Linux is a computer operating system and is also the kernel name of the operating system. It is probably one of the most famous examples of the concept of free software and of open source development.
Since being written in 1991 and officially launched in 1994 by “legendary” programmer Linus Torvalds when he was a student at Helsinki University in Finland, the operating system was like Unix code version. This open source has served as one of the key factors promoting the open source revolution in the world of technology, giving more development rights to start-up companies, the birth of new industries and At the same time, it opens a booming chapter of many types of technology equipment and products that change the world.
Up to now, Linux has been supported by many large companies such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard, and the platform has caught up with proprietary Unix versions and even become a challenger. for Microsoft Windows dominance in some areas. Currently the amount of hardware supported by Linux is still very modest compared to Windows because device drivers are more compatible with Windows than with Linux. But in the future, the amount of hardware supported for Linux will definitely increase.
In fact, Linux is currently the leading platform in the cloud, in IoT and on mobile devices. And although it may not (or may not) have won the battle in the desktop field, it is undeniable that Linux’s collaborative, free, and always-available nature has been and will still create great impacts on competitors as well as the development direction of the whole market.
The modern world in general and the technology sector in particular are constantly moving, and Linux is one of the entities that make an important contribution to that development cycle. Linux appears everywhere in the world today, you will find the presence of Linux on high-end supercomputers as well as smartphones, space robots and ultra-secure routers. or even on transportation from simple to complex.
Linux – the brainchild of Linus Torvalds, will turn 28 this year. And to celebrate the contributions that this important open source platform has made to the technology world over the past three decades, we would like to introduce you to a list of 28 interesting facts about Linux as well. as well as legendary programmer Linus Torvalds. We will find out later.
Interesting facts about Linux
1. There are a total of 20,323,379 lines of code in the Linux kernel as of 2018. This sounds “great”, beyond the imagination of many people but in fact, Linux used to have a small time. Best! Although it has been streamlined in the past few years, the huge amount of code up to 20 million lines still “helps” Linux secure with the “title” of the largest open source project on the planet.
2. The Linux name is almost no longer used! At first, Linus Torvalds wanted to name his “pet” project, FreaX, as a play on words, a combination of 3 Free words (free), freak (period), and Unix (platform platform). for Linux development). To be fair, the name FreaX is also quite cool, but it is quite difficult to read, especially for people who do not speak English. Fortunately, Torvalds was eventually convinced by a name that was easy to remember and of course easier to read: Linux, a combination of the word “Lin” in Linus (the author’s name) and Unix.
3. Although the author of 100% of the code in the first release, taking into account the latest kernel release version of Linux, Torvalds only owns less than 1% of the remaining lines of code kept. again. This shows that Linux has always been a constantly evolving and changing platform for each version. Although his “legacy” witness is increasingly “lost”, Linus Torvalds may not have had time to worry because he is busy with the task of managing and merging the written code. by many different developers, and in particular, they are really talented people.
4. It is not Windows that Linux itself is the platform used by nearly all major development projects and projects in the world related to space, aerospace, including NASA and ESA. Besides, private space corporations like SpaceX also actively take advantage of the benefits that Linux brings. The billionaire SpaceX Elon Musk has completed a total of 65 space missions (and will continue in the future) with the support of the Linux bug protection system in his powerful Falcon 9 rocket.
5. Ready to talk about the vast universe, you may not know but there were a few asteroids named after Linux and Linus Torvalds – So Torvalds and his brainchild could have played The contribution is extremely important, has a great influence on not only the technology world but also in the field of space exploration.
6.Tux, the official symbol of the Linux kernel was created by Larry Ewing in 1996, is a cute chubby penguin that looks funny, satisfied, and satisfied. The idea of a penguin symbol for Linux was given by Linus Torvalds, the father of the Linux kernel. But have you ever wondered why penguins and not any other animals? The answer here is also very funny. On a trip to Canberra, Australia, Linus Torvalds was attacked by a “hot” penguin, of course it was only a skin wound, nothing dangerous but made him uncomfortable in a time. Torvalds happily said that he had “inflammatory disease from penguins” (penguinitis), “penguin inflammation that makes you sleepless nights just think about them and naturally feel they are incredibly lovely”.
7. Linux is the absolute dominant platform in the field of supercomputers. As of 2018, 100% of supercomputer models in the world’s top 500 supercomputers run Linux. This is really an impressive achievement!
8. The Linux development community is one of the most active communities in the technology world. According to the nonprofit organization The Linux Foundation, a change to the merged Linux kernel at an average speed of 7.8 patches per hour, like that during the last 15 months.
9. The initial Linux development plan took place on the MINIX operating system. Linus Torvalds then accepted a file system layout application similar to Minix on his fledgling project. However, after a short time, this layout gradually proved ineffective, resulting in Linus Torvalds deciding to replace it with the Extended file system, also known as ext. This type of file layout is still in use today.
