The name Linux is a unique combination of its creator’s name and the name of operating system the target (UNIX). It all started from a operating system called Minix. Minix was made by Professor Andrew Tanenbaum. Minix is a Unix-like operating system that works on the PC.
Torvald is a student at the University of Helsinki using Minix. Although quite good, he has not considered adequate Minix. Then in 1991 he made the operating system is UNIX clone, Linux named.
Just as Minix, Linux does not use any code from the vendor Commercial UNIX, so Torvalds linux distribution on the internet for free and free.
On October 5 1991, Torvalds posting in newsgroups operating system comp.os.minix. He announced that the Linux source code is available and ask programmer-programmers help others to join expanding it. When it Linux is still half-baked, this operating system can only run a little UNIX commands, such as bash, gcc and gnu-make. When Linux 1.0 released 1994, this operating system has been quite stable and has many features, such as preemptive multitasking (the ability to share CPU resources to many applications) and symmetric multiprocessing (the ability to divide tasks among many CPUs). Linux even has his own mascot by Torvalds described as “a penguin is cute and friendly, a lot of satiety after eating herring”.
In 1996, the Linux development teams around the world began gives the results. That year they have made a version of Linux for a number of
versions of hardware, from the Atari ST to the Macintosh.
Linux continues to grow rapidly, mainly because there are a number of distributors (such as RedHat, Caldera, etc.) who compete to fight for market share. By because it formed a group called the Linux Standard Base. This group works to ensure that the various Linux distributions are still able to run the same applications and interoperability at each other. We have seven Linux distributions The most famous, namely:
1. RedHat Linux, the most popular distributors in the U.S. and one of the most
easy to use.
2. Mandrake Linux, the distributor that adds updates and patches to
Red Hat Linux.
3. Caldera Open Linux, Linux distibrusi installations and environment
graphical user good.
4. Suse Linux, the most popular Linux distribution in Europe is also
provides installation tool and Indonesian-speaking guide.
5. Slackware Linux.
6. Debian GNU / Linux.
7. TurboLinux, the most popular Linux distribution in Asia that provide
support for special character sets Asia.
Note:
Linux distributors are still many more. Which is best depends on the comfort users. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses.
Ability LINUX
* Multiuser
* Multiprocessor
* Multitasking, allowing programs running simultaneously
(background)
* Multithreading, can create efficient manner subproses
* Pembelokkan I / O, Pipe and Filter
* Local and Network File System
* Security, login with password, ownership, group
* X-Window System
