HISTORY OF LINUX

SUBMITTED TO Mukesh Kumar Keshari

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OPERATING SYSTEMS: Every Body might have concepts about operating system of computer. Well to define operating system: An operating system (OS) is an interface between hardware and user which is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the resources of a computer that acts as a host for computing applications run on the machine. As a host, one of the purposes of an operating system is to handle the details of the operation of the hardware. This relieves application programs from having to manage these details and makes it easier to write applications. Almost all computers (including handheld computers, desktop computers, supercomputers, video game consoles) as well as some robots, domestic appliances (dishwashers, washing machines), and portable media players use an operating system of some type. Some of the oldest models may, however, use an embedded operating system that may be contained on a data storage device.

LINUX AS AN OPERATING SYSTEM There are many Operating System developed by companies according to their use, purpose. Some are developed for general use whereas some are used for specific use. In the field of General Purpose Operating systems, Microsoft company and its popular OS like Windows XP, Windows VISTA, Windows 7 are the leader whereas Apples Macintosh, and Linux are the followers. They are widely used for general purpose as well specific purpose because many applications-multimedia, system utility, office system softwares, professional softwares can be run easily. Here we will be talking about Linux operating system

ORIGIN OF LINUX Linux is a generic term referring to Unix-like computer operating systems based on the Linux kernel. The Unix operating system was conceived and implemented in 1969 at AT&T's Bell Laboratories in the United States by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna. It was first released in 1971 and was initially entirely written in assembly language, a common practice at the time. Later, in a key pioneering approach in 1973, Unix was re-written in the programming language C by Dennis Ritchie (with
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exceptions to the kernel and I/O). The availability of an operating system written in a high-level language allowed easier portability to different computer platforms. With a legal glitch forcing AT&T to license the operating system's source code to anyone who asked,[15] Unix quickly grew and became widely adopted by academic institutions and businesses. In 1984, AT&T divested itself of Bell Labs. Free of the legal glitch requiring free licensing, Bell Labs began selling Unix as a proprietary product. Their development is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed, both commercially and non-commercially, by anyone under licenses such as the GNU GPL. A BRIEF HISTORY OF LINUX We see the breakthrough from an original infographic below:

20 years ago, for the first time, Linus Torvalds made Linux dbut with a simple but memorable message Hello everybody out there. Linux, the name we call this open source operating system stems from his name Linus and he is considered to be the founder of the OS which almost bloggers are lying, like me, if they run a blog on shared hosting, VPS or even Cloud server.

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After one year Linux core was born, it spread out to the OS community with a surprising license GPL. That was one of the most important distinction of Linux compare to older operating systems like Windows and OS X. In 1992, as you see in the picture below, Slackware became the first widely adopted distribution. The current version of Slackware is 13.1 and it was released last year. We all know logo of Linux is a penguin called Tux but only 5 years after Linus rolled out Linux, this logo was chosen.

In 1998, when I went to high school and tried to made acquaintance with a computer running Windows ME, Linux gained a lots of reputation when many big companies started supporting this platform.

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In 1999, one of the most popular Linux distribution so far make its first presence. Red Hat is now less convenient and friendly to average end users than Ubuntu, but this operating system still has a more reputation in enterprise customers (as far as I know). Being more exposure, 4 years later, IBM tried to run a famous Linux ad during the superb bowl. Last year marked a remarkable milestone of Linux when Android Google, a OS based on Linux for smartphone and tablet climbed to dominance smartphone operating system market. At at age of 20, Linux is powering a variety of devices from supercomputers, smartphone, tablet and much more.

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Why Choose Linux?

Here are just a few reasons why you should choose Linux:
Stability

Since Linux is based on the stable UNIX operating system, it inherits that stability and reliability. Our Linux servers have uptimes in the MONTHS. Linux is open-source, which means the source code is readily available to anyone who wants it. Since the source code available, thousands of developers all over the world are able to contribute and improve Linux. As a result, security patches and new drivers come out quickly, sometimes in less than a day. This insures a very stable operating system and high uptime for your network operations.
Affordability

You can download Linux software for free from the Internet at Real Time Enterprises local mirror or CDs can be purchased from distribution vendors for as little as $40.

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Linux can run on PC-based hardware. This means its easy to add disk space or memory. AND, some services will run very well on a P1 with 64MB RAM, which you probably have collecting dust at your office.
Speed

Many studies have proven that on equal hardware, Linux is several times faster than Windows NT. In our own experience a Linux fileserver running Samba was at least 10 times faster than a Windows NT server and the NT server had faster, better hardware!

BIBLIOGRAPHY
www.google.com www.wikipedia.org www.scribd.com www.about.com www.kernel.org www.linux.org

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