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<TITLE>1.2 A Brief History of Linux</TITLE>
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<B> Previous:</B> <A NAME=tex2html1771 HREF="node9.html">1.1 About This Book</A>
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<H1><A NAME=SECTION00320000000000000000>1.2 A Brief History of Linux</A></H1>
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<P>
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UNIX is one of the most popular operating systems worldwide because of its
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large support base and distribution. It was originally developed as a
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multitasking system for minicomputers and mainframes in the mid-1970's, but
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has since grown to become one of the most widely used operating systems
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anywhere, despite its sometimes confusing interface and lack of central
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standardization.
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<P>
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<A NAME=150> </A>
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<A NAME=151> </A>
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The real reason for UNIX's popularity? Many hackers feel that UNIX is the
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Right Thing---the One True Operating System. Hence, the development of Linux
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by an expanding group of UNIX hackers who want to get their hands dirty with
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their own system.
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<P>
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Versions of UNIX exist for many systems---ranging from personal computers
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to supercomputers such as the Cray Y-MP.
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Most versions of UNIX for personal computers are quite expensive and
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cumbersome. At the time of this writing, a one-machine version of AT&T's
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System V for the 386 runs at about US$1500.
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<P>
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Linux is a freely distributable version of UNIX developed primarily by Linus
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Torvalds <A NAME=tex2html6 HREF="footnode.html#170"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="gif" SRC="foot_motif.gif"></A>
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<A NAME=153> </A>
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at the University of
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Helsinki in Finland. Linux was developed with the help of many UNIX
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programmers and wizards across the Internet, allowing anyone with
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enough know-how and gumption the ability to
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develop and change the system. The Linux kernel uses no code from AT&T or
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any other proprietary source, and much of the software available for Linux is
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developed by the GNU project at the Free Software Foundation in
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Cambridge, Massachusetts. However, programmers all over the world have
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contributed to the growing pool of Linux software.
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<P>
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Linux was originally developed as a hobby project by Linus Torvalds.
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It was inspired by Minix, a small UNIX system developed by
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Andy Tanenbaum, and
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<A NAME=154> </A>
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<A NAME=155> </A>
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the first discussions about Linux were on the USENET newsgroup
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<tt>comp.os.minix</tt>. These discussions were concerned mostly with the
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development of a small, academic UNIX system for Minix users who wanted
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more.
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<P>
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The very early development of Linux was mostly dealing with the
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task-switching features of the 80386 protected-mode interface, all written
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in assembly code. Linus writes,
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<blockquote> ``After that it was plain sailing: hairy coding still, but I had some devices,
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and debugging was easier. I started using C at this stage, and it certainly
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speeds up developement. This is also when I start to get serious about my
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megalomaniac ideas to make `a better Minix than Minix'. I was hoping I'd be
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able to recompile <tt>gcc</tt> under Linux some day...
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<P>
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``Two months for basic setup, but then only slightly longer
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until I had a disk-driver (seriously buggy, but it happened to work on my
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machine) and a small filesystem. That was about when I made 0.01 available
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[around late August of 1991]: it wasn't pretty, it had no floppy
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driver, and it couldn't do much anything. I don't think anybody ever
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compiled that version. But by then I was hooked, and didn't want to
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stop until I could chuck out Minix.''
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</blockquote>
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<P>
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No announcement was ever made for Linux version 0.01. The 0.01 sources
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weren't even executable: they contained only the bare rudiments of the kernel
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source, and assumed that you had access to a Minix machine to compile and
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play with them.
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<P>
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On 5 October 1991, Linus announced the first ``official'' version of Linux,
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version 0.02. At this point, Linus was able to run <tt>bash</tt> (the GNU
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Bourne Again Shell) and <tt>gcc</tt> (the GNU C compiler), but not very much
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else was working. Again, this was intended as a hacker's system. The primary
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focus was kernel development---none of the issues of user support,
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documentation, distribution, and so on had even been addressed. Today,
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the Linux community still seems to treat these ergonomic issues as
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secondary to the ``real programming''---kernel development.
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<P>
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Linus wrote in <tt>comp.os.minix</tt>,
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<blockquote> ``Do you pine for the nice days of Minix-1.1, when men were men and wrote
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their own device drivers? Are you without a nice project and just dying
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to cut your teeth on a OS you can try to modify for your needs? Are you
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finding it frustrating when everything works on Minix? No more all-nighters
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to get a nifty program working? Then this post might be just
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for you.
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<P>
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``As I mentioned a month ago, I'm working on a free version of a
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Minix-lookalike for AT-386 computers. It has finally reached the stage
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where it's even usable (though may not be depending on what you want),
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and I am willing to put out the sources for wider distribution. It is
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just version 0.02...but I've successfully
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run <tt>bash</tt>, <tt>gcc</tt>, <tt>gnu-make</tt>, <tt>gnu-sed</tt>,
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<tt>compress</tt>, etc. under it.''
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</blockquote>
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<P>
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After version 0.03, Linus bumped the version number up to 0.10, as more people
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started to work on the system. After several further revisions, Linus
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increased the version number to 0.95, to reflect his expectation that the
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system was ready for an ``official'' release very soon. (Generally, software
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is not assigned the version number 1.0 until it is theoretically complete
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or bug-free.) This was in March of 1992. Almost a year and a half later,
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in late December of 1993, the Linux kernel was still at version
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0.99.pl14---asymptotically approaching 1.0. As of the time of this
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writing, the current kernel version is 1.1 patchlevel 52, and 1.2 is
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right around the corner.
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<P>
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Today, Linux is a complete UNIX clone, capable of running X Windows, TCP/IP, Emacs,
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UUCP, mail and news software, you name it. Almost all of the major free
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software packages have been ported to Linux, and commercial software is
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becoming available.
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Much more hardware is supported
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than in original versions of the kernel. Many people have executed benchmarks
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on 80486 Linux systems and found them comparable with mid-range workstations
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from Sun Microsystems and Digital Equipment Corporation. Who would have ever
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guessed that this ``little'' UNIX clone would have grown up to take on the
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entire world of personal computing?
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<P>
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<BR> <HR><A NAME=tex2html1778 HREF="node11.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="next" SRC="next_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME=tex2html1776 HREF="node8.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="up" SRC="up_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME=tex2html1770 HREF="node9.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="previous" SRC="previous_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME=tex2html1780 HREF="node1.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="contents" SRC="contents_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME=tex2html1781 HREF="node250.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="index" SRC="index_motif.gif"></A> <BR>
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<B> Next:</B> <A NAME=tex2html1779 HREF="node11.html">1.3 System Features</A>
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<B>Up:</B> <A NAME=tex2html1777 HREF="node8.html">1 Introduction to Linux</A>
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<B> Previous:</B> <A NAME=tex2html1771 HREF="node9.html">1.1 About This Book</A>
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<BR> <HR> <P>
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<BR> <HR>
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<P><ADDRESS>
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<I>Matt Welsh <BR>
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mdw@sunsite.unc.edu</I>
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