Why skyney?
It was my first year in ITEP. I tried to tune some program for the data aquisition. It was hard and fruitless job and all my attantion was concentrated on that. Suddenly the door was opened and unknown man came into my office. He examined all corners and glanced under the tables and then asked me: "Where is Terminator?". Probably I was very surprised and puzzled trying to solve who is crazy (it was time when T2 movie was released). Then he asked more correct question: "I am looking for the ethernet terminator..."
Now I know that there are two 50 Ohm terminators on ethernet cable: Terminator 1 and Terminator 2. So when I chose the name for our domain it was SkyNet.
Why Linux?
In the begining was DOS... Nobody was glad to use it but there was nothing else. The problems repeated every day. MS Windows changed almost nothing: the environment was nice looking but very unstable. It was a kind of miracle if Windows didn't been hanged up at least once a day. But our main task was Physics not solving the Windows problems. However I avoided to go to UNIX, because though MS was not good but it was habitual. The experiments with DesqView/X were the last attempts to give a life to a died body. Once I gave up. Lost data, time which was killed to recover the system after the crash were the price to know what I really need. At last it was decided - UNIX, but which?
The choice of OS was determined by following factors: the existence of CERNLIBs for the system because the activity in HEP was closely connected with these tools, the reliability, the simplicity of management, good network support (TCP/IP, IPX), the hadware compatibility, good interaction with other OSs and network protocols. The ability to have help if it is needed or to have other information about system was also good thing. Although I was going to choose FreeBSD as main OS for our lab (we initially were going to use PC as X-terminals and nothing else), the existance of CERNLIB and wide range of other tools caused me to prefer Linux. The tests which were made later show that PCs under Linux can be used as powerfull workstation for tasks in High Energy Physics.