History of Linux Operating Systems

History of Linux Operating Systems

The history of Linux began in 1991 after the cold war, where there was an apparent need of another operating system beside Microsoft DOS, Apple Macs and UNIX. Microsoft DOS was just a bare bones operating system and yet, it was popular then due to the clever marketing strategy of Bill Gates.  While Apple Macs and UNIX were better than Microsoft DOS, their astronomical price were not affordable by the users.  Thus, the PC users had no other choice to continue using Microsoft DOS.  A turnaround solution appeared when a new operating system called MINIX was written from scratch by a US-born Dutch professor named Andrew S. Tanenbaum. The new system was designed to run on the Intel 8086 microprocessors that had flooded the world market. Though MINIX was not a superb operating system, it had an advantage of the source code was available.

At the same time, programmers around the world were inspired by Richard Stallman GNU project - a project to provide free and quality software that is free from restrictions against copying or modification.  GNU project had created a lot of tools but without operating system by 1991.

On 25th  August 1991, a student and self taught hacker studying at the University of Helsinki in Finland named Linus Torvalds, posted in MINIX news group that he was going to develop a free operating system that resemble MINIX. He named the new operating system Linux and posted version 0.01 on the net around mid September 1991. On 5th October 1991, he came out the Linux version 0.02 and declared he managed to combine Linux to run together with GNU applications. In 1996, everyone around the world was talking about a logo for Linux and during that time Linus Torvalds mentioned that he like penguin. In 1998, “Tux” the penguin was declared as the mascot and logo for Linux (as below picture).

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Introduction of Linux Operating Systems

Linux is operating system is similar to UNIX operating system, which is one of the most popular operating systems for networking worldwide. Linux was specifically designed for PC platform to make use the advantages of its design to give users comparable performance to high-end UNIX workstations and is a freely distributed operating system.  It is also unique as it is an active participant in the Open Source Software movement which allows people to distribute their own software and use free software other people had developed.

A couple of big-name companies have started to use Linux such as IBM and Compaq, offering systems with pre-installed Linux. Red Hat, Corel and Samba have also started using Linux Packages. However, these companies are only allowed to charge for services and documentation packaged with Linux Software.

Linux is a multi-user operating system with multitasking abilities that behave the same as UNIX kernel behaviour and peripheral support. It has all the features of UNIX and its open source code and mainly free utilities.