History of Linux

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tux , the Linux mascot
The GNU mascot

This article gives a detailed overview of the history of Linux , a free operating system . A general and technical overview of the topic can be found in the corresponding main article.

Developments in advance

Richard Stallman (2007)

The history of Linux is closely intertwined with the history of Unix , but still not the same. Up until Unix version 7, which was published by AT&T (originally Bell Laboratories) in 1979 , Unix was an almost freely available system. Until then, the Unix source code was distributed to universities and other institutions in return for reimbursement of the cost of copying and data storage media - Unix was one of the first operating systems to have the character of a free and portable operating system. The code was also used in lectures and publications and could be changed, supplemented or ported according to one's own ideas.

The more and more emerging commercial mindset in the early 1980s pushed AT&T to market the entire system, consisting of its own intellectual property and freely contributed extensions, as a proprietary AT&T Unix. As a result, the AT&T source code could no longer be made publicly available. This caused incomprehension, especially in the university environment, whereupon Richard Stallman announced the GNU project in September 1983 and started it in January 1984 after quitting his position at MIT-AI. The aim of the project was to create a Unix-like, POSIX -compatible operating system. In 1985 he founded the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and wrote the GPL (GNU General Public License) to enable free software within the American copyright system. There are now other licenses with similar approaches (e.g. OAL ) as well as several modifications and expansions of the GPL (e.g. LGPL ).

In this way, the GNU software spread very quickly and was developed by many people. A large number of programs were created in a short time, so that by the beginning of 1990 enough GNU software was available to create your own operating system. However, a kernel was still missing . This should actually be developed in the GNU Hurd project . However, the kernel, designed as a microkernel , developed very slowly because finding and correcting errors ( debugging ) was very difficult and time-consuming due to technical features.

Another project involving an operating system made from free software was Berkeley Software Distribution , or BSD for short , in the 1980s . This had developed from in-house developments of the University of Berkeley from the Unix versions of the 4 edition and the following by AT&T . However, since the BSD versions still contained code from AT & T's Unix, there was a legal dispute between AT&T and the University of Berkeley in the early 1990s, which severely restricted the development of BSD and slowed it down considerably for several years.

So in the early 1990s there was no complete, free operating system. The future of BSD was uncertain because of the legal dispute, the further development was paralyzed, the GNU project was constantly developed and expanded, but did not have a Unix-like kernel, rather it was a number of free software projects based on a wide variety of (proprietary) Unixes - Variants could be translated using the GNU compiler and were executable.

Historical development

Origin of the Linux kernel

Linus Torvalds 2002

In 1991 Linus Torvalds began developing the kernel in Helsinki , which was later called Linux. Initially it was a terminal emulation that Torvalds used to access the university's large Unix servers . He wrote the program close to the hardware and independent of an operating system , because he wanted to make optimal use of the functions of his new PC with an 80386 processor , whose x86 instruction set is still standard today. The Minix system and the GNU C compiler served as the basis .

At some point, as Torvalds says in his book Just for Fun , he realized that he had actually written an operating system. On August 25, 1991, he announced this system in a Usenet posting to the comp.os.minix group . This Usenet posting is quoted again and again in many places and is probably one of the best-known postings on Usenet:

"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. This has been brewing since April, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback on things people like / dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file system (due to practical reasons) among other things).

I've currently ported bash (1.08) and gcc (1.40), and things seem to work. This implies that I'll get something practical within a few months, and 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@kruuna.helsinki.fi)

PS. Yes - it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs. It is NOT portable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I have :-(. ”

"Hello everyone out there who use Minix -

I'm working on a (free) operating system (just a hobby, it won't be big and professional like GNU) for 386 (486) AT-compatible computers. The project has been developing since April and is starting to finish. I would like feedback on features people like / dislike about Minix as my operating system is similar in some ways (same physical file system layout (for convenience) and a few other things).

