There is a new wave sweeping our world, and it has one name - Linux. Everyone, from Eskimos in Greenland to Bedouins in desert, has heard of Linux. As a reader to a publication of this nature, you have most probably already used Linux in some form, or toyed with the idea of setting up a Linux Box. But some questions may have plagued you. For example, when we say "Linux", what exactly do we mean? Do we mean Red Hat? Or SuSe? What is the nature of the beast? In this article, we will attempt to give a broad introduction to the world of Linux.

It all started with an innocuous email to a mailing list, fifteen years ago:

From: (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Gcc-1.40 and a posix-question
Message-ID:
Date: 3 Jul 91 10:00:50 GMT
Hello netlanders,
Due to a project I'm working on (in minix), I'm interested in the posix standard definition. Could somebody please point me to a (preferably) machine-readable format of the latest posix rules? Ftp-sites would be nice.

This was followed by an email a few weeks later which is more explicit, and can be called the first step.

From: (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
Message-ID:
Date: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki
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, and I'd like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions re welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)

Linus ( )

PS. Yes - it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs. It is NOT portable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I have :-(."

This led to the Linux revolution, as we know it today. Linux or GNU/Linux, to give it its proper name, is a result of the contribution of thousands of programmers, from all parts of the world. No one man or woman can lay claim to more than a part of the larger whole. There are various people who have contributed more than others, notably Linus Torvalds and Richard Stallman, but still without the thousands of semi-anonymous coders, their contribution would not have amounted to very much.

From those humble beginnings, GNU/Linux has grown into the vast body of code it is today, spanning all sorts of hardware platforms. There are various "Distributions" available, which target different audiences. The applications of GNU/Linux are growing everyday. From running web servers of Fortune 500 companies to acting as a firewall and router for a small mom and pop operation, GNU/Linux does it all.

Some of you may be wondering why we are using the term GNU/Linux. There's an interesting bit of history behind this, and Richard Stallman's article here, which is the best place to learn about the history of GNU/Linux. You can also see this report for more information. 

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