In the 1990–1996 era, internet network implementation in Indonesia relied heavily on radio packet technology. The systems were dominated by Network Operating System (NOS) software, first developed by Phil Karn (KA9Q) in the United States. Phil released the source code for NOS, which supported the TCP/IP protocol, and shared it for free for amateur radio use.

What made NOS interesting was its ability to run on top of the Disk Operating System (DOS) on simple PC/XT or 286 computers, allowing for networks to be built with very basic equipment.

1994: FreeBSD

Starting around 1994–1995, servers at ITB began using FreeBSD. As an open-source operating system known for its robustness in network and server security, it’s no surprise that many ITB servers still rely on it today.

Interestingly, network administrators at the Computer Network Research Group (CNRG) ITB often preferred Mac laptops running Mac OS X (which is BSD-based) over other operating systems.

1997: Linux

Linux is currently the most widely used open-source operating system in Indonesia. Many Indonesian sites provide local ISO mirrors, making it easy for users across the country to download.

While Linux began its global development in the early 90s, its popularity in Indonesia really took off between 1997 and 1998, with rapid growth around 2001–2002. Groups like KPLI (Kelompok Pengguna Linux Indonesia) and various local Linux User Groups (LUGs) began to flourish. Online resources like the tanya-jawab@linux.or.id mailing list and the linux.or.id website were instrumental. Figures like I Made Wiryana were key drivers of this movement.

InfoLinux (infolinux.co.id) served as an authoritative magazine, with editor-in-chief Rusmanto contributing significantly to its adoption.

In the early 2000s, Gudang Linux (gudanglinux.com) played a vital role by selling Linux CDs online, which was a huge help for those with limited bandwidth.

As Linux grew, it became the backbone for many Indonesian internet servers, especially for Content Management Systems (CMS) powered by the Apache, MySQL, and PHP (LAMP) stack.

On June 30, 2004, the declaration for the use and development of Free Open Source Software (FOSS) was signed by several key ministries. This led to IGOS (Indonesia Go Open Source), a government initiative to adopt open source within public institutions.

2003: Java

Java, originally developed by Sun Microsystems, began to gain traction in Indonesia on April 12, 2003, with the formation of the jug-indonesia@yahoogroups.com mailing list. By 2006, JUG Indonesia had nearly 2,000 members.

The list was founded by Java Evangelist Frans Thamura and became a hub for discussing both commercial (WebSphere, WebLogic) and open-source (JBoss, Tomcat, Struts, Hibernate) Java technologies.

Source: Onno Center