I've already ported bash (1.08) and gcc (1.40) at the moment and it seems to be working. That means that in a few months I'll have something to work with and I'm interested in what qualities most people would like to see. Any suggestions are welcome, but I can't promise I'll include them :-)

Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi)

PS. Yes, it does not contain any Minix code and the filesystem is multi-threaded. It is NOT portable (it uses 386 task switching etc.) and will probably never support anything other than AT hard disks, since I only have these :-(. "

- Linus Torvalds : What would you like to see most in minix? in comp.os.minix on Usenet , August 25, 1991

On September 17, 1991, Linux version 0.01 was made publicly available for the first time on an FTP server.

The name Linux

Linus Torvalds wanted Linux to be called Freax , a word created from freak (crazy, but also someone who is enthusiastic about something), Free for free software and the often common x in allusion to the similarity to Unix. For this reason, when he started working on the system, Torvalds had stored the files under Freax for about half a year. Torvalds had already thought about the name Linux, but it seemed too self-centered to him. In order to give other people the opportunity to work on the system or to make suggestions for improvement, the files should be stored on the FTP server (ftp.funet.fi) of the Helsinki University of Technology (HUT) in September 1991. The person responsible for the server at the time, Ari Lemmke (employee at HUT), did not agree with the name Freax , he preferred the working name Linux. Without discussing it with Torvalds, he simply called the area on the server Linux, which Torvalds finally accepted to avoid big discussions and also, as Torvalds admits, because Linux was simply the better name. In the source code of version 0.01 of Linux, the name Freax (“Makefile for the FREAX kernel”) was used, later only the name Linux was used. The name Linux, which was actually not planned at all, caught on worldwide.

Linux under the GNU GPL

A German user manual and a 5.25-inch HD boot disk from 1993

Torvalds first released Linux under its own proprietary license, but later decided to propose the GNU GPL to the other authors. In the change log for version 0.12 in January 1992, he announced the license change. Version 0.99, published in mid-December 1992, is the first version under the GNU GPL.

This step made it possible to sell Linux as a free operating system. This event attracted many programmers around the world who participated in the development of Linux and GNU. Linus Torvalds later said in an interview that the decision to put Linux under the GNU GPL was the best he had ever made: "Making Linux GPL'd was definitely the best thing I ever did."

Also, some people started looking at Linux out of curiosity or for practical reasons. Compared to the expensive, exclusively available Unix workstations such as a DECstation in university laboratories or companies, you now had the option of setting up a * nix-like test and programming system on much cheaper PC hardware. The installation files and, for example , freely available manuals set in LaTeX (from other sources, but also under GNU GPL license) were usually obtained from university computers connected to the Internet via binary FTP . The files were then transferred to entire stacks of floppy disks (installation kit containing up to 30 packed 5.25-inch, 1.2 MB high-definition disks). The PostScript conversion of the documentation could be printed out on a Postscript-compatible printer. This shows how the system was procured, prepared and installed at the time. Since it was more time-consuming than it is today, there was still a relatively insignificant number of Linux users, and these were more likely to be found in corresponding university departments or in the professional environment. But the GPL step was a significant initial spark for further distribution.

GNU / Linux

The term Linux was initially only used by Torvalds for the kernel he initiated. However, the kernel was often shipped together with other software, especially that of the GNU project . This GNU variant quickly became the most popular variant of GNU. As the name Linux was also frequently used for these software collections over the course of time , the founder of the GNU project, Richard Stallman , soon tried to enforce the name GNU / Linux in order to give the role of GNU an appropriate recognition in his eyes. In June 1994, GNU's bulletin referred to Linux as “free UNIX clone ” and in the same year the Debian project named its GNU / Linux distribution the name GNU / Linux . In the January 1995 issue of GNU's Bulletin , the references to Linux changed to GNU / Linux . In May 1996 Richard Stallman published the editor Emacs 19.31, in which the system type was renamed from Linux to Lignux . He said it would be appropriate to use the terms Linux-based GNU system , GNU / Linux system or Lignux to refer to the combination of Linux kernel and GNU software. However, he soon gave up the term Lignux and only used GNU / Linux .

