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C151 Multi-User Operating Systems
Linux History
Open Source Programming
 Open source programming: 1983, Richard Stallman
started the GNU Project (GNU = Gnu is not Unix), a
software movement to provide free and quality software.
 1984 – Stallman started to write the GNU C compiler
(gcc), considered as one of the most efficient and robust
compilers ever created.
 Open source programs are released under the GNU
General Public License.
Linux History
 Minix, the first open source operating system, written
by Andrew S. Tanenbaum in C, about 12000 lines of
code.
 1991, first Linux kernel written in C by Linus Torvalds,
University of Helsinki, Finland. First message about it
posted on August 25, first release in September.
 It was developed with the contribution of many
programmers around the world.
 It is functionally similar to Unix (a clone).
Linux Development
 1993 – FreeBSD 1.0 (Berkley Unix)
 1994 – RedHat Linux is introduced.
 1999 – Linux available for PowerPC (Apple)
 Now – adopted by many companies and most
universities, third world countries.
 Standard for parallel and high performance computing
(Beowulf clusters).
 Available for most computers, including PDA, supports
graphical user interfaces, networking, and has many
applications.
Why Linux
 It's free! – the source code is also available and anybody can write
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their own Linux as long as they include the source code in the
distribution.
Most users consider it a more stable and reliable OS than
Windows.
It's an alternative to Microsoft's dominance of the software
market.
It is multi-tasking, multi-user. Good support of multiple CPUs.
Many utilities and APIs are now included in most distributions,
like the g++ compiler, OpenGL, MPI, pthreads, etc.
Mac OS now has an integrated shell and can run X11, Linuxspecific applications.
Linux Components
 The kernel – the core of the OS that controls the
resources.
 A hierarchical file system (FHS)
 Shells – applications that interpret the commands from
the user. They are active in the textual mode or terminal
mode. Shells can also execute script files. Examples:
bash, tcsh, zsh, sh, etc.
 Graphical interfaces – the X window system. Desktop
interfaces: Gnome, KDE, fvwm, etc. Specific libraries:
X11, gtk-glib-gnome, Qte, etc.
Layered View of Linux Operating
System
Layered View of Linux Operating
System
Reading Assignment
 Textbook: Chapter 1 and Chapter 2
Linux History on Youtube
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVTWCPoUt8w