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Linux Torvalds : Linux operating system
Comp 1631 (winter 2011)
Yong-Hu Kwon
Linux Torvalds
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Linus Benedict Torvalds was born on
December 28, 1969 in Helsinki(Finland).
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He was named after Linus Pauling, the famous
physical chemist and Nobel Prize winner.
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The Torvalds family belongs to the Swedishspeaking minority in Finland.
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Torvalds attended the University of Helsinki
from 1988 to 1996, graduating with a master's
degree in computer science from NODES
research group.
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His academic career was interrupted after his
first year of study when he joined the Finnish
Army, selecting the 11-month officer training
program to fulfill the mandatory military
service of Finland.
Linux Torvalds
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In 1990, he resumed his university
studies, and was exposed to UNIX for
the first time, in the form of a DEC
MicroVAX running ULTRIX.
His M.Sc. thesis was titled Linux: A
Portable Operating System.
His interest in computers began with a
Commodore VIC-20. After the VIC-20 he
purchased a Sinclair QL, which he
modified extensively, especially its
operating system. He programmed an
assembly language and a text editor for
the QL, as well as a few games. He is
known to have written a Pac-Man clone
named Cool Man. On January 5, 1991
he purchased an Intel 80386-based IBM
PC and spent a month playing the game
Prince of Persia before receiving his
MINIX copy, which in turn enabled him
to begin work on Linux.
Linux Torvalds
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Thus, in 1997 he moved to sunny Santa Clara in California's fabled Silicon Valley
to accept a position with Transmeta Corporation. His job there was to help
develop commercial software to facilitate communication between operating
systems and that company's microprocessors. Linux devotees were initially
concerned not only about his move to a for-profit business but also about the
fact that it was funded in part by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
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For Torvalds, however, the decision was not difficult. Not only was it an
opportunity for a change and to experience a much improved climate, but
Silicon Valley was the ultimate destination for almost everyone in the computer
field, even him. His choice of company was also affected by the fact that
Transmeta was not involved with Linux, as he was reluctant to favor one Linux
business over another.
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Torvalds' arrangement with Transmeta permitted him to devote part of his time
to his Linux activities. This was, in fact, a clever publicity move on the part of
Transmeta, which benefited not only by receiving the services of an extremely
talented and motivated engineer but also by having someone on their staff
who brought them exceptional media attention.
Linux Torvalds
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Torvalds arrived in Silicon Valley when Microsoft was decimating
Netscape in the browser war and when many people in the U.S. and
elsewhere were hoping for a new, and more robust, challenger to the
Microsoft monopoly.
Actually, Torvalds was never really interested in accumulating wealth or
power, and he has contended all along that what counts most for the
best programmers is the joy of programming and being creative. In his
own words, he did it all "just for fun."
Torvalds' financial situation changed dramatically in 1999. Red Hat and
VA Linux (now VA Software), both leading developers of Linux-based
software packages for large enterprises, had presented him with stock
options in gratitude for his creation. Torvalds suddenly became a
millionaire when Red Hat went public, and his net worth temporarily
soared to roughly $20 million when VA Linux went public later that year.
Linux Torvalds’ Family Effect
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Many members of the family were journalists. His parents,
Nils and Anna Torvalds, were both radicals at the University
of Helsinki during the 1960s. His father was a Communist
who spent a year studying in Moscow in the mid-1970s
and later became a radio journalist. His mother worked for
a Finnish newspaper as a translator and a creator of news
graphics.
Torvalds had a fairly conventional and happy childhood
despite the fact that his parents were divorced when he was
very young. He lived with his mother and also with his
grandparents. Consistent with his family's occupation,
emphasis was placed on reading from an early age.
It was his maternal grandfather, Leo Toerngvist, a professor
of statistics at the University of Helsinki, who had the
greatest influence on the young Linus. In the mid-1970s,
Toerngvist bought one of the first personal computers, a
Commodore Vic 20. Torvalds soon became bored with the
few programs that were available for it, and he thus began
to create new ones, first using the BASIC programming
language and then using the much more difficult but also
more powerful assembly language.
Programming and mathematics became Torvalds' passions.
His father's efforts to interest him in sports, girls and other
social activities were in vain, and Torvalds does not hesitate
to admit that he had little talent for or interest in such
pursuits.
What is Linux?
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Linux is, in simplest terms, an operating system. It is the software on a computer that
enables applications and the computer operator to access the devices on the
computer to perform desired functions. The operating system relays instructions from
an application to, for instance, the computer's processor. The processor performs the
instructed task, then sends the results back to the application via the operating system.