Overall, the request met with different reactions. While the GNU Project and Debian Project adopted the name, most developers and other Linux distributors either declined or clearly opposed it. This was justified on the one hand with convenience, because the name Linux was seen as simpler, and on the other hand with the note that a considerable amount of the software supplied with Linux did not come from the GNU project.

One reason for the lack of the term “GNU / Linux” is certainly that “Linux” is the much simpler, more catchy term. Another reason for the widespread use of the term “Linux” for the system is probably that Linus Torvalds had always called it Linux since its release in 1992 . Stallman, on the other hand, made his name change request only after the system had become popular.

The mascot

In 1996 Torvalds announced a mascot for Linux, it would be a penguin. The conditions that were placed on the mascot can be found in Torvald's biography Just For Fun :

“But Linus didn't want any penguin. His penguin should look happy, as if he had just enjoyed a liter of beer and had the best sex of his life. "

- Torvalds, p. 151

Larry Ewing then created the original design of the mascot known today. The name Tux beat James Hughes as a derivative of T orvalds U ni X ago. Another reason for this construction is also believed that the colors of penguins give the impression as if they were wearing a tuxedo, which in English tuxedo is.

Recent developments

Linux kernel

As well as Torvalds, Alan Cox and Marcelo Tosatti are well known as Linux kernel maintainers . Cox oversaw the kernel series 2.2 by the end of 2003, Tosatti looked after by mid-2006 to the version 2.4 and Andrew Morton steered the development and management of the new 2.6 kernel, which on December 18 in a stable (2003 stable present) Version has been published. The older branches are also still being continuously improved.

The success of Linux in many areas of application is due in particular to the properties of free software in terms of stability, security, expandability and maintainability, but also to the no license costs.

Desktop

KDE graphical user interface

With the graphical user interfaces such as KDE or Gnome , Linux now offers a level of convenience comparable to Microsoft Windows or Mac OS in the area of desktops . Extensive tests of the environments for usability and efficiency enable the computer to be operated without special knowledge. Techniques such as Xgl or AIGLX also enable hardware-accelerated graphic effects on the desktop.

In addition to the growing range of proprietary software for Linux, the community in particular has steadily increased the software range for Linux and expanded it into a wide variety of areas: Over time, more and more free software projects have emerged, ranging from development environments to business applications to complex multimedia applications. The Windows API replica Wine also makes it possible to work with a steadily increasing number of programs written for Windows under Linux.

The distributions designed for the desktop are easy to install, but increasingly complete computers with pre-installed Linux are also being delivered, which promotes the spread as a single-user system. In the area of ​​mass installations such as in companies or authorities, Linux has, through large-scale migrations, e.g. B. made a name for itself in Munich or Vienna. The success of a desktop system is also decided by the spread of games. Some new games from the big game manufacturers are also coming out in Linux versions, for example id Software’s graphics-heavy games Doom 3 and parts 1 to 4 of the Quake series are available for Linux.

Community

LinuxTag 2004 in Karlsruhe

Most of the work on and about Linux is done by the community, that is, volunteers around the world. These programmers and developers, partly also supported by companies or directly employed, not only help directly with the development of the kernel, but also with the writing of all additional software that is available for and around Linux.

There are both completely free and self-organized projects such as Debian , but also projects directly connected to companies such as Fedora and openSUSE . The members of the respective projects meet at various conferences and trade fairs to exchange ideas. One of the largest trade fairs is LinuxTag , at which around 10,000 people come together every year to find out about Linux and the related projects and to exchange ideas.

Linux Foundation

The Linux Foundation is an amalgamation of the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) and the Free Standards Group . It is an independent, non-profit organization that aims to promote and support the development of Linux. It serves as a sponsored job for Linus Torvalds and for a long time also for Andrew Morton , who switched to Google in mid-2006 and has been working on the Linux kernel on its behalf ever since. Torvalds takes care of the development of the Linux kernel on behalf of the OSDL full-time. The non-commercial establishment is financed by well-known companies such as Red Hat , Novell , AMD , Intel , IBM , Dell and HP .

