Linux (operating system)

History

Development of the Linux kernel was started in 1991 by a Finnish college student named Linus Torvalds.

At the time, the majority of Unix systems were expensive. The only affordable Unix-like system was Minix, written by Andrew Tanenbaum mainly so he could use it for examples in his operating systems textbook and courses. It was essentially a clone of 7th Edition Unix. Although the source code was available for this system, it was not as feature complete as the systems the workstations in the universities were running.

Also, although Minix ran on various Intel processors in 16-bit mode and on the 32-bit CPUs in Apple Macs, there was no 32-bit version for the Intel 386. Tanenbaum showed little interest in fixing that; it would run just fine on a 386 in 16-bit mode, all you need in a teaching tool. Why make major changes to the code, especially if they mean you have to revise the book? Nobody else could distribute a 386 Minix; the publisher's copyright prevented that. What you could distribute were patch files that let anyone with a copy of the 16-bit version (presumably duly licensed) convert it to the 386 bit version. This was complicated and inconvenient in a bunch of ways.

Then a student doing a course based on Tanenbaum's book wrote a standalone 386 kernel that used the Minix file system and utilities. He announced it on the comp.os.minix newsgroup in 1991 [1]. Some of the reactions were along the lines of "Go away, kid. We're trying to do serious work here, getting these blasted patches to install", but other people reacted much better, in fact pitched in and started improving it. The kid was named Linus, so he called his kernel Linux.

The name

Originally, Torvalds had intended to call the system Freax, for Free, Freaks, and Unix. The original source code up to version 0.11 made reference to this, such as a comment in the Makefile, "Makefile for the freax kernel". However, the kernel's FTP directory at nic.funet.fi was named Linux, in honor of its creator, of course, with an x to denote that it is Unix-like. This name caught on, and has been the official alias ever since. Linux is pronounced like 'Minix' - that is, "'li' is pronounced with a short [ee] sound: compare prInt, mInImal etc.'nux' is also short, non-diphtong, like in pUt."^[1]

GNU/Linux controversy

For more information, see: Linux naming controversy.

Preceding the first uploads of the Linux kernel by over 8 years, in 1983 the Free Software Foundation (FSF) led by Dr. Richard Stallman began work on a similar project called GNU. The GNU system was a multi-person project which aimed to provide a suite of software together with the operating system kernel. The GNU group began not with the kernel, but rather by developing various tools such as a compiler (GNU C Compiler) and a text editor (Emacs). The GNU group never did complete their system with an operating system kernel. As a result, free software enthusiasts started to use Linux's kernel alongside GNU's suite of tools. Such combinations came to be called Linux Distributions. The FSF refers to a Linux Distribution as GNU/Linux. This convention has been very controversial, however. Torvalds does not support this terminology, saying that "calling Linux in general just 'GNU/Linux' I think is ridiculous."^[2]

Interface

The majority of Linux distributions allow the use of both a GUI (Graphical User Interface) and a CLI (Command Line Interface). In the last few years, many distributions have focused on improving the graphical interface to increase the accessibility of the interface to new users. Ubuntu, widely believed to be the most used Linux distribution, had a complete visual refresh for the "Hardy Heron" 6.06 release.

Desktop environments

There are many desktop environments available for Linux. This means that there used to be little consistency between distributions. However, in a effort to prevent this, freedesktop.org have introduced the "Tango Theme Guidelines" - a set of guidelines that icon creators are encouraged to adhere to. This includes a color palette and a set of naming conventions.

GNOME

GNOME (GNU Network Object Model Environment) is a desktop environment created by the GNU Project focused on easy of use. It is made of entirely open source software, and the most recent stable release is 2.20, which was released in September 2007. GNOME is the default desktop environment for many distributions, most notably Debian, Fedora Core, openSUSE and Ubuntu (Linux distribution).

KDE

KDE (K Desktop environment) is another desktop environment, but is focused on allowing the user to configure as much as possible. The main distributions that use KDE are Kubuntu and MEPIS. Currently, the KDE developers are testing a major new release: KDE4, which is planned for release on 11 January 2007. It is being upgraded to the Qt4 toolkit, and increases in speed over KDE3 are planned. A new theme, known as the "Oxygen icon set", will be included.

Xfce

Xfce is a desktop environment designed to give a compromise between eye candy and speed. The latest release is 4.4.1. Xfce is not as popular as GNOME or KDE, but some distributions use Xfce as the default desktop environment, including Dreamlinux and Zenwalk.

Fluxbox

Fluxbox is a lightweight desktop environment, aimed at low-end computers. It is designed for speed, but allows eye-candy including transparency. The project recently passed its 1.0 release milestone.

Package Management

There are several different package management systems for Linux. Since most applications are open source, packages can be installed by compilation from source code. Some distributions aimed at experts use this format, including Gentoo and Sabayon Linux. However, most Linux distributions have binary packages available for download. Debian and Debian-based distributions (including Ubuntu) use the .deb package format, along with the "APT" package manager. This allows packages to be upgraded, removed and installed, dealing with all of the dependencies. Other distributions use the .rpm format. However, this package format was initially unpopular due to its poor handling of dependencies (known as "dependency hell"). OpenSUSE, Mandriva and Fedora Core all use the .rpm package format.

References

↑ Linus Torvalds (Accessed April 23rd, 2007). How to pronounce "Linux"?.
↑ The "GNU/Linux" and "Linux" Controversy (Retrieved April 6th, 2007).

[1] Linus Torvalds (Accessed April 23rd, 2007). How to pronounce "Linux"?.

[OSWeekly-2] The "GNU/Linux" and "Linux" Controversy (Retrieved April 6th, 2007).

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