Va Linux: the Biggest Dotcom Ipo
Key topics
The debate rages on about Linux hardware support, with some users singing the praises of their Linux-friendly laptops, while others share horror stories of malfunctioning peripherals. Commenters like pcdoyle and ghaff share positive experiences with ThinkPads and Dell models that have official Linux backing, while others like cabirum and whatever1 lament issues with camera and high-resolution screen support. The discussion gets testy, with ThePowerOfFuet calling out a commenter's language, and ErroneousBosh firing back with a tongue-in-cheek remark about Windows hardware support. Amidst the bickering, a common thread emerges: no operating system is perfect, with even MacBooks and Windows machines having their own set of issues.
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Very active discussionFirst comment
6d
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Day 6
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11.6
Based on 58 loaded comments
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- 01Story posted
Dec 11, 2025 at 7:17 AM EST
27 days ago
Step 01 - 02First comment
Dec 17, 2025 at 12:41 AM EST
6d after posting
Step 02 - 03Peak activity
28 comments in Day 6
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Step 03 - 04Latest activity
Dec 20, 2025 at 9:23 PM EST
17 days ago
Step 04
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Wayland has done some progress, but still half of my applications look like sh when I use fractional scaling.
Linux is great if all you need is a terminal. Once you need a peripheral, then good luck, literally.
It has different issues, but wireless headsets nor hibernation are among them
Do they look like shell, or like shit? You can use grownup words here.
Just wait until you try this new Windows thing. Zero hardware support for anything.
0. https://github.com/NVIDIA/open-gpu-kernel-modules/issues/644 1. https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/1due6ni/hardware...
(disclosure: I was on the "Ignition team" for SF)
One of these days I should blog about how we ended up hosting Python for years...
IMHO, we made better gear at the time, but we were not in a market as wide and deep for linux optimized machines as it is now. It's not an unusual story in the valley. We did have a deep talent bench that ended up in key roles in a bunch of firms that are doing well: Google, Apple, et al.
People forget that in the olden days we used Subversion and Bazaar (well, the latter if you were Canonical-adjacent), and before that CVS.
And before that, SCCS.
Going back decades, it's all people going "this sucks, I'm writing my own VCS", and for whatever reason Git was the one that gained traction in that particularly sticky and slippery swamp.
From wikipedia
The company raised $132 million, offering shares at $30/share, but the shares opened for trading at $299/share, before closing at $239.25/share, or 698% above the IPO price, breaking a record for the largest first day gain.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Larry Augustin, the 38-year old founder and chief executive officer of the company, became a billionaire on paper and a 26-year old web developer at the company said she was worth $10 million on paper.[2] By August 2000, the shares were trading at $40 each[2] and only 24 mutual funds held the stock.[15] On December 8, 2000, one year later, after the bursting of the dot com bubble, shares traded at $8.49/share.[16]
per his essay he was given 150K shares. Even at the IPO price of $30 a share, that's 4.5 million. Do we not think the investment bank handling his shares would have been willing to take his whole stake at $30 a share?
But even if they wouldn't more than 6 months later it was still north of $40 a share (so $6mil or so) and even a year or so after the IPO, after the bubble popped, it was still north of $8 a share (so $1+mil).
90-180 days would be normal and was still trading above ipo price (not opening price) 180 days after ipo as i documented above.
with that said perhaps directors have a different form of lockup, can't say I have any experience with that.
That's a name I haven't heard in a long time. I'd almost forgotten about the webcomic.
https://geekz.co.uk/lovesraymond/
“News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters.”
Many folks left Dig for their primary feed when they did the UI update. I think I switched over to Slashdot around that time. The multi selector for karma, on the comments and them changing usernames so my original no longer worked drove me to reddit as that prime feed for me, for about 10 or so years.
As reddit exploded... that main home switched to here. Not quite that same sense of community and always a grab bag of subject, so much closer to Digg/Slashdot feel. I never ended up doing facebook or some of the other social media sites. As reddit tried/tried to become that sort of space (with monetization!) it became something I was not looking for.
If you want to keep Up you'll have to stay Down
As I recall, they were one of the earliest vendors to produce a 1u server, which was a big potential selling point for them (Cobalt's RaQ was first, but initially used a MIPS R5000 variant with a crippled cache so gained a reputation for being a bit "weird").
Unfortunately, the bursting of the telecoms/networking bubble shortly after their IPO (and a year before the dotcom bubble imploded) flooded the market with 4u servers at fire-sale prices. Rack density wasn't nearly so important back then, so VA's neater kit suddenly appeared a whole lot less competitive.
They were far more important for the business.