Companies

Red Hat at LinuxTag

A number of companies are now making money with Linux. These companies, most of which are also members of the Linux Foundation , sometimes invest considerable resources in the further development and expansion of Linux in order to make it suitable for various areas of application . This ranges from hardware donations to developers, drivers and donations of money for foundations that deal with Linux software, to the employment of programmers at the company itself. Well-known examples of this are IBM and HP , who use Linux primarily on their own servers, but also Red Hat , which maintains its own distribution. Qt Development Frameworks also supports Linux through the development and GPL licensing of Qt , which makes the development of KDE possible in the first place, and through the support of some X and KDE developers.

Dispute over Linux

Since the beginning of the development there have been repeated disputes about the system.

Andrew Tanenbaum

"Linux is obsolete"

In 1992 a Usenet article by Andrew S. Tanenbaum in the newsgroup comp.os.minix with the title Linux is obsolete led to a famous debate about the structure of the Linux kernel , in which the recognized computer scientist and author of the microkernel -Systems Minix Tanenbaum raised a number of points of criticism at the then relatively young Linux project. Above all, he criticized

  • the design of the kernel, which from his point of view was out of date as it was (and is) monolithic ,
  • the poor portability in his eyes due to the use of all functions of the Intel 386 processors,
  • the liberal distribution and development model of the software, without strict control of the source code by a single person and
  • the incorporation of a number of functions that were useless from Tanenbaum's point of view. For example, he considered a file system that allows parallel access to several programs to be a superfluous performance hack .

In retrospect, one can say today that Tanenbaum was wrong with his prognosis that Linux would be out of date within a few years and replaced by a (from his point of view) modern GNU Hurd . Linux has also been ported to all major platforms. The liberal development model has led to an unprecedented rate of development; GNU Hurd, on the other hand, is still not suitable for stable production use in 2018.

The book samizdat

Years later, Andrew Tanenbaum was again associated with Linux. When Kenneth Brown wrote his book Samizdat , published in 2004, and therefore spoke to Tanenbaum, Tanenbaum said that Torvalds had not copied from him. In his statement on Brown, he wrote a section that documents his relationship with Linux well: Of course, Torvalds knew his book and Minix .

“But the code was his. The proof of this is that he messed the design up. MINIX is a nice, modular microkernel system […] Linus rewrote the whole thing as a big monolithic kernel, complete with inline assembly code :-(. The first version of Linux was like a time machine. It went back to a system worse than what he already had on his desk. Of course, he was just a kid and didn't know better (although if he had paid better attention in class he should have), but producing a system that was fundamentally different from the base he started with seems pretty good proof that it was a redesign. I don't think he could have copied UNIX because he didn't have access to the UNIX source code, except maybe John Lions 'book, which is about an earlier version of UNIX that does not resemble Linux so much. "

“But the code was from him. The evidence of this is that he defaced the design. MINIX is a nice, modular microkernel system [...] Linus has rewritten the whole thing on a large, monolithic kernel, including inline assembler code :-(. The first version of Linux was like a time machine. It returned to a system that was worse than what he already had on his desk. Of course he was just a kid and didn't know any better (although he could have known better if he'd been more careful in class). But to build a system that was fundamentally different different from what you take as a starting point seems to be pretty good evidence that the whole thing was a redesign, I don't think he could have copied UNIX since he had no access to the UNIX source code, except maybe for John Lions book that is about an earlier version of UNIX that is not so much like Linux. "

- Andrew Tanenbaum : private homepage, May 20, 2004

Competitor Microsoft

Main entrance of the German Microsoft corporate headquarters

Although Torvalds stated that he was not interested in whether Microsoft (among other things, the manufacturer of the Windows operating system ) had been troubled by Linux in the past (1997–2001), fierce competition was fought on both sides. This was first made clear when the first Halloween document by Eric S. Raymond was brought to the public at the end of October 1998 . This document, written by a Microsoft developer, deals in detail with the dangers of free software for Microsoft and shows strategies for countering them. The Free Software Foundation distanced itself from the resulting contempt, which was specifically related to Microsoft, and reminded the community that every producer of proprietary software harms software users.