10. Linux 1.0 was released on March 14, 1994, more than three years after Linus Torvalds’ first announcement about the open source project he was hatching. Linux 1.0 includes 176,250 lines of code. The next version 2.0 was released in 1996.
11. Linux runs on any technology device, from smartphones, servers to submarines or space rockets … with proven efficiency. The US Department of Defense uses Linux very actively, US nuclear submarines are using Redhat Linux to operate the system. Besides, Linux is also applied on Japanese tube-speed train systems, in the infotainment systems of many famous car companies.
12. Steve Jobs asked Linus Torvalds to “return to his team” in 2000. Of course, the level of enlightenment is extremely good but comes with the condition that he stop developing the Linux project. The father of Linux (fortunately) rejected this “attractive” offer.
13.Have you ever been skeptical about how successful Linux has been? Simply look at the rival Microsoft rival with the Windows card. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Microsoft was a “bug” in the technology world with the hands-on platform of the famous Windows operating system. At that time, the realization of the potential threat of Linux, Bill Gates and his colleagues had several times expressed their intention to remove this stumbling block. Many words have been raised by both sides (Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer once said “Linux is a cancer”). But while the plan “annihilates” Linux of many generations of Microsoft CEOs has not been able to collect the desired effect, this platform has succeeded in becoming a force with a strong foothold in the market. At the present time, Linux was able to “sit together” with Microsoft. In the past few years, Redmond’s giant policies for rival Linux have also changed 180 degrees, from rival to win-win cooperation. Microsoft even contributed to the development of the Linux kernel!
14. Talking about donations. Major technology corporations such as Google, Intel, Huawei, Samsung, Red Hat, Canonical and Facebook have all made important contributions to the development of the Linux kernel in recent years. As can be seen, Linux always possesses a cooperative and constructive relationship for large enterprises in the technology world.
15. Linus Torvalds was born in Finland, a bilingual country and considered Swedish as his first language. The father of Linux said he felt extremely uncomfortable, to the extreme when speaking English because of differences in pronunciation. However, Torvalds especially liked reading English books.
16. Linux is the world’s largest free software project today. But few know that by the time the first kernel was released in 1991, the platform was made up of only about 10,000 lines of code – baby Linux!
17. According to the agreed development and release plan, a new version of the Linux kernel is now released periodically after 66 days or a little longer.
18. Linux is not the only famous creation work of Linus Torvalds. This veteran programming engineer is also responsible for the Git system. Git’s main function is to control the distributed version to track changes in the source code in the software development process. It is also designed to coordinate work among programmers, and can also be used to track every change that occurs in any file set. In addition, Linus Torvalds is also the author of the Suburface diving application.
19. Are you a fan of blockbuster action movies? The spectacular special effects that you see in many popular Hollywood movies are created thanks to the help of Linux. It is estimated that up to 90% of the visual effects of Hollywood titles are based on Linux at some stage in the production process. Titanic and the first 3D movie, Avatar, are also built on the Linux operating system.
20. According to the data cited by the opi web site, more than 95% of the components of Linux are written in the C programming language.
21. About 13.3% of the latest Linux kernel components are made up of … blank lines of code. This may sound bizarre and meaningless, but using blank lines of code is an important part of the strict coding style, making the Linux kernel always neat, efficient and in order.
22 . Android is the most successful operating system on the planet so far. According to statistics from Google, there are more than 2 billion regular Android users worldwide. However, few people know that Android is actually running on the Linux kernel.
23. Each new Linux kernel release will be provided with a unique code name. The recent codenames of the Linux kernel are named “cryptically” including Fearless Coyote (trans: Brave wolf – v4.13) and Dick Merciless Moray (named after an extremely fierce eel – v4.18).
24. According to statistics from Red Hat – one of the most successful Linux companies in history, there are 9 out of 10 leading public cloud services currently running on the Linux platform, showing the system almost absolute value of Linux in the field of cloud services platform.
25. Ubuntu is the world’s most popular Linux-based desktop operating system. This operating system currently owns about 20 million users worldwide. Linux accounts for only 2% of market share on desktops.
26. The first book about Linux was published in 1993 with the title: “Linux Installation and Getting Started” by Matt Welsh. Meanwhile, the first magazine dedicated to Linux was the Linux Journal, published a year later, in March 1994. The Linux Journal opened with an interview with the very father of the platform, Linus Torvalds engineer.
27. Linux is the most famous example of open source software but do you know that it’s not always 100% free? Early versions of Linux were distributed with a license to prohibit commercial use or redistribution.
28. There are currently more than 4,100 programmers working day and night coding for linux kernel.
