LINUX OPERATING SYSTEMS

Linux Operating System

Linux Operating System

Linux is a computer operating system (OS) that is open source, which is a development model in which software is written collectively and the source code is freely available. Linux originated in 1991 in Finland as a project of University of Helsinki student Linus Torvalds, who was attempting to produce a Unix-like kernel (the essential, central part of an OS) for his Intel 386-based computer. Linux comprises the Linux kernel, the GNU utilities from the Free Software Foundation, and other utilities that are usually found in a variety of Unix environments, such as user environment tools, text interfaces, and graphical user interfaces (GUIs) (Torvalds, 2006).

In the early 1990s, an online community of developers and experts, self-identified as hackers, responded to Torvalds' initial post in a Usenet newsgroup, in which he outlined his project and requested feedback. Building even a rudimentary kernel for a processor is no small feat, and Torvalds' kernel was slightly past rudimentary when he announced it. He posted the kernel to the FTP server in Finland, licensed under the GNU Public License; the FTP site's administrator renamed the development kernel Linux. Then hackers started to download it, and to “play” with it (Raymond, 2006).

Thanks to the hackers' interest in the project and their abilities in general, in addition to Torvalds' ability to work with people, Linux entered a new mode of development, which, to use a description coined by Eric Raymond, resembled a bazaar. This model of development occurs when enough people are brought together on a project, and each person contributes his or her skills to its development, forming a fluid and organic self-organizing group with little central control (Gancarz, 2006).

On a technical level, Linux is an aberration from the predominant OS design style that was taught in colleges in the 1980s and early 1990s. It was a monolithic kernel, being developed when microkernels were the style of the day. Monolithic kernels include all of the memory systems, all of the driver systems, and every system that interacts with the core machine into one program, the kernel. The opposing school called for smaller programs called daemons to manage most of the secondary services involved in actually operating the computer. Over its years of development since its initial announcement, the Linux kernel has evolved more and more toward an open and adaptable design focused on user needs; the kernel can be built ...