Who is the Founder of Linux? – The Missing Link of Free Software

Linux is an open-source and free operating system developed by drawing inspiration from the Unix operating system, the foundations of which were laid in 1969 through the joint efforts of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, AT&T Bell Laboratories, and General Electric. The fact that the system is open-source means that it possesses a General Public License, and in this context, the kernel of the operating system can be developed and distributed by anyone who wishes to do so.

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The founder of the Linux operating system is the Finnish-American software developer Linus Torvalds. Essentially, he created the kernel of the Linux operating system, and the system later reached its current state with contributions from many people. In the early 1990s, while Torvalds was a student, there was the Minix system, which operated similarly to the Unix operating system. However, Torvalds thought of building an operating system better than Minix and began writing the system’s kernel in April 1991. Subsequently, towards the end of August of the same year, he posted the developments to the Minix newsgroup and requested assistance. Following all these developments, by the middle of September, he debuted the first version, Linux 0.01. After intensive work on this version, Linux 0.02 was published as the first official version on October 5, 1991.

With the publication of Linux’s first official version, it can be said that its establishment officially took place. Because Linux possesses an operating system kernel, it completed the most important part of the GNU Project, which was started in 1983. The GNU Project was born as a reaction to Unix and clearly demonstrates this with its name, inspired by the expression “GNU’s Not Unix.” Unlike Unix, this project was started based on the principle that users should be able to use their own computers freely and entirely in accordance with their own wishes.

The Linux operating system sits at the foundation of the movement described as free software. Every distribution developed is shared with users in every corner of the world completely free of charge, and identified bugs are discussed and fixed in the internet environment. Today, Linux-based operating systems have a very wide range of usage in desktop and laptop computers, smartphones, and tablets. It would not be wrong to say that the most used Linux-based distributions are Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint, Fedora, openSUSE, Mageia, and Red Hat. Additionally, Pardus, developed by TÜBİTAK, is also a Linux-based operating system.

Although the Windows operating system holds superiority in desktop and laptop computers, when it comes to smartphones and tablets, Microsoft cannot even come close to Linux operating systems. In this regard, the largest share belongs to the Android operating system developed by the company Google. Furthermore, the Ubuntu operating system also has a smartphone and tablet version published under the name Ubuntu Touch.

Linus Torvalds, who created the kernel of the operating system, still takes part in the kernel development team today. Linux-based operating systems provide users with the opportunity to have more authority over their devices free of charge. For this reason, the Linux family, established with its first official version published in 1991, is growing stronger every day.