<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN"> <!--Converted with LaTeX2HTML 96.1-c (Feb 29, 1996) by Nikos Drakos (nikos@cbl.leeds.ac.uk), CBLU, University of Leeds --> <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>1 The Linux operating system</TITLE> <META NAME="description" CONTENT="1 The Linux operating system"> <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="lpg"> <META NAME="resource-type" CONTENT="document"> <META NAME="distribution" CONTENT="global"> <LINK REL=STYLESHEET HREF="lpg.css"> </HEAD> <BODY LANG="EN"> <A NAME="tex2html303" HREF="node3.html"><IMG WIDTH=37 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="next" SRC="/icons//next_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html301" HREF="lpg.html"><IMG WIDTH=26 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="up" SRC="/icons//up_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html295" HREF="node1.html"><IMG WIDTH=63 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="previous" SRC="/icons//previous_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html305" HREF="node1.html"><IMG WIDTH=65 HEIGHT=24 ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="contents" SRC="/icons//contents_motif.gif"></A> <BR> <B> Next:</B> <A NAME="tex2html304" HREF="node3.html">2 The Linux kernel</A> <B>Up:</B> <A NAME="tex2html302" HREF="lpg.html">e</A> <B> Previous:</B> <A NAME="tex2html296" HREF="node1.html">Contents</A> <BR> <P> <H1><A NAME="SECTION00200000000000000000">1 The Linux operating system</A></H1> <P> In March 1991 Linus Benedict Torvalds bought the multitasking system Minix for his AT 386. He used it to develop his own multitasking system which he called Linux. In September 1991 he released the first prototype by e-mail to some other Minix users on the internet, thus beginning the Linux project. Many programmers from that point on have supported Linux. They have added device drivers, developed applications, and aimed for POSIX compliance. Today Linux is very powerful, but what is best is that it's free. Work is beeing done to port Linux to other platforms. <P> <BR> <HR> <P><ADDRESS> <I>Converted on: <BR> Fri Mar 29 14:43:04 EST 1996</I> </ADDRESS> </BODY> </HTML>
