Linux Turns 20 Today—And Shut Up, Yes, It Still Matters

[allingeneral]

We get it. Linux is just for nerds. Not mere nerds—we're all nerds—Linux nerds. It's a hobbyist OS for contrarians. It's an antique. An oddity. Pointless. Right? Very, very wrong. Happy birthday, Linux—let's celebrate you like we should

Linux started off humbly enough—just some guy, some programmer's side project. A blip on a niche usenet group typed by Linus Torvalds, 20 years ago today:

August 25th 1991 - Linus posted the following to comp.os.minix (a usenet newsgroup):
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
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 .

READ MORE...

[allingeneral]

My first kernel build was version 2.0.36 in early 1998. Don't mess with the l33th4x0r!

[OakRidgeStars]

Penguins rock

[gunderwood]

[Hiwaytahell]

NeRds are cOol i is one.

[Jakeiscrazy]

20 years and they still can't get it to catch on.................

[ShadowByte]

For my first Slackware install, I had to borrow a SCSI CD drive to install it, and then had to compile the latest kernel at the time to get IDE CD ROM support so I could use my own cd drive.

That was a scary thought back then, compiling the kernel and rebooting, praying you selected the right stuff and the system booted properly so you didn't have to waste another hour or two recompiling Good times...

[allingeneral]

20 years and they still can't get it to catch on.................

FLAMEBAIT!

[allingeneral]

For my first Slackware install, I had to borrow a SCSI CD drive to install it, and then had to compile the latest kernel at the time to get IDE CD ROM support so I could use my own cd drive.

That was a scary thought back then, compiling the kernel and rebooting, praying you selected the right stuff and the system booted properly so you didn't have to waste another hour or two recompiling Good times...

I was always messing with trying to compile kernel modules so that I could have a lean, mean optimized kernel. Back in those days, size really did matter!

[Reverenddel]

WOW! So when is the next Star Trek convention? Just asking... HAHAHAH

KIDDING! JOKE! HA-HA!

I wish Linux WOULD catch on! Teach Bill Gates some friggin' MANNERS!

[meangene]

20 years and they still can't get it to catch on

I think it's caught on more than people realize; a lot of stuff uses a Linux kernel but the user rarely interacts with Linux directly.

For example, all Android phones use Linux kernels and I think I read an estimate the other day that 60 million Android phones have been sold so far.

[suburbanredneck]

Wow... never thought there would be a linux thread on a forum like this! Agree - linux has come a long way... maybe not so much on the desktop front, but its hiding in a lot of places that people don't realize.

[KaosDad]

Linux has caught on - look at RedHat, SUSE and CentOS. RedHat alone finally pushed Linux into the data center. When ServerVault sold WIndows had finally dropped to below 50% of our installed base with *NIX making the majority. Of that majority fully half was Linux of some flavor.

[gunderwood]

20 years and they still can't get it to catch on

I think it's caught on more than people realize; a lot of stuff uses a Linux kernel but the user rarely interacts with Linux directly.

For example, all Android phones use Linux kernels and I think I read an estimate the other day that 60 million Android phones have been sold so far.

+1

Nearly every embedded device you buy has some Linux/BSD heritage. Heavily modified sure. There's a bit in real time software, but not usually. Critical servers, you bet!

Wikipedia

Linux distributions have long been used as server operating systems, and have risen to prominence in that area; Netcraft reported in September 2006 that eight of the ten most reliable internet hosting companies ran Linux distributions on their web servers.[67] Since June 2008, Linux distributions represented five of the top ten, FreeBSD three of ten, and Microsoft two of ten;[68] since February 2010, Linux distributions represented six of the top ten, FreeBSD two of ten, and Microsoft one of ten.[69]

In September 2008 Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer admitted that 60% of web-servers run Linux versus 40% that run Windows Server.[81]

[OakRidgeStars]

I think it's caught on more than people realize; a lot of stuff uses a Linux kernel but the user rarely interacts with Linux directly.

For example, all Android phones use Linux kernels and I think I read an estimate the other day that 60 million Android phones have been sold so far.

D R O I D

[TBob]

Linux is everywhere - appliances, most web servers, cell phones (Android), super computers, etc. Even the evil Apple empire has a variation of Linux under its newer desktop operating systems. Linux is surreptitiously taking over the world, and rightly so. Free, as in free beer.

Happy birthday to the Penguin!

[OleMan]

Oh yes, Linux became 'mature' and 'main stream' several years ago. So far as I know, it runs on most every common hardware processor type, small or large, including IBM and Unisys mainframes. A large mainframe can run hundreds or thousands of Linux occurences along with other workloads. For some installations, Linux is a world beater at removing repetitive workloads from larger systems - in addition to it's strengths for other purposes.

In my career (now retired), I sometimes had to counter prejudices against the proper type and size of system and operating system, and Linux encountered that but overcame it just because it is good for a lot of usages.

Oleman

[marcbdc]

This is amazing. I did not expect so many likeminded people regarding computers on here.

[TBob]

Just demonstrates the high quality of membership here.

[VAman]

I always liked Linux. I ran Red Hat for a while 7 or 8 years ago, but I haven't messed with it much since. I probably should try it out again and see how I like it.