A POTTED HISTORY OF LINUX
LINUX ONLY EXISTS because of Christmas: On January 5, 1991, a 21-year-old computer science student, who was currently living with his mom, trudged through the (we assume) snow-covered streets of Helsinki, with his pockets stuffed full of Christmas gift money. Linus Torvalds wandered up to his local PC store and purchased his first PC, an Intel 386 DX33, with 4MB of memory and a 40MB hard drive. On this stalwart machine he would write the first ever version of Linux. From this moment on, the history of Linux becomes a love story about open-source development, software freedom, and open platforms.
Previous to walking into that computer store, Linus Torvalds had tinkered on the obscure UK-designed Sinclair QL (Quantum Leap) and the far better known Commodore Vic-20. Fine home computers, but neither was going to birth a world-straddling kernel. A boy needs standards to make something that will be adopted worldwide, and an IBM compatible PC is a good place to start. But we’re sure Torvalds’ mind was focused more on having fun with Prince of Persia at that point than developing a Microsoft-conquering kernel.
Let’s be clear: A 21-year-old, barely able to afford an Intel 386 DX33, was about to start a development process that would support a software ecosystem, which in turn would run most of the smart devices in the world, a majority of the Internet, all of the world’s fastest super-computers, chunks of Hollywood’s special effects industry, SpaceX rockets, NASA Mars probes, self-driving cars, and whole bunch of other stuff besides. How the heck did that happen?
TO UNDERSTAND HOW Linux got started, you need to understand Unix. Before Linux, Unix was a well-established operating system standard through the 1960s into the 1970s. It was already powering mainframes built by the likes of IBM, HP, and AT&T. We’re not talking small fry, then—they were mega corporations selling around the globe.
If we look at the development of Unix, you’ll see certain parallels with Linux: Freethinking academic types who were given free rein to develop what they want. But whereas Unix was