In early 2004, the competition entered a new phase when Microsoft launched a series of commissioned studies on the subject of “Windows vs. Linux ” published on its own website under the name Get the Facts . The studies were intended to use surveys, surveys and investigations to demonstrate that the operation of Linux on servers has a disadvantageous effect compared to Windows.

The commercial providers of Linux software then tried to counter Microsoft's campaign through studies, surveys and experience reports. At the end of 2004, Novell launched its own website entitled The Pure Truth , on which the advantages as well as the legal security of Linux are highlighted. It is noteworthy that Novell explicitly refers to the studies published by Microsoft in many of its claims. IBM also published a series of studies under the campaign title The Linux at IBM competitive advantage in response to the campaign initiated by Microsoft. Red Hat, on the other hand, started the "Truth Happens" campaign, which, in contrast to Microsoft, does not use studies to advertise the products, but rather lets them decide the performance of the products themselves.

Most members of the Linux community took the subject calmly and teased with jokes like "Linux - and your PC will never turn blue again" (from the blue screen ) or "Sooner or later we will migrate you". Among other things, the magazine LinuxUser published a review of Windows XP, which was not taken very seriously, under the criticisms of a typical Linux distribution.

In autumn 2006, however, Novell and Microsoft announced that they would work together in the future on the issues of interoperability and patent protection. As part of the virtualization, it was agreed to improve the exchange of Office documents, to simplify the virtualization of the enterprise solutions under the competing product and to simplify the integration of Linux and Windows machines into a common directory structure . At the same time, the patent protection stipulated that customers of one provider for the use of its software may not be sued by the other provider for patent infringement. This patent protection was extended to non-commercial free software developers as well. The last step in particular also received criticism as it only included non-commercial developers.

Microsoft's hypervisor Hyper-V officially supports the Red Hat and SuSE distributions as guest systems. The integration components are also included in the Linux kernel.

SCO

In 2003, SCO raised serious allegations against the global corporation IBM: According to SCO's presentation, IBM's Linux developers have taken over code unchanged from Unix and added it to Linux. Since SCO claimed the copyrights to UNIX and saw in the behavior of IBM an infringement of its own rights, a lawsuit was brought against IBM. At the same time, since the beginning of the proceedings, SCO sold Linux licenses to users who did not want to risk a possible lawsuit from SCOs. However, a jury has now ruled that Novell is the legal owner of the Unix copyright.

Trademark right to the name

Several people in different countries tried in 1994 and 1995 to have the name Linux registered as a brand name. As a result, requests for license payments were made to several Linux companies, which many developers and supporters of the Linux system did not agree with. Linus Torvalds took action against these registrations with the help of Linux International and was granted the trademark rights for the Linux brand . Torvalds handed this over to Linux International. Later, the not-for-profit organization Linux Mark Institute , founded for this purpose, took over the management of the brand. In 2000 Linus Torvalds laid down the basic rules for granting licenses. These state that everyone who offers a product or service called Linux must have a license for it, which can be obtained through a one-time purchase. Exceptions to this are non-commercial uses that can or do not require a free license.

In June 2005 a new dispute arose over the license fees for the use of the protected brand name Linux , because the Linux Mark Institute, which represents Linus Torvalds rights, had announced prices of $ 5,000 instead of the previous $ 500 for the use of the name. The step was justified with the increased costs for the enforcement of the rights to the brand name.

