The History of Linux

I'm doing a FREE operating system

Aug 25, 1991

A 21 year old Finnish student named Linus Benedict Torvalds decided that he was going to develop a free operating system. At the time he said, "I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones." This turned into much more later on.

Linux 0.01 is Released

Sep 1, 1991

Shortly after Linus made his announcement, he released the first version of the Linux kernel. It had a mere 8,470 lines of code, which is extremely tiny, as today's kernel has millions of lines of code.

Linux Kernel Relicensed under GNU GPL

Jan 5, 1992

The inital version didn't allow commercial use. The v0.12 release did. This meant that the sale of modified versions was now legal as long as they were released under the same license and inlcuded the complete source code. In an interview shortly after, Linus said, "Making Linux GPL'd was definitely the best thing I ever did."

1st Linux FAQ in alt.os.linux

Jan 22, 1992

Linus did his first FAQ about Linux. A question was posed by another user and Linus answered.
Q: "What is Linux?"
A: "Linux is a small unix for 386-AT computers, that has the added advantage of being free. It is still in beta-testing, but is slowly getting useful even for somewhat real developement. The current version is 0.12 still in Beta-test, date: Jan. 14th 1992." He goes on to state that it has been written from scratch and can be made available with the complete source code.

Tanenbaum-Torvalds Debate

Jan 29, 1992

This started when a message titled "Linux is OBSOLETE", posted by Andrew S. Tanenbaum to the comp.os.minix mailing list. The argument was about the Linux kernel and its architecture. Tanenbaum argued that microkernels are superior to monolithic kernels and that therefore Linux is obsolete. Later Tanenbaum stated that it was just a technical argument and that he has great respect for what Linus had accomplished.

Slackware Linux 1.00 released

Jul 17, 1993

Slackware v 1.00 was announced comp.os.linux: "The Slackware Linux distribution (v. 1.00) is now available for anonymous FTP. This is a complete installation system designed for systems with a 3.5" boot floppy." This is considered the first broadly successful Linux distribution and is still in use today. It was created by Patrick Volkerding.

1st Debian Release

Aug 16, 1993

Ian Murdock released the 1st version of the Debian Linux distribution. At the time the whole concept of a distribution of Linux was still new.
Debian is one of the most influential Linux distros, being the basis of MEPIS, Mint, Ubuntu and many others.

Linux 1.0.0 released

Mar 14, 1994

Version 1.0 of the Linux kernel was released. It supported single-processor i386-based computer systems. The kernel code base had grown to 176,250 lines of code within 3 years of its existence.
Here are some notable comments from the v1.0 changelog that reflect Linus's sense of humor: CHANGES since 0.99 patchlevel 15:
- removed all the bugs, of course.
- networking fixes.
- more changes than I really wanted..

Red Hat Linux

Nov 3, 1994

Red Hat co-founder Marc Ewing announced the availability of the Red Hat Software Linux on CD-ROM. It was priced at $49.95 and included 30 days of installation support.
Red Hat Linux was the first Linux distribution to use the RPM Package Manager and has been the basis for distros like Mandriva, Fedora, and Tizen.

Tux was born

May 9, 1996

The concept of the Linux mascot being a penguin came from Linus Torvalds, who claims to have contracted penguinitis after being gently nibbled by a penguin:
"Penguinitis makes you stay awake at nights just thinking about penguins and feeling great love towards them." -Linus Torvalds
The Tux mascot was created by Larry Ewing. The first person to call the penguin Tux was James Hughes, who said that it stood for (T)orvalds (U)ni(X). Tux is also an abbreviation of tuxedo.

Linux 2 released

Jun 9, 1996

Version 2.0 of the Linux Kernel was released. It was a significant improvement over the earlier versions being the first stable kernel to support multiple processors in a single system (SMP) and more processor types. Linux becomes a serious alternative for many companies.

KDE was founded

Oct 14, 1996

When Matthias Ettrich founded the KDE project in 1996 he was troubled by the inconsistency of applications running on the Unix desktop. He proposed the creation of a desktop environment in which users could expect applications to look, feel and work alike.

GNOME 1 released

Mar 3, 1999

Another influential desktop environment arrives in the Linux World, the GNOME desktop. GNOME is composed entirely of free and open source software and is developed by both volunteers and paid contributors. It is part of the GNU Project and can be used with various Unix-like operating systems, most notably GNU/Linux.
Nowadays GNOME is the default desktop environment in several major Linux distributions like Debian, Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop.

