Chapter 24: Data

China only officially implemented its degree system in 1981. When the first batch of doctoral students graduated in 1983, there were only 18 in total. The scale expanded continuously thereafter, and by the early 90s, approximately 3,000 doctoral students were graduating each year.

However, compared to the more than 1,000 higher education institutions nationwide, 3,000 doctoral graduates were a mere drop in the bucket. Therefore, in this special era, even ordinary master's degree holders could easily find decent teaching jobs at universities, let alone doctoral graduates who had returned from overseas.

After Liu Shaosong returned to the country in 1993 upon completing his doctorate at Tsukuba University in Japan, he gave up top-tier prestigious universities like Tsinghua/Peking and Fudan due to family reasons and chose to teach at Yun University, an ordinary key university, becoming the only doctoral graduate from overseas in the Computer College.

Yun University valued Liu Shaosong highly; not only was he promoted directly to Associate Professor upon joining, but he was also allocated a house with a small courtyard. When Di Ye arrived, he was holding a plastic shovel, building a snowman in the yard.

"Teacher Liu, this snowman you're building is a bit of a cut-corner job."

"I'm building it for Qingqing; she's only two-plus years old, no need to make it too tall."

"It's not a question of height, but a question of ugliness."

Liu Shaosong laughed heartily, waved the shovel, and said, "Then you come and build me a good-looking one."

Di Ye lifted the Little Pig Lantern he was carrying in his hand and said, "I bought a New Year's gift for Qingqing. I'll put it in the house first to avoid getting it wet, then I'll come back to help you build the snowman."

After Liu Shaosong came to teach at Yun University, he taught two courses: Data Structures and Operating Systems. Di Ye had performed very well in both, so he held him in high regard and they interacted quite frequently. He said, "Go in yourself, just leave it in the living room. Qingqing has been fussing all morning and is taking a nap right now."

Di Ye changed into slippers at the entryway, turned left into the living room, and saw a woman sitting on the sofa reading a book. Her face was gentle and her temperament was mild; it was precisely Liu Shaosong's wife, Fu Wenjing. He greeted her and placed the Little Pig Lantern on the coffee table.

Seeing that the lantern was exquisitely crafted and endearingly naive, Fu Wenjing asked, "Is this handmade?"

"Yes, there's an old master at the Chenghuang Temple who has been making zodiac lanterns for decades. His craftsmanship is excellent."

"Where is his shop located? I'll go buy a few later to give to the children of my relatives."

Di Ye reported the location, then took three books with rather old-fashioned covers out of his Notebook Computer bag and said, "Sister Wenjing, I found these at a second-hand book stall at the Chenghuang Temple. It's the 1931 first edition of Tears and Laughter, all three volumes—upper, middle, and lower—are complete. Please accept them as a New Year's gift."

Fu Wenjing was very fond of Zhang Henshui's works and was pleasantly surprised. She stood up to take the books and asked, "Di Ye, this must be very expensive, right?"

"Not expensive. The condition is relatively average, it only cost a few dozen yuan."

Fu Wenjing placed the three books on the coffee table, and while examining them, she said with a smile, "Di Ye, it's not the first or second time you've come to our house. Since you're suddenly giving gifts to me and Qingqing today, is there something you need Teacher Liu's help with?"

"There is indeed something I'd like to ask Teacher Liu for a small favor, but these books are purely to thank you, Sister Wenjing, for taking care of me over the past two years."

"No wonder Shaosong said you've become clever lately, able to talk your way through anything."

Di Ye's feelings for Fu Wenjing were a pure unrequited love, and before he disappeared, he had never proactively mentioned her, so Di Ye couldn't be bothered to stir up trouble. After chatting briefly, he walked out and helped Liu Shaosong build an Olaf from Frozen in the yard.

Olaf's design was funny and cute, which made Qingqing, who had just woken up from her nap, like it immediately. She trotted around it several times with her short legs. Liu Shaosong clicked his tongue in wonder and specifically went back into the house to get a Camera, taking over a dozen photos as a memento.

"Di Ye, set a timer and come over to take a group photo with our family."

"Alright."

After the group photo was taken, Liu Shaosong brought Di Ye into the study. While helping him install various software on his Notebook Computer, he discussed how to implement compression algorithms with him, only to find that Di Ye was confident and already had a very clear programming approach.

"You've made great progress lately, as if you've opened up your Ren and Du meridians. Did you read some secret manual?"

"I did read some secret manuals. Teacher Liu, do you know about Free Software and Linux?"

"Of course I do."

Liu Shaosong stopped typing, looked up, and asked, "You've read the Linux source code?"

Di Ye's memory did indeed contain the Linux source code, but since there was no internet in Yuncheng at this time, it was hard to explain the source of the code, so he could only vaguely say, "I've read some, it was very inspiring."