This increase caused displeasure and misunderstandings in the community, which is why Linus Torvalds spoke up on the topic on August 21, 2005 in order to smooth things over and resolve the misunderstandings. In an email he explained the current situation and the background in detail and also answered the question of who had to pay license costs:

"[...] And let's repeat: somebody who doesn't want to _protect_ that name would never do this. You can call anything "MyLinux", but the downside is that you may have somebody else who _did_ protect himself come along and send you a cease-and-desist letter. Or, if the name ends up showing up in a trademark search that LMI needs to do every once in a while just to protect the trademark (another legal requirement for trademarks), LMI itself might have to send you a cease-and-desist- or-sublicense it letter.

At which point you either rename it to something else, or you sublicense it. Lake? It's all about whether _you_ need the protection or not, not about whether LMI wants the money or not.

[…] Finally, just to make it clear: not only do I not get a cent of the trademark money, but even LMI (who actually administrators the mark) has so far historically always lost money on it. That's not a way to sustain a trademark, so they're trying to at least become self-sufficient, but so far I can tell that lawyers fees to _give_ that protection that commercial companies want have been higher than the license fees. Even pro bono lawyers charge for the time of their costs and paralegals etc. "

"[...] And to repeat it again: someone who doesn't want to _protect_ the name would never do that. You can call anything "MyLinux", but the downside is that there may be someone out there who has _has_ protected the name themselves and sends you an injunction. Or, if the name appears in a trademark search of the LMI, which it has to do from time to time in order to protect the trademark rights, (another legal requirement of trademark law), the LMI may have to send you a letter asking for the name license or no longer use.

And at this point you just rename it or buy a sub-license. Do you see? It's all about whether or not _you_ need the protection, not whether the LMI wants the money or not.

[…] To make it clear again at the end: Not only do I not get a cent of the money that is earned by the brand, but even the LMI (which manages the brand) has always made a loss. This is not a way to protect a trademark, so at least try to become financially independent. But I can say that the legal fees to _provide_ the protection commercial companies want are higher than the royalties. Even pro bono lawyers calculate the cost of their working hours, their assistants and so on. "

- Linus Torvalds : Linus trademarks Linux? !! in linux kernel e-mail list, August 21, 2005

chronology

1970
Unix sees the light of day on a Digital PDP-11 /20.
1979
The previously freely accessible Unix is ​​becoming the proprietary AT&T Unix , the source code is practically no longer available free of charge even for universities.
1983
Richard Stallman founds the GNU project with the aim of creating a free operating system.
1989
Richard Stallman writes the first version of the GNU General Public License (GPL).
1991
The Linux kernel will be announced publicly on Usenet on August 25th by the 21-year-old Finnish student Linus Benedict Torvalds. The first public version on an FTP server will follow on September 17th. Some developers are interested in the project and contribute improvements and extensions.
1992
The Linux kernel is sold under the GNU GPL and the first free Linux distributions are made .
1993
Over 100 developers are already working on the Linux kernel. With their help, the kernel is adapted to the GNU environment, which brings Linux a wide range of possible uses . Work on the Wine project will also begin this year . In addition, the oldest Linux distribution still in existence today, Slackware, is published for the first time, and Debian, the largest community distribution to date, follows in the same year .
1994
It will take until March of this year for Torvalds to consider all components in the kernel to be fully developed and for Linux version 1.0 to be released. The published kernel is network compatible for the first time. The XFree86 project contributes a graphical user interface (GUI) . This year Red Hat and SuSE are releasing version 1.0 of their Linux distributions.
1995
The next stable branch, the 1.2 series, will appear in March. In the further course of the year Linux will be ported to the platforms Amiga (Motorola 680x0 processor), DEC and Sun SPARC . Over the years, more and more ports have been ported to a wide variety of platforms.
1996
Version 2.0 of the kernel is released. The kernel can now serve several processors at the same time, making it a serious alternative for many companies in many areas of work.
1997
Various proprietary programs are coming onto the market for Linux, including the Adabas D database , the Netscape Navigator browser and the Applixware and StarOffice office suites .
1998
Many well-known companies such as IBM , Compaq and Oracle announce their support for Linux. Also, a group of programmers is starting to develop the KDE graphical user interface , the first in its class for Linux, with the goal of making it easy to use.
Screenshot of a GNOME desktop on Ubuntu 6.10
1999
The 2.2 series will be released in January with improved network code and improved SMP support. At the same time, a group of developers is starting the graphical environment Gnome , which from then on will compete with KDE for ease of use and efficiency. Meanwhile, IBM has announced a major project to support Linux.
2000
The StarOffice office suite is published under the GNU LGPL and thus lays the foundation for the OpenOffice.org project , a comprehensive, free Linux office suite.
2001
The 2.4 series will be released in January. The kernel now supports up to 64 gigabytes of RAM, 64-bit file systems, USB and journaling file systems .
2002
The developer community around OpenOffice.org is releasing version 1.0 of the suite. Version 1.0 of the free web browser Mozilla is also published.
2003
The 2.6 kernel will be released at the end of the year after Linus Torvalds had previously switched to the OSDL . Furthermore, Linux is spreading more and more on embedded systems .
2004
The XFree86 team splits up, the X.Org Foundation develops, which enables and realizes a significantly faster development of the X server for Linux.
2005
The openSUSE project is started as a free community distribution by Novell . In addition, Version 2.0 of OpenOffice.org will be released in October, which supports the OASIS OpenDocument standard .
2006
The techniques Xgl of Novell and AIGLX of Red Hat allow easy use hardware-accelerated effects on the Linux desktop. Oracle releases its own variant of Red Hat Enterprise Linux . Novell and Microsoft announce a collaboration for better interoperability.
2007
The Linux Foundation is the result of a merger of the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) and the Free Standards Group.

