| "I know that Linux is an alternative to the Microsoft | | | | Unix variants sold or given away by many different |
| Windows operating system, but when and where did | | | | companies and universities. While these various |
| it originate, and why is it free?"A Really Brief History | | | | flavors can make it difficult to write portable |
| of UnixSometime in the mid 1960s, a bunch of geeks | | | | software, efforts to standardize Unix (two of the |
| at AT&T's Bell Labs decided it would be fun to | | | | more notable ones being POSIX and COSE) offer |
| create a new operating system called Multics. (This | | | | hope for greater compatibility in the future.In the |
| was no small task, because computers at the time | | | | early 90s, a geek named Linus Torvalds at the |
| were about the size of a football field and two | | | | University of Helsinki in Finland thought it would be |
| stories high.) Multics fizzled in 1969 when Bell cut the | | | | fun to write a PC-based Unix kernel from scratch, |
| cord, but some of the geeks continued work on | | | | without using any of the original AT&T UNIX code. |
| what became known as UNIX; and it became wildly | | | | This kernel, with the addition of open source unix |
| popular inside AT&T.Since AT&T was not allowed to | | | | utility programs from the GNU Project, became |
| sell computer software at the time, it gave away | | | | known as Linux.Because of that (and because the |
| UNIX (complete with source code) to any educational | | | | author is a nice guy), Linux is free. You can obtain |
| institution that wanted it. AT&T produced new | | | | the source code, modify, sell or give away the |
| versions of UNIX called System III and System V in | | | | software so long as you provide full source code and |
| the early 1980s, but all the while, geeks at the | | | | don't impose any restrictions on what others do with |
| University of California at Berkeley and other places | | | | it.For more information on Linux history and |
| were busy hacking away on their own versions of | | | | commands, see the LowFatLinux tutorial.BOB |
| Unix based on the AT&T code.Some cross-pollination | | | | RANKIN... is a tech writer and computer programmer |
| did occur, but there are still significant differences | | | | who enjoys exploring the Internet and sharing the |
| between the Berkeley (commonly called BSD Unix) | | | | fruit of his experience with others. His work has |
| and AT&T flavors. In the early 1990s, AT&T sold | | | | appeared in ComputerWorld, NetGuide, and NY |
| UNIX to Novell, which was bought by Digital | | | | Newsday. Bob is publisher of the Internet TOURBUS |
| Equipment Corporation, which sold it to SCO (Santa | | | | newsletter, author of several computer books, and |
| Cruz Operation), which markets it as UNIXWare.So, | | | | creator of the website. |
| Ummm... What About Linux?Today, there are lots of | | | | |