As I've promised it last week, we are going to take a sneak peek into the history of the second most common operating system, Linux. Most of you encounter with it at libraries and other places where one can publicly access a computer. This is because, as you may know it, Linux is a "free" operating system (I put that in brackets as some distributions of it are not free). And this fact about Linux usually concludes people's knowledge about the system, leaving its history mysterious.

Most people hate this system, as it is "too complicated", "slow", "breaks down way too often", and so on. Sadly, these facts are almost never true for Linux but for the computers they are installed on. As libraries and such places usually have old, slow PCs, and hundreds of people are using them every day for various stuff, it is no wonder that these systems are often faulty.

So, how did Linux began its history, and what is it capable of? See below.


Linux is an operating system that emerged from the granddad of most operating systems, Unix (Unix was released in 1970!). As I mentioned, it has many versions, but the core is the same in all of them. This is called the Linux kernel, which was created by a then 21 year-old Finnish student, Linus Torvalds.

Torvalds developed the kernel in Minix, another Unix-based system. Initially, he wanted to name the system Freax (Free + Freak), but his friend/coworker who managed the server where the kernel was first uploaded, thought that Linux is a better name (derived from the name of Torvalds), so he named the folder "linux".


Linux has the most versions amongst all operating systems as it had been ported to almost every kind of hardware platform. You may ask now: If it is so popular, why am I not seeing it everywhere? Well, the thing is that Linux is mainly a text-based (console) operating system, and as it is ironclad and fast, it is the leading OS of servers, supercomputers, etc. Also, servers need to care for safety as well, and Linux is a very safe operating system.

On the other hand, Linux supports many graphic "shells", the main ones being GNOME and KDE. Linux has many-many distributions that have different graphical designs and have different main uses. Also, Linux has some distributions that were designed for one specific task, for example BackTrack Linux was developed to test network flaws (and apparently it was found to be perfect for hacking into wireless networks).
Nowadays, common Linux distributions include Ubuntu, SUSE, Fedora (formerly Red Hat), and Mandriva. These are all commercially backed. However, the true positive side of Linux is that some distributions of it are developed entirely by the community. Debian and Gentoo are the main examples of this.

A fully free, open-source OS has many-many advantages. If you find an error or a bug in the system, you can fix it yourself if you have the knowledge and share the fix with the others. This results in an ever-changing, stable operating system.