KNOPPIX released

Sep 30, 2000

KNOPPIX is a Debian based distribution designed to run from CD, DVD or flash disk. It was one of the first Linux live distributions when initially released in September 2000 by Linux consultant Klaus Knopper.

Linus on the origins of Linux

Sep 19, 2001

Linus Torvalds, the creator of the operating system phenomenon Linux, tells the story of how he went from writing code as a graduate student in Helsinki in the early 1990s to becoming an icon for open source software by the end of the decade.
Right in the beginning of his talk Linus states, that he actually doesn't like giving talks and that he hopes this will really be the last one.

SCO lawsuits

Mar 6, 2003

The SCO Group (SCO) announced that they were suing IBM for $1 billion, claiming that IBM transferred SCO trade secrets into Linux. Later SCO began numerous legal claims and threats against many of the major names in the computer industry, including HP, Microsoft, Novell, Silicon Graphics, Sun Microsystems and Red Hat.
The jury case was decided on 30 March 2010 in Novell's favour.

Ubuntu 4.10 released

Oct 20, 2004

Ubuntu came into life with the unusual version number 4.10, referring to its release date in October 2004 and the odd code name Warty Warthog.This version became very popular. Ubuntu plays an important part in the adoption of Linux on desktops and laptops.

Ubuntu 5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog)

Apr 8, 2005

Ubuntu 5.04 included many new features such as an update manager, upgrade notifier, suspend, hibernate and standby support, readahead and grepmap, dynamic frequency scaling for processors, ubuntu hardware database, Kickstart installation, and APT authentication.

Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger)

Oct 12, 2005

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake)

Jun 1, 2006

Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft)

Oct 26, 2006

Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn)

Apr 19, 2007

ASUS announced 1st Eee PCs

Jun 6, 2007

ASUS announced two Eee PC models at Computex Taipei 2007: the 701 and 1001. The 701 base model the Eee PC 4G was released later that year in October in Taiwan.
The 1st Eee PCs came pre-installed with Xandros Linux, a lightweigt distribution optimized for small displays based on Debian.
Several vendors jumped on the train and released Linux and later also Windows based netbooks.

Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon)

Oct 18, 2007

Android announced

Nov 5, 2007

Instead of announcing a Gphone as speculated beforehand, Google announced the Open Handset Alliance and Android calling it the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices.
The Linux based Android OS is more open than its major competitor iOS by Apple and has become the most successful mobile operating system by far regarding shipped devices.

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron)

Apr 24, 2008

Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex)

Oct 30, 2008

Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)

Apr 23, 2009

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx)

Sep 19, 2009

Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)

Oct 29, 2009

Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat)

Apr 2, 2010

Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal)

Aug 17, 2010

Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot)

Mar 7, 2011

Google announced the Chromebook

May 11, 2011

Google announced the Chromebook at the Google I/O conference 2011. Chromebooks are laptops running the so-called cloud operating system Chrome OS, that is based on the Linux kernel.

Linux 3.0 released

Jun 21, 2011

Linus Torvalds announced the release of Linux 3.0 starting with the words: "So there it is. Gone are the 2.6<bignum> days, and 3.0 is out.."
The version bump is not about major technological as there are no special landmark features or incompatibilities related to the version number change, it's simply a way to drop an inconvenient numbering system in honor of twenty years of Linux.

Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal)

Apr 23, 2012

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin)

Apr 26, 2012

Linux Community Song

Aug 31, 2012

The Linux Community met at Linuxcon San Diego and recorded their version of the Twisted Sister song We're Not Gonna Take It featuring among others Linus Torvalds, Greg Kroah-Hartman, Jono Bacon, and Joe Brockmeier.
The community is an important part of Linux, the largest collaborative software project. Thousands of developers have contributed code and countless others have contributed documentation, media, feedback and spread the word to make Linux such a success.

Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail)

Oct 17, 2012

Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander)

Oct 17, 2013

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr)

Oct 18, 2013

Ubuntu 14.10 (Utopic Unicorn)

Oct 23, 2014

Ubuntu 15.04 (Vivid Vervet)

Apr 23, 2015

Ubuntu 15.10 (Wily Werewolf)

Oct 22, 2015

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus)

Apr 21, 2016

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) is due to be released on April 21, 2016