Anyway, I had a friend whose mother ran a small data processing business, and it was known in our circle of nerd friends that she was in possession of a "real Unix machine". And what a machine it was - a beige box the size of a small car, with intriguing lights and cables and powerful hums and clicks. Anyway, I told her about this "Linux" thing, and she dismissed it as fantasy, so I brought my computer around to her office and gave her a demo.

The only comment I recall her making was something like, "Well, looks like you got yourself a $100 Unix machine." I could tell in her eyes, though, that she was feeling the world shift, heavily, from one epoch to the next.