Linux turns 10

2001/10/01 Waliño, Josu - Elhuyar Fundazioa Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Programazioa

“I’m preparing a free operating system for the years 386 and 486, but it won’t be as big and professional as GNU.” With this message Linus Torvalds announced the birth of Linux on August 25, 1991. The then university student of Helsinki worked as a project to start this new operating system.

A month later he released version 0.01 of the Linux kernel. This operating system has evolved for years thanks to the support of volunteering through the Internet and has created a new concept of computing: free software.

From this free software you can find different distributions in the market. The first companies to create were specialized in the operating system: Red Hat, Caldera, SuSE and Turbolinux. Soon after, the giant companies in the software market also showed their interest in this operating system, so Oracle and other companies joined the linux world. At present, IBM and HP have also begun to become interested in this market. The HP, for example, has just announced its release.

Own culture

But what is the secret of Linux success? On the one hand, the efficiency of the operating system. Linux stability has been mentioned many times and is something that has been improving over the years. On the other hand, it has the ability to work on different hardware unlike other operating systems. Several versions of BeOS, Mac OS, OS/2 and Unix only work on specific hardware platforms, but not Linux.

Linus Torvalds.

For many, however, this is not the only basis for Linux success. The Linux world has its own philosophy and culture. As analyst Rob Enderle recently pointed out, “the face-to-face offer of Linux Windows was countercultural. When Apple stopped doing this, someone had to fill the gap.” For example, this year two important years of the computer world have been celebrated: on the one hand, this tenth anniversary of Linux and, on the other, the 20th anniversary of IBM PC. To celebrate the first, linux fans made a barbecue. The second was held with a gala dinner. It also shows the difference between the two philosophies of the computer world.

Linux in Basque

Because this operating system is increasingly widespread, the Basque Government has decided to translate into Basque, as it did before with Windows. The objective of the Government is to unify these translations and make the most important parts of the basic operating system in Basque. That is why Elhuyar and UZEI are now translating into Basque the Gnome desk of this operating system, and for next year it will be on the street, at the disposal of the Basques, a distribution on Linux.