Explained in these terms, Linux is very similar to other operating systems, such as
Windows and OS X.
But something sets Linux apart from these operating systems. The Linux operating
system represented a $25 billion ecosystem in 2008. Since its inception in 1991, Linux
has grown to become a force in computing, powering everything from the New York
Stock Exchange to mobile phones to supercomputers to consumer devices.
As an open operating system, Linux is developed collaboratively, meaning no one
company is solely responsible for its development or ongoing support. Companies
participating in the Linux economy share research and development costs with their
partners and competitors. This spreading of development burden amongst individuals
and companies has resulted in a large and efficient ecosystem and unheralded
software innovation.
Over 1,000 developers, from at least 100 different companies, contribute to every
kernel release. In the past two years alone, over 3,200 developers from 200 companies
have contributed to the kernel--which is just one small piece of a Linux distribution.
What is Linux?
Linux History Timetable
History of Linux
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It was 1991, and the ruthless agonies of the cold war were gradually coming
to an end. There was an air of peace and tranquility that prevailed in the
horizon. In the field of computing, a great future seemed to be in the offing,
as powerful hardware pushed the limits of the computers beyond what
anyone expected.
But still, something was missing.
And it was the none other than the Operating Systems, where a great void
seemed to have appeared.
For one thing, DOS was still reigning supreme in its vast empire of personal
computers. Bought by Bill Gates from a Seattle hacker for $50,000, the bare
bones operating system had sneaked into every corner of the world by virtue
of a clever marketing strategy. PC users had no other choice. Apple Macs
were better, but with astronomical prices that nobody could afford, they
remained a horizon away from the eager millions.
History of Linux
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The other dedicated camp of computing was the Unix world. But Unix itself was
far more expensive. In quest of big money, the Unix vendors priced it high
enough to ensure small PC users stayed away from it. The source code of Unix,
once taught in universities courtesy of Bell Labs, was now cautiously guarded
and not published publicly. To add to the frustration of PC users worldwide, the
big players in the software market failed to provide an efficient solution to this
problem.
A solution seemed to appear in form of MINIX. It was written from scratch by
Andrew S. Tanenbaum, a US-born Dutch professor who wanted to teach his
students the inner workings of a real operating system. It was designed to run
on the Intel 8086 microprocessors that had flooded the world market.
As an operating system, MINIX was not a superb one. But it had the advantage
that the source code was available. Anyone who happened to get the book
'Operating Systems: Design and Implementation' by Tanenbaum could get hold
of the 12,000 lines of code, written in C and assembly language. For the first
time, an aspiring programmer or hacker could read the source codes of the
operating system, which to that time the software vendors had guarded
vigorously. A superb author, Tanenbaum captivated the brightest minds of
computer science with the elaborate and immaculately lively discussion of the
art of creating a working operating system. Students of Computer Science all
over the world pored over the book, reading through the codes to understand
the very system that runs their computer.
History of Linux
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And one of them was Linus Torvalds.
Soon Linus faced some confrontation from none other than Andrew
Tanenbaum, the great teacher who wrote MINIX. In a post to Linus, Tanenbaum
commented:
"I still maintain the point that designing a monolithic kernel in 1991 is a
fundamental error. Be thankful you are not my student. You would not get a
high grade for such a design :-)“ (Andrew Tanenbaum to Linus Torvalds)
Linus later admitted that it was the worst point of his development of Linux.
Tanenbaum was certainly the famous professor, and anything he said certainly
mattered. But he was wrong with Linux, for Linus was one stubborn guy who
won't admit defeat.
Tanenbaum also remarked that : "Linux is obsolete".
Now was the turn for the new Linux generation. Backed by the strong Linux
community, Linus gave a reply to Tanenbaum which seems to be most fitting:
Your job is being a professor and researcher: That's one hell of a good
excuse for some of the brain-damages of minix. (Linus Torvalds to Andrew
Tanenbaum)
History of Linux
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And work went on. Soon more than a hundred people joined the Linux camp. Then thousands. Then
hundreds of thousands. This was no longer a hackers toy. Powered by a plethora of programs from
the GNU project, Linux was ready for the actual showdown. It was licensed under GNU General Public
License, thus ensuring that the source codes will be free for all to copy, study and to change. Students
and computer programmers grabbed it.
