Linux 30th Anniversary: An inventory of 30 major events that witnessed the journey

In the past few days, the most lively thing in the open source circle is the 30th birthday of Linux.

"Father of Linux"-Finnish "God" Linus Torvalds (Linus Torvalds) in a newly drafted brief note, shared his experience on the development of Linux for 30 years. He said that he was both happy and confused about the rise of Linux. The reason for the initial development of Linux was simply because of his hobbies. Unexpectedly, this technology was completely changed on a whim, and now it has been 30 years.

Although the outside world is paying attention to Linux's 30th birthday, there have always been people in the outside world arguing about the exact date of the birthday. Therefore, in the latest interview, Linus Torvalds stated that "about the operating system's birthday, you can say that it has 4 birthdays."

1. August 25: Linus Torvalds believes that version 0.01 has never been released in any public place (only publicly released to a small number of people who have shown interest, so he believes that none of these emails have survived).
2. September 17th: According to the date he checked the files still retained in the tar file, the date of the 0.01 version;
3. July 3: When he first mentioned Linux publicly, it was also the first time he publicly requested some POSIX documents on the Minix newsgroup and mentioned that he was working on a project (but did not name it).
4. October 5th: The date when he first publicly released the Linux version, version 0.02 (+1 (very small patch has been released).

It's just that Torvalds really didn't expect that Linux could have such a development 30 years later.

About Linux, About Linus Torvalds, About "Open Source"

In 1991, Unix developed by Ken Thompson (the father of the C language) using assembly language was still an operating system second only to x86, and the Internet was still in its infancy. On August 25 of that year, a gentle Finnish researcher Linus Benedict Torvalds announced on Usenet group comp.os.minix that he was working for the 386 ( 486) Users develop a (free) operating system (just on a whim, not as large and professional as GNU). But who ever thought, the technology has since been changed.

In the first days, Linux was not officially called "Linux". In this regard, Torvalds explained, “Linux is my working name, but I never thought of releasing it as Linux. Linux is a very good working name, but if I really use it as an official name, people will Thinks I am an arrogant man and will not take it seriously. So I chose this very bad name'Freax'. Fortunately, the first Linux administrator, Arilemmk, also thinks'Freax' is a stupid name."

Therefore, Torvalds named it Linux, actually because he thought this internal project name was Torvalds' first choice.
Looking back at all of this, Torvalds said that he usually thinks that "some early things may really not be that important anymore, but that is important to me, just because they were surprised or important at the time."

At that time, although Minix was also very useful, people eventually discovered that Minix was a "dead end". Because its "source code is available" but "dedicated", even if there are many shared patches, it is troublesome for a programmer to merge all the patches into the special software at home.

In contrast, Linux has shared libraries. Most of the software used in Linux is open source. "Open source" means that others can combine the best features together, which can bring a smoother out-of-the-box experience.

The open source code of Linux software can be downloaded, read and modified by developers and application software manufacturers, but it must respect the GNU rules and related agreements. If you modify the source code, you must also open the source code and upload it to the network. For everyone to make further improvements, this is also the "core" spirit of open source development so far.

Thirty years later, Linux has developed into a "ruler" position in the field of open source technology. We see that now almost all major websites-including Google, Facebook, Wikipedia, Microsoft's own Azure, etc., are running on Linux. Including the current global technology focus on cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technology fields, Linux is also the "cornerstone" for promoting the development of all these open sources.

30 major events witnessed 30 years of Linux

In the new anniversary, the Linux history book has also been updated. So far, there have been over 30 major events. Let us look through it together and witness the growth of Linux.

• 1991: Linux introduced Linux to the world

Linus Torvalds emailed the Minix Usenet newsgroup on August 25, 1991. He didn't know that he was wrong to write this way: "I made this system only out of my personal hobby, and it will not be a large and professional system like GNU clone of 386(486) AT."

