In the ultimate week of August 1991, 25 years ago, Linus Torvalds sent a letter to his mailing list asking for the opinion of some Minix users.
For those who do not know who Linus is, he is the founder and the godfather of the famed Linux operating system used in numerous famed distributions such as Ubuntu, OpenSuse, Fedora, or even Chrome OS from Google, and of course the Android system.
Linus’s message was a little strange. He asked to know what features Minix users would like to have, justifying his question with the following reasons:
- Because it is working on a new operating system (a system that is not professional and just a hobby).
- The new system will be devoid of Minix system codes, meaning that it is a totally new system that comes to rid users of their problems with the current operating system.
The strange reason is that Linus, that university student, launched Linux as a hobby and didn’t count on it much or see it as the next big thing that changed a lot of perceptions around the world. So now I’ll leave you with some facts about Linux in celebration of its 25th anniversary.
1- The Linux system is being developed under the auspices of the International Linux Organization, where the number of lines of code in the organization’s digital store reached more than 115 million lines, which is a very large number compared to the number of lines of Microsoft’s Windows XP system, which reached 45 million lines of code.
2- The Linux kernel is the largest open source software project around the world, receiving an average of 185 patches per day from contributors around the world.
3- Approximately 41,000 programmers were required to arrive the Linux system in its current form, which is the equivalent of $5 billion in salaries for programmers.
4- The Linux Foundation pays $ 10 million annually to Linus to remain in the Foundation, as his fortune is equivalent to approximately $150 million.
5- Regardless of Linus’ wealth, he works from domestic, alone, with his pet cat. He uses a vertical desk to work standing on his legs, and the desk has a belt for running or walking while working as well.
6- Linus wrote the entire kernel of the Linux system when it was launched, but his contribution now to the entire kernel does not exceed only 1%, as he decided to leave the programming task to developers, while his current job is limited to including those codes and ensuring their work in the best possible way.
7- When you look at people of Linus’ stature such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, or even Mark Zuckerberg, we find that they all left college to pursue their dreams. But Linus is pretty much the contrary, graduating from college and going toward a master’s measure in computer science.
8- Linus is the one who created the Git version management system, but he never relies on it or his contributions to the Linux kernel.
9- The penguin was chosen as the logo for the Linux system, and this penguin bears the name Tux.
10- Many developers working in international companies contribute to Linux, for example, Intel developers contributed more than 10% of the complete development, Samsung developers with more than 4%, IBM with more than 3%, and finally Google with more than 2%.
11- 97% of SuperComputers are based on Linux, including the computers and servers of NASA.
12- SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, also owner of Tesla, relies on a modified version of the Linkis system for its space flights.
On the sidelines: SpaceX is a company that is currently changing the concepts of space travel and the way spacecraft take off and land.
13- In 2009, the government of the German city of Munich decided to switch to using Linux on its computers instead of Windows, which saved it more than 10 million euros because there was no need to purchase licenses to use software.
14- Raspberry Pi mini-computers run on Linux.
15- The renowned Titanic film was produced using Linux servers, making it the first film based on this system.
16- Dronecode was released from the Linux system, which is intended for small drones, and more than 1,000 companies rely on this distribution today.
17- Companies such as Toyota and Jaguar intend to rely on the Automotive-grade distribution based on the Linux kernel and intended for mechanisms such as cars and vans.
18- The Linux system is available in more than one distribution, and numerous distributions are based on other distributions, the Ubuntu distribution, for example, is based on the Debian distribution, while OpenSuse is based on the slackware distribution.
19- Red Hat develops Linux distributions for businesses and is the largest company built on the use of open source project with $5 billion in revenue this year.
20- It is not essential for a Linux distribution to come with an interface system, as many distributions are available for use via the command line, with the opportunity of installing an interface system such as Xfce or KDE.
21- The Linux kernel mainly supervises the file system, networks, process management and tasks, as these points are considered a complete unit that cannot be fragmented, while the rest of the tasks in the system are done by partial units and therefore any malfunction in a unit, does not mean that the system It will collapse completely.
22- Despite the fact that Linux is a competitor to Windows, Microsoft has included the Linux Bash command immediate in the latest Windows 10 system.
Source adapted: Medium
