Linux- Gaining Ground

EVOLUTION OF LINUX

The history of Linux dates back to early 1990s, when Linus Torvalds (Torvalds), a Finnish graduate student of computer science started coding an operating system. In August 1991, he e-mailed his code – an experimental version of the Linux kernel^[8] -- to a software discussion group, and shared his code freely with other developers to make it more robust. Initially, Torvalds had started developing the operating system as a hobby for Intel processors - 386 (486), which was based on MINIX.

He invited his fellow programmers to test the code and make suggestions about its working and add new features. The first Linux version 0.01 was released in September 1991 and was made available on the Internet for access to programmers worldwide.

Soon, programmers from all over the world started responding to the program and added new features. By October 1991, Linux 0.02 version was released, with a declaration from Torvalds that he wanted to develop an operating system that could be used on all systems. Within a few weeks of the release of Linux 0.02 version, its third version came out, and by December 1991, Linux 0.10 was released.

However, the design of Linux was still in its early stages with no login, and it supported only AT hard disks. Linux 0.11 came with better features like support to multilingual keyboards, floppy disks and support for Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA)^[9] and Video Graphics Adapter (VGA)^[10] . Soon, with the help of supporters of the open source movement, Linux 0.95 version was released.

Though many criticized Linux, and even Tanenbaum in his mail to Torvalds stated: ‘Linux is obsolete', Torvalds was confident about the potential of Linux as an o/s and continued his work. Over a period of time, many programmers contributed to the ongoing work on Linux and made it a potential challenger to MS Windows. Linux was licensed under the GPL in order to ensure its open source code property.

Tux the Penguin was chosen as the Linux logo, to represent the free spirit of the Linux movement (Refer figure I). By 1994, the commercialization of Linux began, with vendors selling application software that would run on Linux. Red Hat, Caledra and Debain^[11] and others started distributing Linux with Graphical User Interfaces such as GNU Network Object Model Environment (GNOME)^[12] , and K Desktop Environment (KDE)^[13] , which became popular.

Not only was different application software developed for Linux, but the companies also started using Linux on different platforms. Linux was used on 3Com's handheld PalmPilot computer. It was seen that the clustering technology^[14] of Linux made it possible to combine a large number of Linux machines into a one parallel computer and also allowed it to be used on different platforms. This gave it an edge over other o/s. In 1996, Linux was used at Los Alamos National Laboratory to run 68 PCs as a combined processing computer to replicate atomic shock waves at very low cost.

FIGURE I
TUX – LINUX LOGO

Source: www.tssp.co.uk

Analysts attributed the success of Linux to the open source movement, which enabled Torvalds to improve the o/s with help of other programmers around the globe. By 2001, Linux was acclaimed as cheaper, and also free from software bugs or glitches as compared to other o/s such as Windows and Unix.

THREATENED BY THE PENGUIN

THE FUTURE OF LINUX AND THE OPEN SOURCE MOVEMENT

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

EXHIBIT II - TIME LINE OF LINUX

EXHIBIT III - EVOLUTION OF WINDOWS contd...

EXHIBIT IV - COMPARISON OF LINUX AND WINDOWS

ADDITIONAL READINGS & REFERENCES

^[8] The kernel is the essential center of a computer operating system, which provides basic services for all other parts of the operating system. It includes an interrupt handler that handles all requests or completed I/O operations that compete for the Kernel's services, a scheduler that determines which programs share the kernel's processing time in what order, and a supervisor that actually gives use of the computer to each process when it is scheduled.

^[9]EGA was one of the display modes of the computer introduced in 1984 by IBM. It allowed up to 16 different colors and offered resolution up to 640 * 350, which improved the display on the computer monitor and made it easy to read text.

^[10] VGA was an improvement to EGA introduced by IBM in 1987. It allowed maximum resolution depending on the number of colors displayed. It allowed the user to choose between 16 colors at 640 * 480, or 256 colors at 320 * 200 resolution.

^[11] These software firms provide Linux installation services and other Linux related products.

^[12] GNOME is a graphical user interface and set of computer desktop applications that run on the Linux o/s. It is intended to make Linux o/s easy to work and corresponds with Windows desktop interface.

^[13] KDE is an open source graphical desktop environment for Unix workstations. Initially it was called as Kool Desktop Environment and it includes complete GUI, file manager, window manager, help system, configuration system, tools and utilities, and several applications for users.

^[14] Clustering is a process of listing a single page from a web site within a search engine or directory's search results, generally used to provide more relevant results.