Liu Shaosong nodded and said, "Linux was developed by a group of the world's top programmers working together. Reading its source code can indeed teach you a lot of knowledge. The fact that you can draw inferences and improve your level so quickly shows your talent is even better than I estimated."

Seeing that he held Linux in high regard and must be a fan of Free Software, Di Ye asked, "Teacher Liu, do you have any software here that can read source code?"

"I don't have Linux, only some GNU components. I'll copy them for you in a moment."

Free Software is a concept proposed by the legendary programmer Richard Matthew Stallman. He believed that software users should have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, modify, and improve software, so he launched the GNU Project in 1984, wanting to build an open-source operating system compatible with Unix.

By 1991, the GNU Project already possessed many components such as editors, compilers, and debuggers, covering almost every aspect of computer applications, lacking only a stable kernel. It just so happened that in this year, Linus Torvalds released the Linux kernel, so the two merged, complementing each other's strengths to form the famous GNU/Linux operating system.

After Liu Shaosong copied several GNU components into Di Ye's Notebook Computer, he stood up, took a disc out of the bookcase, and said, "This is the 386BSD operating system I bought when I returned to the country from Dongying. It only has a kernel and almost no application functions, but the code is written concisely and elegantly, and it has high learning value. Take it back and study it."

Seeing the name "Willian & Lynne Jolitz" marked on the disc, Di Ye was as pleasantly surprised as Fu Wenjing had been when she saw Tears and Laughter. He took it and carefully placed it into his computer bag, saying, "I will definitely study it well when I get back."

He couldn't help but be delighted, because Willian and Lynne were a legendary couple of programmers in computer history.

The purpose of the GNU Project was to build an operating system compatible with Unix. The reason for doing so was that Unix was commercial proprietary software, and the copyright belonged to the AT&T company.

The Unix operating system was born in the famous Bell Labs in 1970. AT&T commercialized it in 1977. In that same year, under the guidance of the father of Unix, Thompson, a Graduate Student at the University of California, Berkeley named Bill Joy compiled the BSD version of Unix. Afterward, the two versions of Unix developed in parallel: one closed-source and sold for licenses, the other open-source and freely distributed.

Because AT&T's license fees became increasingly expensive, rising from $99 in 1979 to $250,000 in 1989, the computer research group at Berkeley could no longer stand it and decided to remove all code belonging to AT&T and rewrite Unix. However, after 18 months of effort, there were still 6 kernel files that could not be removed.

By 1991, the couple Willian Jolitz and Lynne Jolitz joined forces and took only half a year to not only rewrite those 6 kernel files but also port Unix from the minicomputers that were primarily servers to the Intel 386 computers used by ordinary people, naming it 386BSD. Its legendary status was comparable to Yang Guo and Xiaolongnü.

Although 386BSD soon stopped updating due to community conflicts, it still spawned many versions, such as FreeBSD, NetBSD, and Apple's MacOS. Microsoft's Windows also borrowed quite a bit of code, so it played an important role in the history of operating system development.

Di Ye was a "Lord Ye who loves dragons" type of fake programmer—he couldn't write good code, but he loved collecting all kinds of computer peripherals. Now that he could get an original 386BSD disc, he was naturally overjoyed. After putting it away, he asked, "Teacher Liu, when you were studying abroad in Dongying, did you ever use the internet?"

"I did, why?"

"I'm going to Guangdong Province tomorrow. I heard that you can access the internet there via fiber optics from Hong Kong. I want to experience it. Can you teach me how to look at articles in the Free Software community?"

"That's simple. I'll give you the addresses of some newsgroups and forums. Also, I can give you a few email addresses..."

Liu Shaosong was a very competent teacher who told Di Ye everything he knew without reservation. They chatted in the study for a full two hours, not letting him leave until after 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

"In consideration of the fact that these few cut-out discs are of good quality, I won't hold it against you for using my name to sell modified CD Players."

"Many thanks, Teacher Liu. When the next semester starts, I'll give you a big red envelope."

"If a student gives a teacher a red envelope, I'm afraid I'll be investigated by the school. If you want to give it, give it to Qingqing."

"Teacher Liu is truly worldly-wise, this student admires you!"

After returning home, with the assistance of Xiao Honghua, Di Ye spent an entire night typing out the source code for DY-ZIP on his Notebook Computer. He also copied several classic articles about Open Source Software, saved them on a floppy disk, put it in his suitcase, and prepared to take it to Guangdong Province to find an opportunity to post it on the internet.

Around 8 o'clock the next morning, Fan Dazhi drove a Jinbei Haishi van to the entrance of the residential compound, picked up Di Ye who was waiting on the side of the road, and drove toward Guangdong Province—the Spring Festival was approaching, and it was very difficult to buy bus, train, and plane tickets. If one wanted to go to Guangdong Province for procurement, one could only drive oneself.

Besides Fan Dazhi, there were three other passengers in the van. Di Ye recognized one of them; it was Bi Wanxi, who had been discussing pirated VCD discs with Di Yongchang that day.