The history of Linux

The History of Linux

Linux is closely related to the Unix Operating System. To understand the history of Linux, you need to know the following:

• The Historical Development of UNIX

• The Development of Linux

• Installation of Linux on a virtual machine using VirtualBox!

The Historical Development of UNIX

At the end of the 1960s, most operating systems were only designed for batch operations. If you wanted to run a program, you inserted a pile of cards or a roll of perforated strips into a reading device and waited until the result was sent to a printer.

If there was an error in the program or if you did not get the required result, you had to rewrite the perforated roll or replace one or several punch cards, reread the stack, and again wait for the result.

This procedure was long-winded and inefficient which led computer developers to look for a way to allow a number of users to simultaneously use a dialog-oriented way of working with the system.

MULTICS was one of the first programs created to meet this demand. It allowed you to work in a dialog with the computer, but it was still very strongly influenced by the batch operations, and it was difficult to operate.

In 1969, one of the MULTICS developers, Ken Thompson, began creating an operating system that, apart from a dialog-oriented operation, aimed to provide a high functionality and structural simplicity.

The first version of UNIX was written in Assembler, a programming language close to machine-level. To be machine-independent in its further development, UNIX was rewritten in 1971 in the programming language C, developed by Dennis Ritchie.

Because Bell Laboratories (a subsidiary company of AT&T) provided documentation and the source text of UNIX to universities almost at cost, the system spread relatively quickly.

The simple operation of the system , the almost unlimited availability of the source text, and its relative portability motivated many users and companies to become actively engaged in the development, so functionalities were very quickly added to UNIX and it reached a very high level of maturity.

As Linux is written in C, it is available for a lot of different hardware platforms..

The Development of Linux

In the spring of 1991, the Finnish student Linus Benedict Torvalds began to develop a UNIX-like operating system for his PC.

A few months later he had developed a rudimentary kernel which he passed on as a source text to others who were interested via the Internet with the following message:

Linus Torvalds made the source code of his Linux Kernel available with the GPL (GNU General Public License). The GPL allows everyone to read and edit the source code. The GPL license also requires any edited source code to be made available to the public.

Linux rapidly developed into a project involving many people, although the development of the system's core (Linux kernel) is still coordinated by Linus Torvalds. All kernel modifications are integrated by him.

The functions of the kernel include input and output control, device control, process management, and file management. Other system components (shell utilities, network programs, and implementations of the kernel for non-Intel processors) are looked after by other people or groups.