In summer 1991, Linus Torvalds, a University of Helsinki student, brought a $3,500 generic gray block of computer which consists of 33 Megahertz Intel system with 4 megabytes of RAM. After installing Minix operating system still, he was certain that there was room for improvement.
He started writing little pieces of software which gives boost to Minix. And then In August 1991 he posted a note on internet that later gained a lot of attention.
The beginning of revolution
It all begin in 25 August 1991 when 20 years old Computer Science student Linus Torvalds, sat in front of his computer and posted a note on Internet's Minix newsgroup which is now one of the most famous entries on Internet in computing history. The note was:
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," he wrote "I'd like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat.
Many developers across the world connected with this thought.
He named his OS kernel, Linux and choose Penguin as it's mascot (based on an incident at zoo, where he was bitten by a Penguin).
Today the Linux runs the massive computer of Google, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter and giants. You can't imagine the internet without Linux or Linus today.
At the age of 21 he wrote his Master's thesis, titled Linux: A Portable Operating System.
An Important Decision
This one decision made by the Linus is one of the most important decision that shaped the computing industry, he chose GPL (General Public License) license, created by Richard Stallman. At first, Torvalds published the Linux Kernel under its own license, which had restriction on commercial activity.
In order to protect the GNU software from being made proprietary, Richard Stallman created the GPL which lists terms and conditions for copying, modifying and distributing free software
The GNU General Public License is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the freedom to run, study, share, and modify the software. Wikipedia
People built businesses around Linux, and it soon became a popular alternative to expensive UNIX systems.
Need for Git
At the time of when Linus created the project Linux operating-system kernel, as many other developers contributed to it, there was need to maintain the project.
There were some Source Control Management (SCMs) out there at that time, but they do not meet the requirement according to how Linus wanted. Some tools needs much time to commit changes or some are not open source which drag the development of project.
The existing SCMs were really painful to work with. Even merging was a big deal if you were working in a team. It consumed a lot of time, which was not acceptable for him, as Linus does dozens of merges a day (with Git, it takes a few seconds).
The one that they were using previously before the Git was BitKeeper, but it has its own problems such as renaming was painful. In 2005 the relationship between Linux kernel community and the company that developed BitKeeper broke down, thus the tool's free of charge status revoked.
Linus took the challenge and disappear for a weekend and after a couple of sleepless nights come up with the following tool named Git.
Git was primarily designed for the distribution of projects, which involve repetitive tasks. It is widely adopted, as there was a real need for a change in the field of SCMs, as Linus and his team were facing similar problems.
At first the Git was basically designed for Linux which bears repetitions, but it solves not only the repetition also it does that efficiently.
Linux in present
Most of us use Linux on a daily basis. Every time you make a search on Google, you are indirectly interacting with it, as most of Google’s systems are powered by Linux.
Most of the supercomputers today runs on Linux. It runs the infrastructure of stock exchange worldwide. And the list goes on...
Links
- Linux - Official Linux website, which also has tutorials to get started with Linux, great community to solve your problems or to share your thoughts.
- GNU - An extensive collection of free software which respect user's freedom.
- GPL - A free license for software or any other kind of work.