Starting this Thanksgiving
I am going to write a complete Unix-compatible software system called GNU (for
Gnu's Not Unix), and give it away free (1) to everyone
who can use it. Contributions of time, money, programs and equipment are greatly
- Richard Stallman; Posting to
net.unix-wizards; 27 Sept. 1983.
Hello everybody out there
using minix - I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big
and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones...
I'd like to know what
features most people would want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I won't
promise I'll implement them :-)
- Linus Torvalds; Posting to
comp.os.minix; 25 Aug. 1991.
Who invented Linux? Linux is the first truly free Unix-like operating
system. The underlying GNU Project was launched
in 1983 by Richard Stallman originally
to develop a Unix-compatible operating system called GNU, intended to be
entirely free software. Many programs and utilities were contributed by developers
around the world, and by 1991 most of the components of the system were ready.
Still missing was the kernel.
Linus Torvalds invented Linux
1991, Torvalds was a student at the
University of Helsinki in Finland where he had been
using Minix, a non-free Unix-like
system, and began writing his own kernel. He started by developing device drivers
and hard-drive access, and by September had a basic design that he called
Version 0.01. This kernel, which is called Linux, was afterwards combined with
the GNU system to produce a complete free operating system.
On October 5th, 1991,
Torvalds sent a posting to
the comp.os.minix newsgroup announcing the release of Version 0.02, a basic version
that still needed Minix to operate, but which
attracted considerable interest nevertheless. The kernel was then rapidly
improved by Torvalds and a growing number of volunteers communicating over the
Internet, and by December 19th a functional, stand-alone Unix-like Linux
system was released as Version 0.11.
On January 5, 1992, Linux
Version 0.12 was released, an improved, stable kernel. The next release was
called Version 0.95, to reflect the fact that it was becoming a full-featured
system. After that Linux became an underground phenomenon, with a growing
group of distributed programmers that continue to debug, develop, and enhance
the source code baseline to this day.
Torvalds released Version
0.11 under a freeware license of his own devising, but then released Version
0.12 under the well established GNU
General Public License. More and more free software was created for Linux
over the next several years.
Linux continued to be
improved through the 1990's, and started to be used in large-scale applications
like web hosting, networking, and database serving, proving ready for production
major update to the Linux kernel, was officially released in January 1999.
By the year 2000,
most computer companies supported Linux in one way or another, recognizing a
common standard that could finally reunify the fractured world of the Unix Wars. The next major release was
V2.4 in January 2001, providing
improvements) compatibility with the upcoming generations of Intel's 64-bit
Itanium computer processors.
Although Torvalds continued
to function as the Linux kernel release manager, he avoided work at any of the
many companies involved with Linux in order to avoid showing favoritism to
any particular organization, and instead went to work for a company called Transmeta and
helped develop mobile computing solutions, and made his home at the Open Source
Development Labs (OSDL),
which merged into The Linux Foundation.
(1) This remark shows that Richard had not yet
clarified the distinction between "free speech" and "free beer". [Comment added
following sites provide more information on Linux: