postgraduate, Changsha information Port project can only be his extracurricular part-time.
The project is not a lot of labor, the biggest advantage is the Internet, at least than the school Internet speed is better.
Zhang Wensong of student period bubble on BBS every day, always come into contact with some things related to open source, he hopes to download a latest version of Linux from the Internet, but looking at the turtle crawling the same network speed, he finally can not bear, so beg in the United States sister sent him a Linux distribution CD.
Zhang Wensong got the Linux CD, so installed everywhere, and found that the installation speed becomes faster, the computer is easy to become a UNIx-like workstation, and began to try some Linux-based development programming.
He thought it was meaningful, so he lobbied his part-time employer, Changsha Information Port, to bring in CDS of open-source software from the United States and sell them online.
Years later, Zhang Wensong told Leifeng about the business experience, laughing: “Several friends told me that they bought open source CDS in Changsha at that time, did not think I was behind the push. In fact, this business is not profitable, I mainly think it can promote the domestic open source.”
Leifeng net has also done a rough estimate, the cost of these discs is quite high, the only advantage is that the company can take goods wholesale, but there are foreign agents in the middle of the cost, they can only maintain about break-even at best.
Through Linux, Zhang Wensong saw a wider and freer software world, and slowly wanted to do an open source software.
During her master’s degree, Zhang Wensong wanted to open source a database she had spent two years writing, but her tutor didn’t agree because it was a national project and there was no relevant policy support at the time. The program slowly died out, which is a shame.
When he graduated from the master’s degree, he wanted to open source his previous project results, but he was still not allowed to. After many blocked, Zhang Wensong thought, he is better to do a software from scratch and then open source it out.
A few years later, Zhang began studying for a doctorate. He finally accumulated a mature idea – based on the Linux kernel to do network load balancing.
In less than two weeks, LVS (Linux Virtual Server) was written, and Zhang used it to achieve his goal of dispatching two or three machines.
Finally open source, Zhang quickly put LVS on the web and advertised it on the Linux kernel mailing list, telling everyone to download it for free.
Many people downloaded LVS, and users in Europe, America and Australia used it.
After a while, Zhang received a lot of feedback from users, and he continued to improve and optimize the LVS based on these suggestions. Users with the ability to develop will directly modify the original program and send the modified patch to him.
When Zhang received the patches, he put them together in the LVS and tagged each change with the contributor’s name.
He was adamant that every contributor must be signed off as a matter of honor.
During this process, Zhang met Julian Anastosov, a talented developer from Bulgaria. Together, they reconstructed LVS with much better flexibility and optimized performance.
Due to the wide spread of LVS in the world, Zhang Wensong became influential in the international Linux circle and began to go abroad to attend some international conferences accompanied by teachers from the National University of Defense Technology – yes, normally the teachers take the students to the top meetings, Zhang Wensong here is the opposite, the teacher accompanied the students.
Zhang tried many times to get Julian to attend the conference so that they could meet, and even offered to pay for each other’s travel expenses, but failed to convince him.
Julian didn’t like to meet people. He was too much into technology.
According to Zhang Wensong’s description of Julian, Julian is a very good programmer, but also very mysterious, the two people have been in contact by email, even though it has been more than 20 years, the two still haven’t met, but still maintain a precious friendship based on the open source faith.
Since then, almost every Internet company has used or still uses LVS, which has become the foundation building block of the Internet and is the most widely used open source software in the Linux kernel.
Back in 1998, when Zhang Wensong reconstructed LVS, he had been supported by the domestic open source community. At that time, he was a student, but he was running a LVS open source community alone, very lack of equipment. At that time, a net named Dfbb found him.
This Dfbb is also very young, like to wear a white T-shirt, wearing a white cap, waist with a mobile phone, appearance and “Chinese Partner” in Deng Chao quite similar.
He is not just a man, but the most active promoter of Linux culture, and is also the Linux Zebra (ie moderator) of Shuimu Tsinghua BBS, named Fang Han.
Fang, who was already working for Tullinsi, came to donate two servers to Zhang on behalf of the company to support the LVS community development.