Soon, commercial vendors moved in. Linux itself was, and is free. What the vendors did was to
compile up various software and gather them in a distributable format, more like the other operating
systems with which people were more familiar. Red Hat , Caldera, and some other companies gained
substantial amount of response from the users worldwide. While these were commercial ventures,
dedicated computer programmers created their very own volunteer-based distribution, the famed
Debian. With the new Graphical User Interfaces (like X-window System, KDE, GNOME)the Linux
distributions became very popular.
Meanwhile, there were amazing things happening with Linux. Besides the PC, Linux was ported
to many different platforms. Linux was tweaked to run 3Com's handheld PalmPilot computer.
Clustering technology enabled large number of Linux machines to be combined into a single
computing entity, a parallel computer. In April 1996, researchers at Los Alamos National
Laboratory used Linux to run 68 PCs as a single parallel processing machine to simulate atomic
shock waves. But unlike other Supercomputers costing a fortune, it was rather cheap. The do-ityourself supercomputer cost only $152,000, including labor (connecting the 68 PCs with
cables)-about one tenth the price of a comparable commercial machine. It reached a peak
speed of 19 billion calculations per second, making it the 315th most powerful supercomputer
in the world. And it was a robust one too. Three months later it still didn't have to be rebooted.
History of Linux
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A Beaming Linus Today
The best thing about Linux today is the fanatic following it commands.
Whenever a new piece of hardware is out, Linux kernel is tweaked to
take advantage of it. For example, within weeks after the introduction of
Intel Xeon® Microprocessor, Linux kernel was tweaked and was ready for
it. It has also been adapted for use in Alpha, Mac, PowerPC, and even for
palmtops, a feat which is hardly matched by any other operating system.
And it continues its journey into the new millennium, with the same
enthusiasm that started one fine day back in 1991.
Linus in 2002
As for Linus, he remains a simple man. Unlike Bill Gates, he is not a
billionaire. Having completed studies, he moved to USA and landed a job
at Transmeta Corporation. After conducting a top-secret research and
development project, Transmeta launched the Crusoeâ„¢ processor. Linus
was an active member of the research team. Recently married to Tove, he
is the proud father of a girl, Patricia Miranda Torvalds. But he remains as
the world's most favorite and most famous programmer to this date.
Revered by Computer communities worldwide, Linus is by far the most
popular programmer on this planet.
Where is Linux?
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One of the most noted properties of Linux is where it can be used.
Windows and OS X are predominantly found on personal computing
devices such as desktop and laptop computers. Other operating systems,
such as Symbian, are found on small devices such as phones and PDAs,
while mainframes and supercomputers found in major academic and
corporate labs use specialized operating systems such as AS/400 and the
Cray OS.
Linux, which began its existence as a server OS and Has become useful as
a desktop OS, can also be used on all of these devices. “From
wristwatches to supercomputers,” is the popular description of Linux'
capabilities.
These are just the most recent examples of Linux-based devices available
to consumers worldwide. This actual number of items that use Linux
numbers in the thousands. The Linux Foundation is building a centralized
database that will list all currently offered Linux-based products, as well as
archive those devices that pioneered Linux-based electronics.
Where is Linux?
Linux in the Developing World
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Perhaps the greatest change is the spread of Linux to the developing world. In the days
before Linux, developing countries were way behind in the field of computing. The cost
of hardware fell down, but the cost of software was a huge burden to the cash-strapped
computer enthusiasts of the Third World countries. In desperation, people resorted to
piracy of almost all sorts of software products. This resulted in widespread piracy,
amounting to billions of dollars. But then again, the pricetag of most of the commercial
products were far beyond the reaches of the people in developing countries. For
example, a typical operating system product costs at least US $100 or more. But in
countries with per capita incomes of about US$200-300, is a huge amount.
The rise of Linux and other related open source product has changed it all. Since Linux
can be scaled to run in almost computer with very few resources, it has become a
suitable alternative for low budget computer users. Old, ancient 486/Pentium 1
computers that has become a part of history in the developed world are still used in
developing countries. And Linux has enabled to unleash the full potential of these
computers. The use of open source software has also proliferated, since the price of
software is a big question. In countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, Linux has
appeared as a way out for the masses of computer enthusiasts. And a testament to the
true global nature of Linux, local customizations were made in obscure parts of the
world. The Linux documentation now includes documents written in almost all the
major languages ... and also many minor ones, for example, Vietnamese.
References
• https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/rhasan/linux/
• http://www.linfo.org/linus.html
• http://www.linux.com/learn/resourcecenter/376-linux-is-everywhere-anoverview-of-the-linux-operating-system