The Linux kernel was the last -- and the most important -- piece of code that was needed to com-
plete a whole UNIX-like operating system under the GPL. So, when people started putting together
distributions, the name Linux and not GNU is what stuck. Some distributions such as Debian,
however, refer to themselves as GNU/Linux distributions. (Not including GNU in the title or subti-
tle of a Linux operating system is also a matter of much public grumbling of some members of the
GNU Project. See
www·gnu·org
.)
Within the next few years, commercial and non-commercial Linux distributions began to emerge.
MCC Interim Linux (
www·ibiblio·org/pub/historic-linux/distributions/MCC/
) was
released in the U.K. in February 1992. Slackware Linux (described in Chapter 14), which was first
released in April 1993, is one of the oldest surviving Linux distributions.
Today, Linux can be described as an open source UNIX-like operating system that reflects a combi-
nation of SVID, POSIX, and BSD compliance. Linux continues to aim toward compliance with
POSIX as well as with standards set by the new owner of the UNIX trademark, The Open Group
(
www·unix-systems·org
).
The non-profit Open Source Development Labs, renamed the Linux Foundation after merging
with the Free Standards Group (
www·linux-foundation·org
), which employs Linus Torvalds,
manages the direction today of Linux development efforts. Its sponsors list is like a Who's Who of
commercial Linux vendors, including IBM, Red Hat, SUSE (Novell), VA Software, HP, Dell, Computer
Associates, Intel, Cisco Systems, and others. The Linux Foundation's primary charter is to protect
and accelerate the growth of Linux by providing legal protection and software development stan-
dards for Linux developers.
Although much of the thrust of corporate Linux efforts is on corporate, enterprise computing,
huge improvements are continuing in the desktop arena as well. The KDE and GNOME desktop
environments continuously improve the Linux experience for casual users. Major efforts are under-
way to offer critical pieces of desktop components that are still not available in open source versions,
including multimedia software and office productivity applications.
Linus continues to maintain and improve the Linux kernel.
To get more detailed histories of Linux, I recommend visiting the LWN·net site. LWN·net
has kept a detailed Linux timeline from 1998 to the present day. For example, the 2006
timeline is available at http://lwn·net/Articles/Timeline2006. Another good resource is the
book Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution (O'Reilly). The whole first edition (pub-
lished in 1999) is available online (www·oreilly·com/catalog/opensources/book/toc.html).
What's So Great About Linux?
Leveraging work done on UNIX and GNU projects helped to get Linux up and running quickly.
The culture of sharing in the open source community and adoption of a wide array of tools for
communicating on the Internet have helped Linux move quickly through infancy and adolescence
to become a mature operating system.
NOTE
NOTE
15
Starting with Linux
1
