The history of Linux, from the UNIX wars to the hundreds of Linux operating systems of today

The origin of Linux-based operating systems and why calling them 'Linux' is controversial

When Linus Torvalds developed the Linux kernel—the foundational layer of an operating system—developers incorporated it into other readily available components of the GNU Project to create complete systems. Although these OSes have been colloquially referred to as "Linux" for simplicity for decades, the GNU Project has long argued that they should be called "GNU/Linux" to honor the project's contributions.

An overview of Linux, from the foundational program to its related operating systems

The Linux kernel, which bridges hardware and software, serves as the basis for many fully customizable operating systems, whose components can be modified or removed to optimize performance or reduce bloat on devices with limited resources. This has made these OSes useful for low-power devices like smart thermostats, as well as for powerful supercomputers that require computational efficiency.

A conversation about open-source software with Linus Torvalds, who invented Linux

Originally written as part of a personal project, Torvalds acknowledges that Linux's growth came from opening it up to a community of users who could each work on different components, including those that were not his strength, such as the user interface. He also admits to being an engineer, rather than a visionary, relating more to Thomas Edison than Nikola Tesla.

The history of the Linux Foundation, a technology consortium supporting open-source projects

The nonprofit, founded in 2000 by IBM, HP, Intel, and others as the Open Source Development Labs, was established to build the infrastructure needed to scale with the growing development of Linux. Upon merging with the Free Standards Group in 2007, it rebranded as the Linux Foundation and, as of 2024, provides a "neutral home for code and collaboration" to almost 1,000 projects.

Read Linus Torvalds' commenting on his first posts about Linux in the comp.os.minix newsgroup

On August 1, 1991, he posted a request on what would be the first version of Linux, writing, "I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. [...] I'd like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat."

The stories behind open-source project logos, including Tux, Linux's penguin mascot

During a trip to an Australian zoo, Linus Torvalds, the developer of the Linux kernel, was bitten by a penguin, which inspired the animal to be selected as the software's logo. The first design was drafted by Larry Ewing while a student at Texas A&M University, and the Tux name—short for tuxedo—aligned with the animal's appearance.

Visualize the growth of the Linux kernel source code, which surpassed 40 million lines in 2025

Version 0.01 of the program authored by Linus Torvalds in 1991 spanned approximately 10,000 lines of code and has progressively grown to accommodate the management of an increasing number of hardware and software components. The kernel grows by an estimated 400,000 lines of code every two months.

How a crisis over managing Linux versions led to the foundational software behind GitHub

In 2005, after enduring several challenges with BitKeeper—the system then used to manage the Linux source code—Linus Torvalds spent about 10 days writing code for Git, a new system to organize and track versions throughout kernel development. Git provides distributed version control for GitHub, which, as of 2023, is the world's largest host of software development projects.

Distinguishing between Android and Linux-based operating systems

The Google-owned OS for mobile devices runs atop a Linux-based kernel that manages core services and manages software communication with hardware. While many Linux distributions can often be installed on these devices, Android uses its own standard libraries, user interface, and other open-source software, which comprise the Android Open Source Project.

How Steve Jobs tried to end development on Linux by offering Linus Torvalds a job

In a 2012 interview, Linus Torvalds claimed that the Apple CEO offered him a job in 2000 to exclusively work on Mac OS's Mach kernel. While Linux has not provided the financial benefits that a business venture with Apple may have, Torvalds stated, "I'm very happy with feeling that I've done the right thing." (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Learn about the Linux contingency plan for when its creator retires or passes away

Authored 34 years after the software was coded by Linus Torvalds, the plan dictates that if the maintainers of the code's repository are unable to facilitate a transition to Torvalds' successor, an Organizer will chair a meeting with the invitees of the most recently concluded Maintainers Summit, which will consider options for the ongoing management of the repository.

View the codenames given to Linux kernel releases, from 'Woozy Numbat' to 'ninja sloth'

While each version is assigned a code, such as 6.8.0-rc7, animal codenames provide more memorable, fun identities for each version. Some Linux distributions have also adopted this philosophy and have used alliterative nicknames to convey the distro's characteristics, such as Ubuntu's "Warty Warthog," described as "functional if not pretty."

How the GNU General Public License ensures software remains free and open

Rather than copyright, the free software license is based on the principles of copyleft—users are allowed to use, modify, and distribute software without charge, provided that any derivative works remain free. The license was introduced in 1989 by Richard Stallman, who founded the Free Software Foundation to promote the accessibility of software.

Explaining how open source systems like Linux can be secure, despite their public source code

While no computer system is immune to all cyberattacks and malware, the transparency of open-source technology means many thousands of developers can review and oversee the underlying code powering the software on an ongoing basis. This increases the likelihood of catching and patching vulnerabilities more quickly than smaller groups of cybercriminals looking to exploit them.

