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Intro To Linux And Open Source |
History
In 1987, a Dutch professor named Andrew S. Tanenbaum, wanted to teach his students how the internals of an operating system worked. He wrote a UNIX-like system from scratch and called it MINIX. It was designed to run on the Intel 8086 microprocessors, that had flooded the market. Most business users were running UNIX, and DOS, which were proprietary and/or expensive. If you bought a copy of Prof. Tannenbaum's book: "Operating Systems: Design and Implementation," you would also get the 12,000 lines of source code (written in C and assembly language) to his operating system called MINIX. In 1991, Linus Benedict Torvalds, was a second year student of Computer Science at the University of Helsinki and a self-taught hacker. The 21 year old, sandy haired, soft-spoken Finn loved to tinker with the power of the computers and see how high the limits to which the system can be pushed. But all that was lacking, was an operating system that could meet the demands of the professionals. MINIX was good, but still it was simply an operating system for the students, designed as a teaching tool rather than an industry strength one. On August 25, 1991, this historic post was sent to the MINIX news group by Linus:
From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: What would you like to see most in minix?
Summary: small poll for my new operating system
Date: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMT
Hello everybody out there using minix -
I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things). I've currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40),and things seem to work.This implies that I'll get something practical within a few months, andI'd like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them
:-)
Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi)
PS. Yes - it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs. It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I have :-(.
As it is apparent from the posting, Linus himself didn't believe that his creation was going to be big enough to change computing forever. Soon, the source code for this new operating system went worldwide via FTP sites at Finland and elsewhere.
The Growth of Linux
Proving all the warning and prophecies of the skeptics wrong, Linux has completed a decade of development. Today, Linux is one of the fastest growing operating systems in the history. From a few dedicated fanatics in 1991-92 to millions of general users at present, it is certainly a remarkable journey. The big businesses have 'discovered' Linux, and have poured millions of dollars into the development effort, denouncing the anti-business myth of the open-source movement. IBM corp. once considered the archenemy of open-source hacker community, has come forward with a huge fund for development of open source Linux based solutions. But what's really amazing, is the continuously increasing band of developers spread throughout the world, who work with a fervent zeal to improve upon the features of Linux. The development effort is not, as many closed-sourced advocates accuse, totally engulfed with chaos. A well designed development model supervised by some maintainers is adopted. Along with this, there are thousands of developers working to port various applications to Linux. Commercial enterprises are no longer wary of Linux. With a large number of vendors providing support for Linux based products, it is no longer a 'do-at-your-own-risk' thing to use Linux at the office. As for reliability, Linux certainly proved it during the nasty attacks of the CIH virus in 1999 and the love bug, a year later, during which Linux based machines proved to be immune to the damages caused by these otherwise quite simple computer viruses. Linux start-ups like Red Hat received a cordial response, as they went public. And even after the dot-com bust of the recent years, these companies continue to thrive and grow. With this added confidence, many large and small busienesses have adopted Linux based servers and workstations as an integral part of their offices.
The Rise of the Desktop Linux
What has been the biggest complain against Linux? Perhaps in the past, it was the text based interface which scared off many people from using it. 'Text mode gives total control', some dedicated hackers and heavy users may explain. But for the millions of ordinary people, it also means a lot of effort towards learning the system. The existing X-Windows system and the window managers were not up to the general computer users' expectation. Exactly this argument had always been put forward by dedicated followers of the Windows camp. But things began to change in the last couple of years. The advent of professional looking desktop environments like KDE (K Desktop Environment) and GNOME completed the picture. The recent introduction of these desktop environments, along with the Linspire have changed the general perception about the 'user friendliness' of Linux to a great extent. Though hard-core users grumble about the loss of purity of the hacker-culture, this great change in the mindset of the common users has increased the popularity of Linux. Linspire is now leading the way. People everywhere can enjoy all the benefits of Linux, with the ease-of-use of Microsoft Windows. With the click of a button--in a beautiful, graphical interface--you can now install Linux software with ease.
About Open Source Software
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has this to say about open source and "free" software:
We maintain this free software definition to show clearly what must be true about a particular software program for it to be considered free software.
``Free software'' is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of ``free'' as in ``free speech,'' not as in ``free beer.''
Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software:
- The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
- The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
- The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
- The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
A program is free software if users have all of these freedoms. Thus, you should be free to redistribute copies, either with or without modifications, either gratis or charging a fee for distribution, to anyone anywhere. Being free to do these things means (among other things) that you do not have to ask or pay for permission.
You should also have the freedom to make modifications and use them privately in your own work or play, without even mentioning that they exist. If you do publish your changes, you should not be required to notify anyone in particular, or in any particular way.
The freedom to use a program means the freedom for any kind of person or organization to use it on any kind of computer system, for any kind of overall job, and without being required to communicate subsequently with the developer or any other specific entity.
The freedom to redistribute copies must include binary or executable forms of the program, as well as source code, for both modified and unmodified versions. (Distributing programs in runnable form is necessary for conveniently installable free operating systems.) It is ok if there is no way to produce a binary or executable form for a certain program (since some languages don't support that feature), but you must have the freedom to redistribute such forms should you find or develop a way to make them.
In order for the freedoms to make changes, and to publish improved versions, to be meaningful, you must have access to the source code of the program. Therefore, accessibility of source code is a necessary condition for free software.
In order for these freedoms to be real, they must be irrevocable as long as you do nothing wrong; if the developer of the software has the power to revoke the license, without your doing anything to give cause, the software is not free.
However, certain kinds of rules about the manner of distributing free software are acceptable, when they don't conflict with the central freedoms. For example, copyleft (very simply stated) is the rule that when redistributing the program, you cannot add restrictions to deny other people the central freedoms. This rule does not conflict with the central freedoms; rather it protects them.
Thus, you may have paid money to get copies of free software, or you may have obtained copies at no charge. But regardless of how you got your copies, you always have the freedom to copy and change the software, even to sell copies.
``Free software'' does not mean ``non-commercial''. A free program
must be available for commercial use, commercial development, and
commercial distribution. Commercial development of free software is
no longer unusual; such free commercial software is very important.
For more information about Open Source check out some of these links:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
http://www.opensource.org/
http://sourceforge.net/
http://www.openfoundation.com/
http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html
Last Modified 1/13/05 9:41 PM