literature

Web links

Wikibooks: Linux practical book / Linux history  - learning and teaching materials

Individual evidence

  1. Linus Torvalds and David Diamond : Just for Fun , 2001
  2. What would you like to see most in minix? In: comp.os.minix, August 25, 1991, accessed November 29, 2016
  3. Linus Torvalds in the release notes of Linux 0.12 : The Linux copyright will change: I've had a couple of requests to make it compatible with the GNU copyleft, removing the "you may not distribute it for money" condition. I agree. I propose that the copyright be changed so that it confirms to GNU - pending approval of the persons who have helped write code. I assume this is going to be no problem for anybody: If you have grievances ("I wrote that code assuming the copyright would stay the same") mail me. Otherwise The GNU copyleft takes effect as of the first of February.
  4. Linux kernel, version 0.99 (Z-compressed, 830 kB) ( Memento from July 1, 2011) on the kernel.org FTP server. December 1992
  5. Hiroo Yamagata: The Pragmatist of Free Software ( Memento of the original from August 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tlug.jp archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Linus Torvalds interview, August 5, 1997
  6. ^ Richard Stallman: Linux and GNU on gnu.org, October 22, 2005
  7. Andrew Tanenbaum, Linus Torvalds and others: Linux is obsolete on Usenet, January 29, 1992.
  8. ^ Andrew Tanenbaum: Some Notes on the "Who wrote Linux" Kerfuffle, Release 1.5, May 20, 2004, accessed on November 29, 2016
  9. Free Software Foundation: Is Microsoft the Great Satan? In: Philosophy of the GNU Project. Retrieved December 9, 2016 .
  10. Windows vs Linux campaign from Microsoft ( Memento from January 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  11. Hans-Georg Eßer: The XP distribution in a short test , published in LinuxUser 09/2002, accessed on December 9, 2016.
  12. Dr. Oliver Diedrich: Microsoft and Novell cooperate on heise.de, November 3, 2006
  13. ^ About Virtual Machines and Guest Operating Systems for Hyper-V. In: technet.microsoft.com. July 15, 2014, accessed December 9, 2016 .
  14. Linus trademarks Linux? !! In: Linux kernel e-mail list, August 21, 2005, accessed on November 29, 2016.