Fang Han talked about this experience to Leifeng net, once sighed: “although we are in the classification is not the same, no one high who low, but the first into the Linux kernel project is definitely LVS, Zhang Wensong’s historical status should be never be chased.”
After this meeting, the two have been out of touch ever since.
Fang Han is a first-generation Chinese netminder, long before the hackers Leifeng has written about.
While hackers, like many others, started with the education network, Mr Fang started with a dedicated line.
Fang Han worked as an intern at the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1994 when he was just graduating from college.
In order to exchange data with international physics counterparts, Xu Rongsheng, doctoral supervisor of one of Fang Han’s senior students, set up a 64K international DDN line, first to KEK(Institute of High Energy Physics) in Japan, and then from KK in Japan to SLAC National Laboratory, Stanford Linear Acceleration Center of the US Department of Energy.
They set up China’s first dedicated Internet line and China’s first Web server. This experience of China’s early access to the Internet is described in the 1995 edition of “Fifteen Years of Boiling”, a science and technology history.
At that time, people like Fang Han were the first to use the Internet.
Two years later, Dr. Gong Min, known as “the first Linux person in China”, brought the Linux source code back to China for the first time by floppy disk from Finland, and also brought back 80GB of free software, which also set off a wave of enthusiasm.
All of this has led to a scramble among early adopters of young scientists to get hooked on Linux and become contributors.
At that time, Fang Han was very fond of MUD games (roughly understood as the online games without graphics, which relied on characters and characters, especially the players’ imagination), especially the popular Wuxia games at that time. In fact, Fang Han’s online name dfbb was also a wuxia style “Oriental Invincibles”.
Young Fang Han like to play this game, like to their own research and development, so began to learn Linux rack server. He found that Linux was more fun than MUDs, and his interest naturally turned to Linux.
Because Linux is open source, Fang Han started to get used to Linux quickly, and began to make various tools for Linux, including Chinese printing, Chinese display… He even wrote the first association-enabled Chinese input method on EMACS, and it only took him three days.
Having truly benefited from open source, Fang Han began to understand the benefits of open source.
To focus on Linux culture, Fang Han had a small team, including two of his senior brothers from the Institute of High Energy Physics, Chen Xiangyang and Yu Mingjian.
Together, they solved many cultural problems in Linux and became known as the “Three Musketeers of Chinese Linux”.
In 1998, TurboLinux (then a world-class Linux distributor) wanted to enter the Chinese market to do Linux culture business, and Fang Han and his three brothers came into their vision.
Today’s young people may not know the status of TurboLinux at that time. For example, when Cliff Miller, president of TurboLinux, came to China to do business, he was met by Premier Zhu Rongji and attended a reception dinner at the Great Hall of the People. The discussion was all about “the mission of Linux in China”.
Mr. Ke commissioned a Tsinghua student to invite Mr. Fang and others, who happily agreed and became the company’s No. 3 employee in China. Mr. Fang also translated the Chinese name for TurboLinux.
That winter, thanks to the efforts of Fang Han and others, Tolins released its first Chinese-language Linux software product.
Fang Han remembered very well that it was very cold on the first day of the New Year, but he did not bother to go home for the New Year. He stayed in the printing house and did not go anywhere. He stayed up three days and nights staring at the manual and the box printing.
Tolins went on to become a worldwide leader and founder of the cultural aspects of Linux.
2. Do not love education, love experience, can not stop the entrepreneurial enthusiasm
Fang Han has temporarily put down his love of Wuxia games since he studied Linux. He was the first moderator of Shuimu Tsinghua Wuxia Edition, and then he became the second moderator of Linux. Later, he passed the position of Linux moderator to the Tsinghua student who invited him to Tuolinsi, and the student became the third moderator.
The good-looking student, named Li Qicheng, was a student at Tsinghua University at the time, working at Tolins as a part-time employee, specializing in the Linux kernel.
In fact, Li has long been an activist in Shuimu Tsinghua Linux.
