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COMPUTING NEWS |
There are many distributions of Linux available, the following website gives information about the current top 10:
http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major
The Linux Documentation Project is an excellent resource for all information pertaining to Linux:
http://tldp.org/
A brief historical timeline of Linux is as follows:
1983 - 2000 (The early years).
1983 - September
Richard M. Stallman announces the GNU Project, an attempt at creating a completely free operating system.
1984 - January
Work begins on the GNU operating system.
1985 - October
Free Software Foundation established as a non-profit organization to promote the development of Free Software. Sponsors the GNU Project.
1987 - December
Larry Wall releases version 1.0 of Perl
1989 - February
Version 1 of the GNU General Public License (GPL) is released.
1991
October - Richard Stallman expresses interest in having the Free Software Foundation distribute a GNU system with the Linux kernel.
December - Robert Blum posts the first Linux FAQ
September - Version 0.01 of Torvald's project is made available via ftp.funet.fi. Ari Lemmke, the systems administrator, gives the directory the name Linux.
August - Linus Torvalds announces that he's working on an operating system similar to Minix.
June - Version 2 of the GNU General Public License (GPL) is released.
1992
November - Software und System Entwicklung GmbH (SuSE) founded in Nuremberg, Germany. Distributes a German version of SLS with corresponding manuals.
September - A Linux distribution called Softlanding Linux System (SLS) is released. Early users include Patrick Volkerding and Ian Murdock.
March - Version 0.95 of the Linux kernel released. First version to be able to support X-Window.
February - What could be described as the first Linux "distribution", called MCC Interim Linux is released by the University of Manchester, England.
January - alt.os.linux newsgroup created.
1993
August - Ian Murdock creates the Debian distribution.
August - Version 1.0 of Slackware released by Patrick Volkerding. It is based on the SLS distribution.
March - Matt Welsh issues the Linux Documentation Project Manifesto. He states that the goal of the LDP is to "collaborate in taking care of all of the issues of Linux documentation".
1994
October - Marc Ewing releases the first version of Red Hat Linux.
Linux distributor Caldera founded by Ray Noorda of Novell and Ransom Love.
September - William R. Della Croce, Jr. of Boston, Massachusetts registers the Linux trademark. He begins, shortly thereafter, to ask for compensation for the use of the word Linux.
June - Jon 'maddog' Hall founds Linux International
Rasmus Lerdorf releases the first version of the PHP scripting language
May - Michael McLagan registers the linux.org domain.
April - Version 1.0 of SuSE Linux released. It is based on SLS.
March - Linux kernel version 1.0 released.
First issue of Linux Journal published
October - Marc Ewing releases the first version of Red Hat Linux.
1995
March - Bob Young partners with Marc Ewing and forms Red Hat Software.
Apache web server project started as a series of patches to the NCSA HTTPd server (the name Apache comes from a quip from one of the developers that it was "a patchy server").
1996
October- Kool Desktop Environment (KDE) project announced.
September - Linus Torvalds along with Linux Journal, Yggdrasil Computing, Inc., Linux International Work Group Solutions and with the help of Digital Equipment Corporation and Red Hat, file suit against William R. Della Croce, Jr. to re-assign the Linux trademark to Linus Torvalds. The firm of Davis & Schroeder handles the case on an almost pro-bono basis.
May - Linus Torvalds suggests that a "slightly overweight penguin" would be the best mascot for Linux. He recommends Larry Ewing's "Tux" penguin images.
March - Linux kernel version 2.0 released.
1997
August - The Linux trademark dispute between William Della Croce and Linus Torvalds is settled, with Della Croce re-assigning the trademark to Torvalds.
Miguel de Icaza starts the GNOME project.
May - Eric S. Raymond gives a paper entitled The Cathedral and the Bazaar at Linux Kongress. It outlines the principles of what would become known as the "open source" method.
February - Linus Torvalds moves to California and begins working for Transmeta, a microprocessor manufacturer.
1998
December - Corel releases Word Perfect 8 for Linux as a free download.
November - Eric S. Raymond releases internal Microsoft memos, known as the "Halloween Documents", that show that the company is formulating plans to deal with the increasing use of Linux.
August - Forbes magazine devotes its cover story to Linus Torvalds.
July - Version 1.0 of the K Desktop Environment (KDE) released.
Gael Duval creates Mandrake Linux (now Mandriva).
July - Sam Ockman founds Penguin Computing. It is the first hardware company to produce Linux-only systems.
May - Google search engine appears using servers running Linux.
February - Bruce Perens and Eric S. Raymond found the Open Source Initiative, an organization to promote the use of open source software and establish guidelines for open source licenses.
1999
November - Matthew Szulik replaces Bob Young as CEO of Red Hat.
Corel releases Linux distribution.
October - VA Linux systems stock reaches $320 US after starting its initial public offering (IPO) at $30. Ending the day at $239.25, it is the largest first-day gain in history to date.
August - Red Hat has its initial public offering (IPO) and becomes a publicly traded company.
May - Dell pre-installs Red Hat Linux on some servers and workstations.
March - GNOME 1.0 desktop released.
March - The Burlington Coat Factory announces that it is using Linux in its stores.
January - Linux kernel version 2.2 released.
2000
October - IBM CEO Louis Gerstner announces that the company will invest $1 billion in Linux development.
October - Microsoft buys a large stake in Corel.
September - Trolltech releases the QT libraries, used by KDE, under the GPL.
August - Caldera Systems acquires the Santa Cruz Operation's (SCO) Unix server division.
May - Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer calls Linux "a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches." in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times.
March - A Netcraft survey reveals that Apache webserver powers 60% of the World Wide Web.
Linux distributor Caldera Systems Inc has its initial public offering (IPO).
