The modern world has been revolutionized by the computer and its technological updates. The development of automated electronic machinery from wooden abacus has passed many phases of its upgrades. In this process of technological upgrades, evolution and development of many physical and logical resources occurred. Among many such logical resources, the development of computer program to manage the machine’s resources, allocation of those resources among other programs; an operating system (OS) is considered the achievement of greater importance. OS from different vendors were used for different purposes depending upon the machine. But after the development of Personal Computer (PC), same OS could be used for all PCs. The programmers themselves had the control over the source code of OS and programs they developed, like the OS and applications from Microsoft which still use the control over source code. The movement, begun by computer programmers, that rejects secrecy and centralized control of creative work in favour of decentralization, transparency, and unrestricted sharing of information lead to development of open-source community.
The development of the open-source community lead by Richard Stallman wrote the “GNU Manifesto” and started a worldwide effort of enthusiasts to create a complete free operating system. And by the early 1990s the GNU project had produced many necessary operating system components with the user interface also completed, but development of the lower level, “the kernel” was incomplete and had slowed down.
In 1991, Linux Torvalds (for whom Linux is named) began to work on the Linux kernel while he was attending the University of Helsinki. He originally intended Linux to be a non-commercial operating system. He then changed the license for the Linux kernel to GPL; which was a license for open-source applications and contributed to the GNU project. Linux and GNU developers worked to integrate GNU components with Linux. Thus Linux became a complete, fully functional free operating system.
The Linux and GNU foundation formed the basis for an operating system which has since been completed by the efforts of numerous members of the free and open source software community. Linux is considered to be free UNIX version; it is used by some as an operating system for network servers and in the timeframe began to gain increasing support from vendors such as IBM and Compaq.
Linux is a portable operating system. While the Linux kernel was originally designed only for Intel 80386 microprocessors, it now runs on a more diverse range of computer architectures than any other operating system-from the handheld embedded devices to the mainframe and critical systems, in devices ranging from supercomputers to mobile phones.
Today Linux is used in numerous domains, from embedded systems and has secured a place in server installations. Torvalds continues to direct the development of the kernel. Stallman heads the Free Software Foundation, which in turn develops the GNU components. Finally, individuals and corporations develop third-party non-GNU components. These third-party components comprise a vast body of work and may include both kernel modules and user applications and libraries. Linux vendors combine and distribute the kernel, GNU components, and non-GNU components, with additional package management software in the form of Linux distributions. Unlike other commercial operating systems that are controlled by one company, Linux is free to distribute and use so it hopes to get a good development in developing country like Nepal; a country of enthusiasts.
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Tagged: Free, Linux, opensource