Shuimu Tsinghua BBS is the official BBS of Qing Hua, is also the first batch of BBS of China education network, as soon as it was released, it was very popular. At that time, there was a phenomenon in Tsinghua University. Students went to the computer room for experimental classes. Many of them refused to go after class. The Shuimu Tsinghua Linux Forum gathered a lot of young people interested in Linux and enlightened at least one generation of developers.
Mr Lichickson, who took over as moderator, has been more active in gathering such activists.
In addition to BBS, there is also an offline group on Tsinghua campus that is particularly active in discussing technology — AKA. AKA is composed of a group of students from Tsinghua and Peking Universities who get together to advocate the foreign spirit of free software. The group meets once a week and has a very high level of members. At the time, AKA also played a big role in promoting Linux and open source software culture.
To build up Tollins, Mr Lichtman pulled a lot of talent from the organisation.
He persuaded Tollins boss to rent an office near Tsinghua University and set up a lot of computer networking equipment in it, which he made available to AKA members as a free open source activity base to attract people interested in open source and Linux – many of whom would later join Tollins. It is said that Wang Xing (the founder of Meituan), who was in Qing Hua Class 97 at that time, often went there to participate in activities.
Thanks to the efforts of Li Qichen, Fang Han and others, the development of Tolinsi triggered a wave of domestic Linux boom, and many local Linux companies came into being. The most powerful one is Blue Point, which was founded in 1999 by Deng Yu, Li Ling and Liao Shengmiao in Shenzhen. Within a year of founding Blue Dot, the trio took the company public and it was worth $400 million, a feat that was legendary. Fifteen Years On the Boil explains how they did it.
Then the famous battle between Beijing Tolins and Shenzhen Blue Dot broke out in Linux circles.
At that time, the biggest pain point of Linux in China was that it did not support Chinese. After all, it was difficult for domestic users to understand it, so it was difficult to popularize and commercialize.
The two companies are fighting for the strategic high ground of Linux culture, both pushing their own Linux culture technology and attacking each other in the market.
Blue Dot first released a version in which both the kernel and console could display Chinese, and then began to claim that Tolins was a fake Chinese culture and Blue Dot Linux was the real Chinese culture.
It took him just three days to write a version of Linux with kernel code that displayed Chinese on character terminals, which surprised everyone. Many years later, Chen Qide, a member of Tuolinsi (now a member of the Technical Committee of Euler Open Source Community), recalled his decades in the industry and said that one of the three most profound things was the superb research and development capability demonstrated by Licicheng that day. In the tech press at the time, Ricci was described as a legend of the moment.
Because he worked all day at Tullinsi, he was naturally regarded as “not doing his job” by his school teachers. In his second year of graduate school, he was in danger of dropping out because of a large number of failing grades.
After the final examination of this semester, the instructor could only talk to him and said earnestly, “Now you can either concentrate on your study or drop out to do what you like. You are too busy to do either way, and the result is definitely no good.”
In particular, he turned to his friend, AKA community activist and new Linux moderator, Zhe Su, for advice.
Recalling his advice to Leifeng recently, Su said to Lichi: “Why do you want to drop out? You’ve made it so far. Stick with it for one more year, or at least get a diploma.”
Lichickson made sense, but ultimately dropped out of school. He went on to devote himself to Tollins and later followed its founder Quentin to the United States, where he became one of VMware’s early employees and became financially free after EMC bought VMware, and so on.
Back then, Li Qicheng dropped out of school was still very depressed, Su Zhe and other close friends are also very sorry.
Before and after this period, Su Zhe was also pulled into the Tuo Linsi by Li Qicheng.
In fact, Su Zhe has been famous for a long time, he was a high school student in Urumqi, wrote the popular tool SBM (Smart Boot Manager, can be simply understood as the operating system boot program).
After being recommended for admission to the physics department of Tsinghua University, Su Zhe quickly became known for his ability to cram computers.
At that time, the computer did not have a unified operating system, so the user had to switch between Windows, DOS and Linux when using, and the user installed SBM could do automatic switching, which was very convenient.
Su Zhe will be free to sell SBM to Zhongguancun accessories people use.
