þÿ<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> <head> <title>A Linux Primer</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style1.css" /> </head> <body> <div id="newmenu"> </div> <div id="secondarynav"> <ul> <li id="primetop"><a href="index.html">home</a></li> <li><a href="whatis.html">What is Linux?</a></li> <li><a href="history.html">History of Linux</a></li> <li><a href="why.html">Why use Linux?</a></li> <li><a href="where.html">Get Linux</a></li> <li><a href="clip.html">Command Line Primer</a></li> <li><a href="faq.html">FAQ</a></li> <li><a href="lresources.html">Linux Resources</a></li> <li><a href="about.html">About this Website</a></li> </ul> <p> <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=referer"><img src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/valid-xhtml10" alt="Valid XHTML 1.0!" height="31" width="88" /></a> </p> </div> <div id="primarycontent"> <div id="bravefourhundred"> <h2>The Making of Linux</h2> <p>Twenty-one year old Linus Torvalds, a student at the University of Helsinki, began a project that would turn out to become the poster child of the open source movement. In 1991, Linus bought his first 386 computer (what would later become what we call a PC today) and was disappointed with the operating systems available to him. He didn t like MS-DOS and the available commercial Unix systems were beyond his financial means as a student. He eventually settled on a Unix-like OS called Minix. </p> <p>Andrew Tanenbaum, a professor in the Netherlands, designed Minix primarily as a tool to teach his students about operating systems. The source code was freely available but changes required Tanenbaum s permission. Torvalds had been working on adapting Minix to his own personal needs. There were also many features that Torvalds wanted that Minix did not provide. For example, he wanted to improve its terminal emulation program, by which he connected to his university s server from home. Since Torvalds forte was programming, he found himself creating an entirely new operating system to meet his needs. </p> <p>In his autobiography, Just for Fun, Torvalds says he used Minix as inspiration. As his operating system eventually grew in complexity and functionality. One day, Torvalds accidentally deleted Minix from his computer and triggered the realization that, instead of reinstalling Minix, his creation was ready for the chance to stand on its own. </p> <p>It is also important to point out that Linus started his project for fun. He had no plans of making money off of it. He just wanted a Unix-like operating system that was both powerful and fun to work on. This emphasis on fun is key to understanding why people use and develop open source software. </p> <p>The name Linus originally chose for his project was Freax (pronounced "freaks"). This was a mix of the terms "free," "freak," and an "x" at the end. The idea behind the name was Linus  project was a free operating system for computer freaks with the usual x ending used on Unix variants. </p> <p>After a while, Linus announced his project on a Usenet newsgroup. Ari Lemke, at the Helsinki University of Technology, was one of the first to read his message. He offered Linus a sub-directory on the university s ftp site for the system when it became available. It was also around this time that Lemke convinced Torvalds the name Freax was lacking. Instead, Lemke though Torvlads  private name for the OS was better. Linux. Being a mix of Linus  and Unix.  Linus thought this to be too egotistical, but soon agreed. </p> <p>It wasn t long after Linus posted his code online that others began to become interested in the project. People with similar desires began looking at the code and started submitting patches and suggesting changes. Linus took these ideas and put them into Linux and gave credit where it was due. This was the start of one of the biggest collaborative projects in history. </p> <p>The decision by Torvalds to release his code under the GPL, helped his project gain momentum. More than a hundred people joined the effort. Then thousands. Then hundreds of thousands. Soon Linux became a force to be reckoned with and it was free. </p> <p>In 1994, Linux reached version 1.0 and the number of users world wide was estimated to be around one million. Most of these users were programmers and students but soon commercial vendors became interested. Since Linux was free, these vendors would compile the Linux kernel with other various software and distribute their version. So born was the Linux distribution (or distro or flavor). Companies like Red Hat, Debian, and Caldera gained users worldwide and brought Linux into the mainstream. </p> <p>Today Linux has gained a cult following and Linus has become a celebrity. Linux has been shown to be a fantastic program that is faster, more powerful, and scales larger than almost any other operating system. For these reasons, businesses have embraced Linux and used it in many different ways. Linux has proven to be a strong contender for the backend (servers) and is currently making the push to the desktop. </p> </div> </div> </body> </html>