The Linux

1496 Words3 Pages

The Linux was originally founded by Linus Torvalds. In 1991, he was a second year computer science student in Finland. He sought after an operating system that was similar to the UNIX system, but both UNIX and the hardware it ran on were excessively expensive. A UNIX version called Minix was available for free, but it did not reasonably meet his needs as it was simply an operating system for students, designed primarily as a teaching tool rather than an industry strength operating system. As a result, Torvalds studied Minix and proceeded to set out to write a new version. After six months of working to produce the new operating system, Torvalds made very little progress toward the utility of the system.

He began to post his intentions and included the progress of his project on the Internet and discovered that many programmers worldwide shared his interest. After a brilliant collaboration of some of the most intelligent people in the computer science field, programmers began contributing to Linus’s project by adding enhancements and fixing bugs. This helped to speed up and advance Torvalds’ project.

An operating system is a form of software that is considered the backbone of a computer, managing both software and hardware resources. It is in control of computer resources ranging from the allocation of memory to recognizing input from external devices and transmitting output to computer displays, to the handling of all interactions between the user and the hardware. (LeBlanc, 2005.)

The operating system is not merely one program as it consists of many smaller programs and utilities that allow the user to run other programs on top of the operating system. The application programs make use of the operating system by making requ...

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...e technologies have proved resilient enough to evolve through strong technical cultures, distinctive arts, and an associated design philosophy transmitted across generations of engineers and computer science enthusiasts. The passage of Linux from a hacking project to globalization has been due to many efforts and dedication. As the GNU Project laid the foundation for the development of open source software, Linus Torvalds’s endless interest and passion for computer sciences gave birth to Linux.

References

GNU Operating System (2011). What is GNU? (Online). http:// www.gnu.org

LeBlanc, D. (2005). Linux for Dummies. Indianapolis, Indiana. Wiley Publishing, Inc.

Saha, A.(2011). Learning to Program. In: Linux Journal (November 2011).

Salzmann, P. J. (2005). The Linux Kernel Module Programming Guide. In: Kernel

Module Programming (vol.5, pp.156-158).

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