Through the hometown of Urumqi, a friend selling computer accessories introduced, Su Zhe met a lot of Zhongguancun selling accessories people, they get SBM after the rush to use, he can also take the opportunity to get the internal discount price, since then began to develop in the Tsinghua campus of the machine business.
Su Zhe was known for his ability to get cheap goods and even spread his reputation to Peking University and Beihang University next door, so that students from all schools came looking for him.
After getting to know him, the two worked together to make an improved version. After its public release, the new version of SBM triggered a wave of downloads, including many users in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and even abroad.
Seeing the popularity of the Smart Boot Manager, Suzer made the source code available for maintenance as his first open source project.
This cooperation makes the relationship between the two further, in the heart of Su Zhe, Li Qicheng is already a big ox.
“I was always hanging out with Li Qicheng,” Su told Leifeng with a smile, recalling their friendship.
At the time of the battle between Torrinth and Blue Dot, Suzer was still at school and did not officially join Torrinth, but often mingled with the group as a foreign aid.
When Mr. Lichi’s Chinese software came out, Mr. Su felt that it was not working well enough, that it could only be used in Chinese and on a single system, so he ended up writing a new input platform, SCIM, that could support input in multiple languages and became known as open source software.
To be honest, Su Zhe, Li Qicheng, these people are not computer professional background, not through professional programming training, all by their own interests to study the very high attainments. But it seems that Richard Stallman, the father of free software, also had a PhD in physics and was not trained in it. Interests and beliefs play a key role in the development of such people.
Seeing Li Qicheng this group of friends fighting outside, Su Zhe can only watch, and finally gradually get a degree is less and less motivation. During the doctoral study, Su Zhe was really unable to sustain, also began to “do nothing” all day, and finally made up his mind to transfer doctor to master, graduate in advance and formally join Tulinsi.
When he dropped out of school to pursue a career in Linux, Mr. Su urged him not to, only to forgo a better degree a few years later.
But the timing couldn’t have been worse. The first big domestic Linux battle ended in the dot-com bubble in the early 2000s, and both Tollins and Blue Dot quickly fell apart. Su joined Suse linux to continue working on open source software, while Kai Seng and Han Fang followed Ke’s lead and worked on a NAS-related project.
Blue Dot had already made the transition to focus on the then-nascent embedded Linux.
It was during this time that Liao Shengmiao and other founders of Blue Point found Wei Yongming, a Tsinghua classmate of Su Zhe and Li Qicheng.
3. The embedded era, the opportunity will not come again
Wei Yongming is also an active member of Shuimu Tsinghua Linux and a member of AKA community. He and Su Zhe are friends who stay on the Internet together in the computer room.
However, his focus was on embedded Linux (loosely understood as the Internet of Things operating system of the year), which was one of the hottest trends in the industry in 2000, and he also maintained a famous open source project called MiniGUI.
Wei Yongming first learned about open source when he was studying for a master’s degree in the Department of Precision Instruments at Tsinghua University. His research group received a graduate student from Wuhan who suggested that we take a look at Linux, which is very popular in foreign countries.
When Wei Yongming heard this, he began to study it and was surprised to find that Linux is open source.
When he talked about this experience to Leifeng, his words still retained the joy of the past:
“The code is open source, so that when I encounter problems, I can study and improve myself. If I really can’t solve them, I can find people around the world who know how to solve them. Unlike Windows, which is a black box, I don’t know who to turn to when there is a problem.”
With the confidence in his heart, Wei Yongming suggested to his tutor to use Linux to do the project.
My tutor is from the Department of Precision Instrument. He does not know much about computer knowledge, but he knows that Wei Yongming is a recognized programming master.
The instructor agreed, but made it clear that if anything went wrong, he would be held responsible.
Finally, under the leadership of Wei Yongming, the research group successfully completed the research and development of the first production-oriented virtual axis machine tool CNC system in China by trying to use Linux for the first time.
In the process, Wei came up with the idea of writing open source software.
When he used Linux, he found it useful. The only thing he couldn’t stand was its complex and immature graphical system, X Window.
He felt that the performance of X Window was very poor, which affected the real-time performance of the kernel, and could not be used in numerical control systems requiring strong real-time performance, so he decided to rewrite a lightweight graphical user interface system MiniGUI.
