When you turn your computer on, you may not be aware of the large amount of communication going on inside of it. A lot of the communication that happens has to do with the operating system (OS) installed on the computer and the applications you might be running. The basis of an OS is software consisting of data and programs that is used to relay information between the hardware and applications. Any computer, including video game consoles and cellphones, uses some type of OS, whether it be Unix, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and, our topic of today, Linux.
Linux first made its debut at the hands of Linus Torvalds in 1991, a then-21 year old Finnish student at the University of Helsinki. Torvalds wrote the Linux kernel so that it would be the first free and open source OS for computers, in contrast to the older Unix and MINIX operating systems. Unix and MINIX both restricted the use of their codes, limiting it only to academic institutions and businesses, with MINIX used more to teach students about OS than for its useful execution outside of the classroom.
The kernel of an operating system is the link between applications on the computer and the hardware, specifically the CPU, memory, and devices. The Linux kernel was first written in the programming language C, but it has been expanded to work with almost any other programming language, including C++, Java, PHP, Python, and Fortran. It is a monolithic kernel, which means that executes all the operating system code in the same address space to increase the performance of the system.
Linux is mostly used on servers, which is how Linux ended up running the 10 fastest supercomputers in the world, but its popularity on desktops has increased in recent years, possibly as a result of a 2007 "rebellion" in the Linux development community. As a result, many applications that used to run on only Windows or Mac OS have now been "translated" to Linux, including popular games such as World of Warcraft and Team Fortress 2, and more mundane applications such as Mozilla's FireFox internet browser.
However, if you're the kind of person who likes to look at code, the prospects for the Linux market are growing rapidly. The latest version of the Linux kernel is about 13 million lines of code, and with the ever-present advances in technology, the next one will be longer and more complex. Linux is definitely something to watch for and understand in the world of computing and technology.
Linux first made its debut at the hands of Linus Torvalds in 1991, a then-21 year old Finnish student at the University of Helsinki. Torvalds wrote the Linux kernel so that it would be the first free and open source OS for computers, in contrast to the older Unix and MINIX operating systems. Unix and MINIX both restricted the use of their codes, limiting it only to academic institutions and businesses, with MINIX used more to teach students about OS than for its useful execution outside of the classroom.
The kernel of an operating system is the link between applications on the computer and the hardware, specifically the CPU, memory, and devices. The Linux kernel was first written in the programming language C, but it has been expanded to work with almost any other programming language, including C++, Java, PHP, Python, and Fortran. It is a monolithic kernel, which means that executes all the operating system code in the same address space to increase the performance of the system.
Linux is mostly used on servers, which is how Linux ended up running the 10 fastest supercomputers in the world, but its popularity on desktops has increased in recent years, possibly as a result of a 2007 "rebellion" in the Linux development community. As a result, many applications that used to run on only Windows or Mac OS have now been "translated" to Linux, including popular games such as World of Warcraft and Team Fortress 2, and more mundane applications such as Mozilla's FireFox internet browser.
However, if you're the kind of person who likes to look at code, the prospects for the Linux market are growing rapidly. The latest version of the Linux kernel is about 13 million lines of code, and with the ever-present advances in technology, the next one will be longer and more complex. Linux is definitely something to watch for and understand in the world of computing and technology.