• 1992: Linux ushered in its first battle

Andrew Tannenbaum, an operating system guru and creator of Minix, the educational operating system version of Unix, declared that "Linux is obsolete" and the first operating system war faced by Linux has begun. In the resulting discussion, Linus Torvalds made a very insightful comment on the vision of Linux, and this comment is still correct to this day. He said: "If the GNU kernel (another project to create a free operating system similar to Unix) had been prepared last spring, I wouldn't even bother to start my project. But the fact is that it doesn't have it, and it hasn't been there until now. . Linux has won a big advantage at the point where it is now available."

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• 1993: Slackware Linux is released

There were some early distributions of Linux, such as MCC and Yggdrasil Linux, but Slackware by Patrick Volkerding was the first widely successful Linux distribution, and it is still being updated and used today.

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• 1993: Debian Linux is born

Debian Linux is a very popular Linux community edition. To this day, it is still the basis of Mint, Ubuntu, and many other popular Linux distributions.

• 1994: Red Hat is established

Marc Ewing created Red Hat Linux. Bob Young acquired Ewing's company and merged it with his own company to form Red Hat, the most successful Linux company to date.

• 1995: Opening of the first Linux Expo

In 1995, Linux held its first exposition, Linux Expo, and after that, more exhibitions were born. Today, there are more than ten major regional and national Linux trade shows in the United States alone.

• 1996: KDE is born

This year, Matthias Ettrich created the first main desktop interface for Linux, KDE, for ease of use. "K" means "Kool". This name is also an approximate transformation of Unix's Common Desktop Environment (CDE).

• 1996: SUSE Linux released

In the same year, after Slackware and Red Hat Linux cooperated, European top commercial Linux manufacturer SUSE released its first independent Linux distribution. Today SUSE is still an important manufacturer in the field of Linux and cloud computing.

• 1997: GNOME comes out

Miguel de Icaza and Federico Mena started to develop a new Linux desktop-the GNOME desktop, which was built entirely on free software. Together, GNOME and KDE will become one of the two most important desktops for Linux.

1998: Microsoft's "Halloween File"

Microsoft began to target Linux, and Eric S. Raymond, the early head of Linux and open source, published a Halloween document that showed that Microsoft seriously regarded Linux as a rival in the market and began to formulate its anti-open source and Linux campaign. Ten years later, Microsoft changed its tone.

• 1999: Corel Linux desktop

Corel released the first mainstream Linux desktop. Although unsuccessful, it paved the way for other popular Linux desktop distributions, such as Ubuntu.

• 1999: Linux and Windows face off for the first time

For the first time, Linux has benchmarked against Windows NT in file services. Linux wins. The operating system war between Linux and Windows servers has officially begun. Linux finally won. Today, Linux occupies a dominant position in both the web server and cloud space.

• 2000: IBM invested US$1 billion in Linux

In 2000, IBM announced that it would invest US$1 billion in Linux in 2001. It proved to be IBM's best investment. Through this move, IBM broke the deadlock in the enterprise market with Linux.

• 2001: Linux 2.4 version released

Although the release of Linux 2.4 has been delayed, Linux is more competitive in Solaris and other high-end server operating systems.

• 2003: SCO and Linux go to war

SCO is composed of the old SCO Unix and Caldera Linux businesses, but it abandoned the history of Linux, sued IBM and other companies, and tried to prove that Linux is a copy of Unix. In the end it ended in failure, but its FUD blocked the commercial acceptance of Linux for quite some time.

• 2004: The new member Ubuntu is here

Ubuntu, built on Debian Linux, has officially arrived. It has become a very popular Linux desktop operating system and the most important of all cloud Linux distributions.

• 2004: Linux dominates supercomputers

More than half of the fastest computers in the world run on Linux. In 2017, it will be all supercomputers.