Before this, it was popular to write small GUI tools on DOS, and Wei had written a MiniGUI that ran on DOS.
In order to continuously improve Linux technology, Wei Yongming is active in several open source organizations, and has met Zhang Wensong, Li Qicheng, Xie Huagang and others.
After graduating with a master’s degree, Wei Yongming successfully stayed in Qinghua as a teacher. When he had more free time, he decided to rewrite MiniGUI on Linux. With several graduate students, Wei redesigned the architecture of CNC systems based on Linux, and spent his spare time rewriting MiniGUI for Linux.
The MiniGUI rewrite on Linux has more functionality and a better user experience.
The system is still used in Guizhou Tiandye, the world’s largest single-aperture spherical radio telescope.
In fact, Wei had no idea when he wrote MiniGUI that it could be applied to such a large project.
In the middle of that year, after Wei posted the first version of MiniGUI on Shuimu Tsinghua BBS, there was a lot of discussion, and many people encouraged Wei to continue working on embedded Linux development.
At that time, the field of embedded system was just emerging, and there were only a few open source projects in the world for embedded Linux, some solving real-time problems, and some solving GUI problems. After Wei Yongming released MiniGUI, many projects including Taiwan began to use MiniGUI to develop a variety of embedded systems, such as set-top box, feature phone, MP4 player and so on, and even European and American enterprises used MiniGUI to develop embedded systems.
In essence, since 2000, China has ushered in the development opportunity of embedded Linux. At this time, foreign Embedded Linux has just started, and overseas embedded basic software (such as Qt/Embedded) has just started. In fact, there is no one strong or weak at home and abroad.
After MiniGUI spread to foreign countries, Wei Yongming also started his own deep cultivation in embedded Linux.
In early 2000, the founders of Shenzhen Blue Point, then a hot company, approached Wei Yongming, who was a PhD student at Tsinghua University, to recruit him to work in embedded systems.
Outside the southeast gate of Tsinghua, including the three founders of Blue Point, met Wei Yongming for dinner.
They told Mr. Wei that Tencent was upstairs from the Sadie Building in Shenzhen, where Blue Dot worked.
At the time, Blue Dot was in the ascendant. It had just listed on Nasdaq, and its stock price had risen more than 400% in one day.
Wei Yongming really think blue dot may become the second Tencent in the future, thinking that they must seize the opportunity, they agreed to join.
After giving up the opportunity to stay at Tsinghua University, Wei joined Blue Point’s research and development center in Beijing to work on embedded projects.
But not long, the Internet bubble burst, blue dot stock price plummeted, Beijing R & D center stopped development, Wei Yongming can only leave, and then join the red flag.
After staying in Hongqi for one year and three months, Wei Yongming chose to start his own business and founded Feiman Software based on MiniGUI, turning open source into an industry.
During this period, MiniGUI has been used in a large number of embedded products, among which the major shipments are feature phones, set-top boxes, digital photo frames and other consumer electronics. Even today, MiniGUI is still widely used in monitoring, access control, meters, home appliance panels and other products.
As we all know, the two largest mobile phone operating systems in the world are Android and IOS. Fifteen years ago, Android seized most of the global market with open source, and domestic mobile phone brands basically use the Android operating system.
Some may ask why there is no original smartphone operating system in China.
In fact, Wei Yongming has experienced the history of Android open source system and personally participated in the development of mobile phone operating system in China, so he had the opportunity to make a Linux-based smartphone system.
As early as 2002, some people in advance layout of smart phone operating system based on Linux.
In the early days of Feiman, Wei met a subsidiary of China’s Putian Corporation to seek cooperation. The company said it wanted to make a smartphone operating system based on MiniGUI, but the project was eventually stopped because of the efficiency of funding approval.
In 2005, Mr. Wei was approached by a U.S. company that wanted Feiman to help develop a smartphone operating system based on Linux and MiniGUI, but with applications in the Java programming language.
