History Of Linux.
In 1991, Linus Torvalds, an undergraduate student at the University of Helsinki, got a brand-new IBM 386 PC. Dissatisfied with the OS that came with the hardware, he wanted to run the UNIX operating system instead. UNIX, however, was too expensive, so Linus & a team of talented programmers tackled the daunting task of creating a new version of UNIX. They created a core operating system or kernel, names Linux.
One of the most important decisions Linux Torvalds made in the early days of the Linux kernel was to make the code freely distributable. Several organizations accumulated huge amounts of freely distributable software available from the Free Software Foundation & other places, added to the Linux kernel & other freely distributable code had to be identified & made available without charge.
Linux All Over.
The Linux OS has been ported from the 32-bit Intel architecture to a series of other architectures, including Alpha, StrongArm & UltraSparc giving users a choice of machine manufacturer & keeping the Linux kernel flexible for new processors. Linux also handles symmetric multiprocessing (more than one CPU or mathematical & logical programming unit per system box. In addition, projects are in the works to provide sophisticated processing capabilities such as :
Real-time programming, typically to control machinery or test equipment.
High availability, that is having the computer run reliably all the time.
Scalability, that is adding more computer power by adding more system boxes rather than faster CPUs.
This last capability - known as Extreme Linux systems or Beowulf systems - is enabling research organizations to create machines of supercomputer capabilities at a fraction of the price of the supercomputers. In certain cases, Extreme Linux systems have been made from obsolete PCs, costing the organizations that make them nothing in material costs.
Linux also includes the following such as Web browsers, TCP/IP, Compilers, freeware programs such as mail readers, image editors, circuit design programs & text formaters.
Distributions include Redhat Linux, Caldera OpenLinux, SuSe Linux, TurboLinux, Mandrake Linux, Corel Linux, Debian, Linux Slackware, Armed Linux, WinLinux 2000, Linux PPC, etc.
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