• 2005: Linux successfully commercialized

Linus Torvalds appeared on the cover of BusinessWeek for the first time, breaking any suspicion that Linux has become a major business player. What is the slogan? Linux Inc. Today, you can hardly find any large enterprise that does not run on Linux.

• 2007: The Android system was born

The Open Mobile Alliance, including Google and many hardware manufacturers, announced the launch of the Android system. It will become the most popular operating system for mobile users because it runs on more than 1 billion smartphones.

• 2008: The stock trading system shifted to Linux

The New York Stock Exchange switched to Linux as its core operating system, a move that was soon followed by many other major stock exchanges in the world. Linux has not become a big business, Linux itself is a big business.

• 2011: Watson wins Jeopardy

IBM's Watson computer runs on Linux, winning the Jeopardy intellectual challenge and setting a new standard for intelligent expert systems.

• 2011: The rise of Chromebooks

Google released the first Chromebook: CR-48. It runs ChromeOS based on Gentoo-Linux. By 2015, Chromebook sales had surpassed that of laptops running Windows.

• 2012: Cloud runs on Linux

IT infrastructure has moved from servers and data centers to the cloud, and the cloud runs on Linux. Even on Microsoft Azure, in 2016, more than 1/3 of virtual machines were running on Linux.

• 2012: Red Hat's revenue reached $1 billion for the first time

Red Hat became the first open source company with annual revenue of 1 billion U.S. dollars. In 2016, it became the first Linux company to reach $2 billion.

• 2014: Microsoft "shows love" Linux

Microsoft's new CEO Satya Nadella declared that "Microsoft loves Linux." Subsequently, Microsoft proved this by supporting Linux and open source software in the cloud and on-premises, and gradually embarked on the road of embracing open source.

• 2018: Microsoft open sourced its patent portfolio

This may be the most aggressive move that Microsoft has ever made to support open source. Microsoft has opened its entire patent portfolio to members of the Open Invention Network (OIN) Open Source Patent Alliance. OIN is a non-profit organization that defends all patents of Linux.

• 2019: Microsoft launches Linux for Win 10 users

Microsoft then launched its own native Linux-Windows Subsystem for Linux 2.0 for Windows 10 users. With it, people can run Linux and Windows at the same time.

• 2019: IBM acquires Red Hat

Red Hat was acquired by IBM for $34 billion, making it the largest software acquisition ever. It is not difficult to see from IBM's move that Linux is now in the leading position in the technology industry.

• 2020: Linux rules the cloud world

The global cloud market now exceeds $100 billion annually. 90% of them run on Linux. Even on Microsoft Azure, more than half of the VMs are Linux.

• When the language enters the Linux system, Rust programming will never stop

From the beginning, like UNIX before it, Linux is based on C. However, the newer and safer design Rust language is now being merged into Linux.

Linux can be expected in the future * *

Over the years, from high school students to doctoral students, people from different countries and backgrounds have made their own contributions to Linux and open source in various ways. Perhaps more of them are insisting on the "volunteer" spirit of maintaining the open source ecosystem.

Nowadays, Linux is almost "ubiquitous" (except for special operating systems, such as aerospace and low-end embedded systems). Therefore, the future of Linux is still extremely valuable.

Torvalds also revealed his views on the future development of Linux in the interview. He said that after creating Git, he felt that he was a successful programmer. Therefore, in the future, he no longer needs to worry about Linux as a one-off.

Regarding the development of Linux technology and the open source ecosystem, industry insiders said, "No matter what happens to Linux, open source software is the default version of the future operating system."

From the personal hobby to the addition of the Rust language, Linux has broken the waves for 30 years.

Youth is not old, and struggle will not stop. I believe that in the future, there will still be generations of developers entering the door of programming, and Linux will always be their loyal partner!

*Reference link:
https://www.zdnet.com/pictures/linux-turns-30-the-biggest-events-in-its-history-so-far/

https://www.zdnet.com/article/linus-torvalds-on-linuxs-30th-birthday/
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