Wei also received an investment from an overseas Chinese, who knew about MiniGUI through a friend in Taiwan and went to Beijing to find Wei to invest a sum of money to support the project. But before the project was finished, the news of open source Android system came from Google.
When Google opened Android, Wei Yongming’s team was actually on the verge of forming an intelligent system, but it was still a bad move.
Wei later learned that the overseas Chinese knew that Google was looking for an operating system for smartphones, so after seeing MiniGUI, he wanted to quickly develop a smartphone operating system and sell it to Google using Feiman’s accumulated technology. Unfortunately, the time was too late.
In November 2007, Google officially opened Android. In the absence of competitors, Android expanded like a rocket, and soon surpassed Symbian in global market share for the first time, becoming the world’s first. American companies stopped supporting Mr. Wei’s project soon after Android became open.
Years later, Wei Yongming also reflected on the matter, “We couldn’t give up just because Android was open source. If we had continued to insist, we might have had a system that could compete with Android in its early development.”
Wei’s tone is full of regret when he talks about this, but one can sense that this regret is not just for MiniGUI, but also for the development of open source systems in China.
For a long time, everyone has known that open source is about ecology, but in practice, competent enterprises are not willing to do things for such a long-term goal, so that many key technologies are compatible with others’ operating systems, and all they do is to enrich others’ ecology. In the end, it is for others to do things.
After all, everyone has their own practical interests to consider. Also, if the company doesn’t provide a profit drive, many individual developers don’t really put much effort into the task if they have one.
If open source wants to develop in China for a long time, deep binding with the industry is the only way.
4. Do business together, build their own ecology
At the beginning of Wei’s career, Xie Huagang, a Tsinghua alumnus and an activist on Shuimu Tsinghua Linux, came to him for help.
At that time, Xie Huagang was starting a business together, but had not yet registered a company and needed Wei Yongming’s help.
Moreover, Xie Huagang’s partner is none other than Zhang Wensong, the founder of LVS mentioned at the beginning of this article. Both of them are old acquaintances of Wei Yongming.
Wei Yongming naturally gave strong support.
In addition, Xie Huagang, like Wei Yongming, is one of the few influential developers who maintain their own Linux open source projects.
Coincidentally, Xie Huagang is also a non-academic. He majored in thermal energy as an undergraduate. However, he has always been interested in Linux and security.
It is this opportunity that Xie Hua just stepped on the road of security and developed LIDS (Linux Intrusion Detection System) during this period. When Xie was a student at Tsinghua University, he was also active in several open source circles at that time. Such as the open source base run by Tolinsi in Tsinghua. Besides Wang Xing, Xie Huagang also worked there part-time.
LIDS is an intrusion detection system used in Linux. With LIDS installed on a Linux system, file systems, processes, and access controls are all protected. Neither common users nor superusers can modify files protected by LIDS, nor can they interrupt processes protected by Lids. Anyone’s access to the system is strictly restricted by ACL rules.
When Xie Huagang wanted to open source LIDS, he first found Zhang Wensong, who was visiting the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Computing.
Under Zhang’s guidance, Xie Hua had just learned to write QA form lists and started publishing products on foreign websites — at that time, there was no GitHub in the open source world, and open source products were usually published on a few specific websites.
Since its release, LIDS has been well received both at home and abroad, making it one of the few global Linux development projects led by a Chinese person.
Therefore, Xie Huagang became one of the earliest white hats in China.
A few months ago, Xie Huagang recalled his early open source experience to Leifeng. But he still couldn’t help talking about Zhang Wensong. “Zhang Wensong is one of the earliest and best in Linux underlying open source.”
The two were close and fresh out of school, so they started a business together.
At that time, Zhang Wensong and his friends at the University of Defense Science and Technology were doing a box hardware based on LVS load balancer. This was his first attempt to start a business, and he pulled Xie Huagang to do it.
The project successfully raised 3.5 million RMB. But due to the team’s lack of experience and extravagant spending, although it was supported by all parties. It was soon closed after the Spring Festival. Xie Huagang later went to the United States and followed Gong Fengmin. Known as “Godfather of Silicon Valley security entrepreneurship”, to explore the Silicon Valley security circle.
