December 14, 2019
Amitraj
History of Linux
Evolution of Unix
-> In 1969, a team of developers of Bell Labs started a project to make a common software for all the computers and named it as 'Unix'. It was simple and elegant, used 'C' language instead of assembly language and its code was recyclable. As it was recyclable, a part of its code now commonly called 'kernel' was used to develop the operating system and other functions and could be used on different systems. Also its source code was open source.
-> Initially, Unix was only found in large organizations like government, university, or larger financial corporations with mainframes and minicomputers (PC is a microcomputer).
Unix Expansion
-> In eighties, many organizations like IBM, HP and dozen other companies started creating their own Unix. It result in a mess of Unix dialects. Then in 1983, Richard Stallman developed GNU project with the goal to make it freely available Unix like operating system and to be used by everyone. But his project failed in gaining popularity. Many other Unix like operating system came into existence but none of them was able to gain popularity.
Evolution of Linux
-> Linux, computer operating system created in the early 1990s by Finnish software engineer Linus Torvalds and the Free Software Foundation (FSF).
-> By 1991 Internet access had become sufficiently common that e-mail could knit together a large worldwide community of volunteer developers.
-> While still a student at the University of Helsinki, Torvalds started developing Linux to create a system similar to MINIX, a UNIX operating system. In 1991 he released version 0.02; Version 1.0 of the Linux kernel, the core of the operating system, was released in 1994. About the same time, American software developer Richard Stallman and the FSF made efforts to create an open-source UNIX-like operating system called GNU. In contrast to Torvalds, Stallman and the FSF started by creating utilities for the operating system first. These utilities were then added to the Linux kernel to create a complete system called GNU/Linux, or, less precisely, just Linux.
-> Linux grew throughout the 1990s because of the efforts of hobbyist developers. Although Linux is not as user-friendly as the popular Microsoft Windows and Mac OS operating systems, it is an efficient and reliable system that rarely crashes. Combined with Apache, an open-source Web server, Linux accounts for more than a third of all servers used on the Internet. Because it is open source, and thus modifiable for different uses, Linux is popular for systems as diverse as cellular telephones and supercomputers. The addition of user-friendly desktop environments, office suites, Web browsers, and even games helped to increase Linux’s popularity and make it more suitable for home and office desktops. New distributions (packages of Linux software) were created throughout the 1990s. Some of the more well-known distributions include Red Hat, Debian, and Slackware.
Linux Today
-> Today, supercomputers, smart phones, desktop, web servers, tablet, laptops and home appliances like washing machines, DVD players, routers, modems, cars, refrigerators, etc use Linux OS.
You may also like:
What is Linux | Types of Linux operating System
Evolution of Unix
-> In 1969, a team of developers of Bell Labs started a project to make a common software for all the computers and named it as 'Unix'. It was simple and elegant, used 'C' language instead of assembly language and its code was recyclable. As it was recyclable, a part of its code now commonly called 'kernel' was used to develop the operating system and other functions and could be used on different systems. Also its source code was open source.
-> Initially, Unix was only found in large organizations like government, university, or larger financial corporations with mainframes and minicomputers (PC is a microcomputer).
Unix Expansion
-> In eighties, many organizations like IBM, HP and dozen other companies started creating their own Unix. It result in a mess of Unix dialects. Then in 1983, Richard Stallman developed GNU project with the goal to make it freely available Unix like operating system and to be used by everyone. But his project failed in gaining popularity. Many other Unix like operating system came into existence but none of them was able to gain popularity.
Evolution of Linux
-> Linux, computer operating system created in the early 1990s by Finnish software engineer Linus Torvalds and the Free Software Foundation (FSF).
-> By 1991 Internet access had become sufficiently common that e-mail could knit together a large worldwide community of volunteer developers.
-> While still a student at the University of Helsinki, Torvalds started developing Linux to create a system similar to MINIX, a UNIX operating system. In 1991 he released version 0.02; Version 1.0 of the Linux kernel, the core of the operating system, was released in 1994. About the same time, American software developer Richard Stallman and the FSF made efforts to create an open-source UNIX-like operating system called GNU. In contrast to Torvalds, Stallman and the FSF started by creating utilities for the operating system first. These utilities were then added to the Linux kernel to create a complete system called GNU/Linux, or, less precisely, just Linux.
-> Linux grew throughout the 1990s because of the efforts of hobbyist developers. Although Linux is not as user-friendly as the popular Microsoft Windows and Mac OS operating systems, it is an efficient and reliable system that rarely crashes. Combined with Apache, an open-source Web server, Linux accounts for more than a third of all servers used on the Internet. Because it is open source, and thus modifiable for different uses, Linux is popular for systems as diverse as cellular telephones and supercomputers. The addition of user-friendly desktop environments, office suites, Web browsers, and even games helped to increase Linux’s popularity and make it more suitable for home and office desktops. New distributions (packages of Linux software) were created throughout the 1990s. Some of the more well-known distributions include Red Hat, Debian, and Slackware.
Linux Today
-> Today, supercomputers, smart phones, desktop, web servers, tablet, laptops and home appliances like washing machines, DVD players, routers, modems, cars, refrigerators, etc use Linux OS.
You may also like:
What is Linux | Types of Linux operating System
