25 August 2011, 16:59

Twenty years of Linux

Tux Twenty years ago, a computer science student by the name of Linus Torvalds publicly announced for the first time that he had been working on an operating system. At the time, the developer described the operating system, later known as Linux, as "just a hobby", adding that it "won't be big and professional like GNU".

However he was wrong: for many years now Linus Torvalds has been working on Linux full time. The operating system kernel has never stopped growing and now runs on more hardware platforms than any other OS, from desktops, servers and supercomputers, to smartphones, tablets and even video game consoles. Torvalds is a Fellow at The Linux Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the task of promoting the growth of Linux, and is himself sponsored by the foundation.

A feature article, "The history of Linux" from The H Open looks at the journey Linux has taken over the last twenty years.

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