Linux

Platform/Software
Year initiated: 
1991
URL: 
Linux
Wikipedia Entry
License: 
GPL
Record Status: 
Incomplete record (stub)
Description: 

What is Linux?

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 (OS) 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.

(Source: Linux.com)

Linux was originally developed as a free operating system for Intel x86–based personal computers, but has since been ported to more computer hardware platforms than any other operating system.It is the leading operating system on servers and other big iron systems such as mainframe computers and supercomputers but is used on only around 1.5% of desktop computers Linux also runs on embedded systems, which are devices whose operating system is typically built into the firmware and is highly tailored to the system; this includes mobile phones, tablet computers, network routers, facility automation controls, televisions and video game consoles. Android, the most widely used operating system for tablets and smartphones, is built on top of the Linux kernel.

The development of Linux is one of the most prominent examples of free and open-source software collaboration. The underlying source code may be used, modified, and distributed—commercially or non-commercially—by anyone under licenses such as the GNU General Public License. Typically, Linux is packaged in a form known as a Linux distribution, for both desktop and server use. Some popular mainstream Linux distributions include Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora, openSUSE, Arch Linux, and the commercial Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Linux distributions include the Linux kernel, supporting utilities and libraries and usually a large amount of application software to fulfill the distribution's intended use.

A distribution oriented toward desktop use will typically include X11, Wayland or Mir as the windowing system, and an accompanying desktop environment such as GNOME or the KDE Software Compilation. Some such distributions may include a less resource intensive desktop such as LXDE or Xfce, for use on older or less powerful computers. A distribution intended to run as a server may omit all graphical environments from the standard install, and instead include other software to set up and operate a solution stack such as LAMP. Because Linux is freely redistributable, anyone may create a distribution for any intended use.

 

(Source: Wikipedia)

 

Works Developed in this Platform:

Work title Author Language Year
Amnesia: The Dark Descent Frictional Games English 2010
Analogue: A Hate Story Christine Love English, German, Japanese, Spanish (Castilian) 2012
Book-Book Sarah Groff Hennigh-Palermo English
Braid Jonathan Blow English 2009
Depression Quest Zoe Quinn, Patrick Lindsey English 2013
Digital: A Love Story Christine Love English 2010
don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story Christine Love English 2011
Dwarf Fortress Zach Adams, Tarn Adams English 2006
Firewatch English 2016
Fragments of Distances Jaka Železnikar English 2010
Galatea Emily Short English 2000
Half-Life 1998
Ladykiller in a Bind Christine Love English 2016
Life is Strange: Before the Storm 2017
Locusta Temporis Enrico Colombini Italian 2010
Observer English 2017
Passage Jason Rohrer English 2007
Progress Quest Eric Fredricksen English 2002
The Inframergence Jim Rosenberg English 2009
The Walking Dead English 2012

Add a new work.

Version history (text): 

3.x

2.6.x

2.5.x

2.6.0-test9:

2.6.0-test6:

2.6.0-test3:

2.6.0-test1:

2.5.75 released July 10, 2003:

2.5.74 released July 2, 2003:

2.5.73 released June 22, 2003:

2.5.72 released June 17, 2003:

2.5.71 released June 14, 2003:

2.5.70 released May 27, 2003:

2.5.69 released May 5, 2003:

  • New interrupt handling API (LWN article)

  • Runtime barrier instruction patching: Allows optimal performance on different processors without the need to ship multiple kernels

2.5.68 released April 20, 2003:

  • Merging s390 and s390x into a single architecture

  • Generation of hotplug events from kobject registration

2.5.67 released April 7, 2003:

2.5.66 released March 24, 2003:

2.5.65 released March 17, 2003:

2.5.64 released March 5, 2003:

2.5.63 released February 24, 2003:

2.5.62 released February 17, 2003:

2.5.61 released February 15, 2003:

2.5.60 released February 10, 2003:

  • New modversions implementation

  • 64-bit jiffies

2.5.59 released Janury 17, 2003:

2.5.58 released January 14, 2003:

2.5.57 released January 13, 2003:

2.5.56 released January 10, 2003:

2.5.55 released January 9, 2003:

2.5.54 released January 2, 2003:

2.5.53 released December 24, 2002:

  • SYSENTER/SYSEXIT support: Systems that support the SYSENTER extension (Basically Intel Pentium-II and above, and AMD Athlons) now have a faster method of making the transition from userspace to kernelspace when a syscall is performed. Pentium Pro also has SYSENTER, but due to errata, is unusable. Need an updated glibc to use it.

2.5.52 released December 16, 2002:

2.5.51 released December 10, 2002:

2.5.50 released November 27, 2002:

2.5.49 released November 22, 2002:

2.5.48 released November 18, 2002:

2.5.47 released November 11, 2002:

2.5.46 released November 4, 2002:

2.5.45 released October 31, 2002:

2.5.44 released October 19, 2002:

  • New sysfs filesystem (formerly known as driverfs) (LWN article)

  • Plug'N Play Layer Rewrite

  • x86 BIOS Enhanced Disk Device (EDD) polling (LWN article)

2.5.43 released October 16, 2002:

2.5.42 released October 12, 2002:

2.5.41 released October 7, 2002:

2.5.40 released October 1, 2002:

2.5.39 released September 27, 2002:

  • New IO scheduler ("deadline")

2.5.38 released September 22, 2002:

2.5.37 released September 20, 2002:

2.5.36 released September 18, 2002:

2.5.35 released September 16, 2002:

2.5.34 released September 9, 2002:

2.5.33 released August 31, 2002:

2.5.32 released August 27, 2002:

2.5.31 released August 11, 2002:

  • Support insane number of processes

  • Disk description cleanups

  • Remove incomplete SPX network stack

2.5.30 released August 1, 2002:

  • Remove khttpd

2.5.29 released July 27, 2002:

2.5.28 released July 24, 2002:

  • Remove the "Big IRQ lock"

  • Serial driver restructure

2.5.27 released July 20, 2002:

2.5.26 releasaed July 16, 2002:

  • Direct pagecache <-> BIO disk I/O

2.5.25 releaseed July 5, 2002:

2.5.24 released June 20, 2002:

2.5.23 released June 19, 2002:

2.5.22 released June 17, 2002:

2.5.21 released June 9, 2002:

2.5.20 released June 3, 2002:

2.5.19 released May 29, 2002:

2.5.18 released May 25, 2002:

2.5.17 released May 21, 2002:

2.5.16 released May 18, 2002:

2.5.15 released May 9, 2002:

2.5.14 released May 6, 2002:

2.5.13 released May 3, 2002:

2.5.12 released May 1, 2002:

  • Rewrite of the buffer layer

2.5.11 released April 29, 2002:

2.5.10 released April 24, 2002:

2.5.9 released April 22, 2002:

  • Smarter IRQ balancing

2.5.8 released April 14, 2002:

2.5.7 released March 18, 2002:

2.5.6 released March 8, 2002:

2.5.5 released February 20, 2002:

2.5.4 released February 11, 2002:

2.5.3 released January 30, 2002:

2.5.2 released January 15, 2002:

2.5.1 December 17, 2001:

  • VFS changes: Now it is possible to atomically move a subtree to another place, "mount --move olddir newdir"

  • Rewrite of the block IO (bio) layer

     

    (Source: http://kernelnewbies.org/LinuxVersions)

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How Linux is Built

The permanent URL of this page: 

https://elmcip.net/node/10254

Record posted by: 
Marius Ulvund