Written by: Utkrist Mani Neupane - 21134, Grade XII
Posted on: 17 December, 2020
Linus Torvals, a student in the University of Helsinki, in 1991 released the linux Kernel; an open-source operating system which he could program and configure the way he wanted. By 1993, there were 100 developers working to develop linux and the rest is history. What started out as a personal project, turned into a wide scale operating system that is popular for its simplicity and reliability and accounts for 66% of the world’s server, 100% of the top supercomputers and is present in all Android devices1. A kernel is a core part of the operating system and it is responsible for the overall operation of the device. The linux kernel is based on UNIX and it was of 10,000 lines of code back in 1991 but now it has grown to 20,000,0002 lines and it is growing day by day. The power of the internet to collaborate with developers all over the world was at its peak and thus, provided a strong base for the development of the Linux OS that we use nowadays. With the rise in contributors everyday, there had to be some sort of version control service that they needed to keep track of the development process and thus, Git was born. In 2005, to have a proper version control, Linux Torvalds created Git, an open-source Version Control System (VCS) and it has been very handy in the tech industry as almost all the tech giants use Github, one of the largest hosting company, to maintain the source code and allow collaboration. Github as of now has 40 Million registered users and it is found that 88.4% of the StackOverflow Developer Survey(2018) respondents used Git for version control3. Linux is always growing in popularity and development. It is reliable, and totally in your control being open source. The Stack Overflow Developer Survey (2019) shows that 25.6% of the respondents use Linux Distros. The switch to linux is a bit tedious compared to using Windows as some of the basic tasks you perform in Windows in a GUI form are in a CLI form which is not suitable for all.
Sources:
[1&2]: https://www.process.st/how-was-linux-created/
[3]: https://www.welcometothejungle.com/en/articles/btc-history-git