Zhang Wensong continues to stay in the country, opened their own business for six years, ambition is difficult to pay.
In 2003, Zhang moved north from Changsha to Beijing to co-found Biku. A video site similar to YouTube, but YouTube was not launched until two years later. Biku soon had a lot of traffic. The initial company could not afford the huge bandwidth cost. So it continued to do the Abiku P2P download. But soon suffered setbacks due to the copyright problems of the content.
For example, voice chat room Meet2Talk, voip TelTel, cordless IP phone, remote digital photo frame. These projects are still innovative in today’s eyes. But one step more is the pioneer, three steps more is the martyrs. Their ideas are too far ahead always difficult to realize.
After her last venture, a private television station called 9×9.TV, failed, Zhang stayed at home for a month and a half, pondering her next venture.
His wife couldn’t bear to see his talents go to waste and began giving him an “eviction notice,” urging him to go out and start his own business or find a job.
At that time, Zhang Wensong is receiving Ali’s kind invitation, he agreed to go to Ali.
In September 2009, Zhang set out from Wuhan again, this time for Hangzhou. Where he encountered many problems and burned the midnight oil, but was no longer helpless.
At the beginning, there was only Zhang Wensong in the core System department. He separated about ten people from the technical teams of the two departments of TFS (Taobao File System) and Tair(Taobao Pair) of other departments of Taobao to build the initial team of the core system.
To build the department, Zhang recruited talented people everywhere, including Su Zhe, who was already working at Google, and lobbied him to come to Taobao every day.
However, Su Zhe was going to the United States. Can only refuse Zhang Wensong’s invitation, but still gave him a person Li Yong.
Li Yong is an old friend of Su Zhe and an open source enthusiast who has been working on SUSE Linux for many years.
When Li arrived at Taobao, he led a kernel group responsible for maintaining the internal Linux system. Which became the prototype of the open source operating system Dragon Dragon.
While helping to build Taobao’s underlying platform, Zhang has also been pushing Alibaba’s open source drive.
Zhang Wensong told his superior is also a co-founder of Ali Wu Yongming, “Taobao has a lot of underlying software is through open source + independent research and development. With open source is particularly much, Taobao is the beneficiary of open source. Taobao should also open source to give back to the society. At the same time also can let the outside world know the technical level of Taobao. Let the outside world see Taobao open.”
After receiving Wu’s support, Zhang quickly opened source Taobao’s more than 100 software products, making much of the underlying technology available. Zhang Wensong later became chairman of the open source committee of the entire Alibaba Group.
This is the first time for a Chinese Internet giant to set up an open source committee and open source their technologies to the outside world on a large scale. Which has a huge impact on other Internet companies.
Since then, the Open Source Committee has become the “standard” of the major Internet companies. And the combination of open source and the industry has been more popular.
5. Postscript
At the beginning of this century, Zhang Wensong, Fang Han, Li Qicheng, Su Zhe, Wei Yongming and Xie Huagang were all handsome and lovely young men.
Free software movement leader Richard Stallman came to China to promote Linux.
Zhang Wensong asked him to eat at the old restaurant in Shanghai after the speech, Richard Stallman shy of a big belly nan, almost a person finished eating the whole glutinous rice duck, beard and hands are covered with oil stains, without any constraint;
Suzie accompanied Richard Stallman to climb the Great Wall. Richard Stallman, dressed in a plain blue coat and full of stubbly beard, smiled innocently for a photo. …
To everyone’s great impression, Richard Stallman carried a flute and a computer. And had nothing of value on his body except his clothes, which was all he owned.
As a champion of the free software movement, the great idealist. He may have been stubborn, outdated and too stubborn, but his abiding faith was precious.
When Richard Stallman came to China, he had nothing to offer. But he planted a seed in the hearts of young Chinese developers.
Each generation does the same thing. Chinese open source pioneers such as Zhang Wensong, Fang Han, Su Zhe and Wei Yongming continue to explore and innovate. So that this seed can take root and germinate in China, and carry forward the belief in open source.
Technological innovation may fade with the development of The Times, but the spiritual influence will always shine.
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