Timeline Factors
Design
A computer operating system is a term that describes both user applications and software capable of communicating with the machine’s hardware, also known as a kernel. Without an operating system, most computer systems will not boot or be functionally useful to the average user. There are a large variety of operating systems available to choose from in the digital age, but the market is currently dominated primarily by various versions of Windows, a Microsoft product. Apple’s OSX is the second most popular choice, followed by the relatively unknown Linux system.
Linux is a kernel that was built from Unix operating system. Unix was developed by Bell Labs in 1969 and provides a foundation framework to nearly all commercially available operating systems except for Windows. Linus Torvalds developed the Linux kernel in 1991 with worldwide collaborative support. It became revolutionary when it was licensed under the GNU General Public License, which was unheard of for system software. This license not only meant that the source code would be publicly available, but that the system itself would be distributed completely free of charge.
Prototyping
Linus Torvalds detailed the three key concepts used in the development of Linux as simplicity, efficiency, and compatibility.
A detailed glimpse inside of the Linux kernel.
Simplicity – In order to be competitive and useful, the Linux kernel must handle multiple application threads, perform memory management, communicate with hardware devices, and balance computer processing unit (CPU) loads. Each of these tasks requires an array of complex procedures and algorithms, which means that diagnosing or repairing errors at this level is a difficult task. To avoid this issue, Linux was developed with careful attention to these underlying procedures in order to simplify loading user-level software.
Efficiency – Linux operating systems aim to centralize all system activity in the kernel to eliminate resource bottlenecks with self-managed user applications. This allows all compatible third party software to perform a specific task without reliance on a custom micro-kernel. A micro-kernel is software to manage memory competition, conflicts, and alterations. The kernel itself organizes system level resources to allow simplified viewing of the hierarchical file system, real-time memory mappings, and direct output of hardware configurations.
Compatibility – This core value influenced the Linux kernel to be developed with traditional ANSI C language programming and support for Unix, which was used by a majority at the time. In addition to the compliant kernel structure, Linux offers increased compatibility by eliminating the need for application micro-kernels, a standardized file system layout, and centralized inter-process communication (Torvalds, 1997).
Production
The release of the Linux kernel and its open-source license enabled an infinite number of unique Linux operating systems to be created. There were several basic operating systems developed on the bare Linux kernel, many of which were for testing purposes and were short lived. Three stable operating systems have become the parent package for most modern Linux distributions. One of the first of these was Softlanding Linux System (SLS), founded by Peter MacDonald in 1992. Notable distributions available today using the SLS operating system are Slackware and SuSE. The next release was the Debian Linux Release, spearheaded by Ian Murdock in 1993. The world’s most popular Linux flavor, Ubuntu, uses the Debian Linux Release structure as a foundation. Finally, in 1994, the company Red Hat released Red Hat Linux under Bob Young and Marc Ewing supervision. This package led to the popular distribution called Fedora.
Linux provides the power behind over 60% of web servers on the internet
Marketing
Marketing for the Linux kernel is a residual effect of various Linux operating system branches. Each Linux distribution is free to use any method of advertising as they see fit. A majority of mainstream advertising stems from the commercially backed distributions such as Fedora, SUSE, Ubuntu, and Madriva Linux. Many community driven distributions rely entirely on social networking and word of mouth for advertisement.
Sales
Linux is licensed under the GNU General Public License and is explicitly embedded in public domain. The open-source model used by Linux has discouraged the sale of most distributions. The majority of Linux systems that are offered at cost are dedicated server operating systems tuned for specific purposes. Mainstream examples include Red Hat Enterprise Server and SUSE Linux Enterprise. Estimated total cost of development for the Linux framework is $1.2 billion with a total market value of $25 billion. The actual cost is negligible because development was provided free of charge by mass community contributions.
User Support
Support for Linux systems is based on information dissemination and communal support. This type of support system will grow exponentially as the user base increases, but support at the initial release is minimal. With this system, Linux faced a slower than average market share growth rate. The user based support model is unique from the traditional Windows and OSX restricted company based support system which harbor a constant and documented level of official support (Dempsey, Weiss, Jones, & Greenberg, 1999).
Recycling
All Linux operating systems exist only as digital bytes in either random access memory or a hard drive, rendering any physical recycling impossible. In the digital realm, Linux operating systems are compatible with alternate operating systems installed on the same system and also include a simplified boot loader allowing the user to select the kernel to load. This allows systems to quickly switch between Linux systems, Windows, or OSX, all within the same system or hard drive.
One of the key portability features of Linux is the Hardware Address Translation (HAT) virtual machine. The virtual machine provides dynamic functions capable of adapting to any software or hardware environment. This then allows for a fully functional Linux operating system to run on top of any parent operating system without memory or privileged collisions (Torvalds, 1997).
Read more about the social atmosphere Linux created or view some external sources.
