View and vote on the article here: The Linux Kernel
The Linux Kernel| Category | | | Summary | The Linux kernel - the foundation, heart and soul of all things Linux.
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| | Body | "Some people have told me they don't think a fat penguin really embodies the grace of Linux, which just tells me they have never seen a angry penguin charging at them in excess of 100mph. They'd be a lot more careful about what they say if they had." -- Linus Torvalds
Linus Torvalds, a young student from Finland's University of Helsinki, created the Linux Kernel after originally having an interest in Minix (a UNIX variant). Due to his inquisitive nature, Linus took it upon himself to produce a system that exceeded the then "Great Minix". Steadily working for a number of years using UNIX as his model, Linus started work on his project in August of 1991. After years of work, he released version 1.0 of the Linux kernel in 1994. (An important note, the Linux Kernel contains no UNIX whatsoever, it is a re-edit of POSIX standards).
Nowadays, there are hundreds of different distributions utilizing the Linux kernel as their core. The various directions that the distributions have taken has led to unique and powerful operating systems. At the time he created the Linux kernel, Linus decided that it was going to be open source freeware under the GNU General Public Licence (GPL). This move is arguably why today Linux is one of the most revered operating systems of all time. Many would say that the Linux Kernel and its derivative distributions draw their strength from the efforts and development of an conglomerate of Linux coders throughout the world. The many distributions of Linux have come about solely due to the benefits of open source.
So just what is a "Distribution"? That explanation is rather simple. A Linux distribution (or more commonly, "distro") is a custom package of software bundled around the Linux Kernel. Anybody can make a Linux distribution, and many, many people have - personal home users, coding enthusiasts, and even corporations. Some of the major distributions of Linux include (but are by no means limited to) Red Hat, Debian, Ubuntu, Knoppix, Mandriva (formerly Mandrake), Craftworks, Fedora (the commercial version of Red Hat), Slackware, SuSE, Xandros and Gentoo.
The following is a walk down memory lane, an original post from Linus to the comp.os.minix newsgroup
From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: What would you like to see most in minix?
Summary: small poll for my new operating system
Message-ID: <1991Aug25.205708.9541@klaava.Helsinki.FI>
Date: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki
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 protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I have :-(.
And to that end, the Linux Kernel is now one of the most powerful open source operating system bases available for any computer architecture. The possibilities of this type of system foundation has proven to be limitless. The question brewing on a lot of computing enthusiasts minds now is where will Linux be in 10 years time, and what will become of the closed-source self-proclaimed king of operating systems, Windows? - with Linux's ever-growing popularity, only time will tell.
For resources associated with the Linux Kernel, please visit the following links:
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/
http://www.linux.org
http://www.linuxhq.com/
www.yolinux.com/ |
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This article was imported from zZine. (original author: craytonic)
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