Microsoft paid $50k for the foundation of the OS they licensed to IBM

Rather than write MS-DOS from scratch, Bill Gates purchased the full rights to QDOS—Quick and Dirty Operating System—from Seattle Computer Products only weeks before IBM's PC hit the market. The IBM deal allowed Microsoft to license its OS to other manufacturers, ensuring it was not dependent on IBM's long-term success.

Explore a visual history of the Windows operating system

Named after the windows that separate different applications, the operating system’s first version came preinstalled with Calculator, Paint, and Reversi. There was no Windows 9 to avoid compatibility issues with legacy code searching for Windows 95 and 98 files via a “windows9” query.

The origin of the World Wide Web, plus a look at its first website and web browser

Invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 while working at CERN—home of the world's largest particle physics laboratory—the Web was developed to facilitate the sharing of information among scientists at institutions worldwide. By the end of 1990, the first Web server was operational as a proof-of-concept on a NeXT workstation.

The history of malware includes computer viruses, worms, trojans, and ransomware

Some of the earliest significant pieces of malware—the Creeper worm and the Elk Cloner virus—displayed silly messages to users without causing major harm. As computer science has advanced, malware has become more easily spread, incorporated social engineering to manipulate users, targeted infrastructure systems, and been used by governments for virtual espionage.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

The Human Genome Project spawned numerous spinoff genetics projects

The Human Genome Project led to the development of techniques later applied to projects in microbial and plant biology, epigenomics, environmental and cancer genomes, and more. In the spirit of the HGP, data from these projects has been made freely available to develop new technologies.

FLOW-MATIC was the first programming language resembling the English language

As part of the team working on UNIVAC—the first commercially produced electronic digital computer in the US—Grace Hopper helped develop the system that enabled nonprogrammers and businesspeople without a strong mathematics background to use the machine effectively, thereby enhancing the computer's commercial viability.

The Soviet Union explained

From 1922 to 1991, the Soviet Union spanned one-sixth of Earth’s landmass and housed nearly 300 million people. As the most significant test of Marxist governance, it sat at the center of the century’s defining struggle between capitalism and communism.

Elk Cloner, the first computer virus to spread in public, was written as a practical joke by Richard Skrenta, a Pittsburgh high school student.

Read about when Nasdaq partnered with the London Stock Exchange in 1992, and other key moments in Nasdaq history

The partnership became the first intercontinental linkage between capital markets, setting the stage for worldwide trading amid increasing globalization. Nasdaq separated from its parent company in 2006, becoming a fully independent licensed national securities exchange. A year later, it added the Scandinavian-based Exchange, OMX.

A 1983 NATO war simulation provoked the Soviets to prepare for war

The "SNAFU" podcast, hosted by actor and comedian Ed Helms, explores some of the biggest blunders in history. Season one focuses on the 1983 NATO Able Archer military exercise, a war game that simulated nuclear attacks on the Soviet Union. The USSR mistook the exercise for a genuine threat and prepared its forces for war. Helms recounts this almost catastrophic event in world history with his signature humor.

Amazon has experienced relentless, if occasionally bumpy, growth since its founding

From its founding in 1994 to a slew of acquisitions and new products and services launched in the decades since then, Amazon has experienced relentless, if occasionally bumpy, growth. This timeline from The Verge lays out some of the major events in the company’s story, including its IPO, rollout of its lucrative cloud-computing division, and much more.

The ancient Greeks laid the foundation of Western culture, from ideas to sports

The Latin alphabet is the most used in the world and stems from the Greek language. The greatest sporting event in the world, the Olympics, originated among the Greeks. The way many countries decide on policy is via forms of democracy, an innovation of the ancient Greeks.

In 2019, a laptop loaded with six of the worst malware in history and described as 'an exhibit of historical weaponry' sold for $1.3M.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

The term 'algorithm' originated from the Latinized name of al-Khwārizmī, a 9th-century mathematician whose works introduced Arabic numerals and the decimal-based numeral system to Europe and whose treatise 'Al-Jabr' gave algebra its name.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

Hear 50 years of iconic hip-hop samples, the genre's foundational looped tracks

Watch how algorithms can be designed to train themselves and self-improve without human input, to the point where the optimized code is too complex for programmers to understand.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson centered on federalism—the question of how much power the federal government should hold relative to the states.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

See how each of the more than two million known species relates to each other—and to common ancestors—in this zoomable tree of life.

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

While the sun's gravity keeps the planets in orbit, their gravity also pulls on the sun, causing it and everything else in the solar system to orbit around a mutual balance point called the barycenter—the true center of the solar system.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is independent of Iran's regular army and is one of the most powerful and influential military-political organizations in the Middle East.

During the French Revolution, a botanist's letter asking about "dear Rhus" (poison ivy) was intercepted, leading authorities to suspect he was conspiring with the Russians.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.