Technology & Learning November 2007 - (Page 16) L inux Makes the Grade An open source solution that’ time has come. s By Melissa Houston TUX GROWS UP A look at the evolution of Linux The chubby, happy penguin, known as “Tux” to most in the Linux world, has served as the open source community’s mascot since 1996 and was created to celebrate Finnish software engineer Linus T orvalds’s love of the arctic bird. Torvalds, of course, is the original author of Linux, and Tux is largely believed to be named after his revolutionary code. Though people assume Tux stands for tuxedo—what you tend to think of when you look at a penguin— the name, in fact, is most likely short for (T)orvalds’s (U)NI(X). In 1991, Torvalds wrote his code—a modification of UNIX, an operating system that’s been around since the 1970s—posted it on a computer programming bulletin board, and asked people to contribute to his ideas. “I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like GNU),” he wrote. One has to wonder if he envisioned his casual invitation would lead to such a transformed world. Today, what started out as a computer posting has grown into a feature-rich and varied community. An estimated 6 to 8 million people are using Linux in some form, which is 16 | www.techlearning.com http://www.techlearning.com
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