A Brief History of Linux

[@SamiurRahmanTonmoy]

Just wow! Brief history of Linux in a flash. Great job Gary :)

[@troylhester]

I have items to recommend for your timeline; The time MS execs called it a cancer, and the time MS joined the Linux Foundation (OK maybe three.. how about the time MS added Linux to Windows?)

[@NOLRula]

#4 would be MS purchasing Github. This is beginning to require a an alternative documentation. :)

[@lithiumwyvern_]

Linux uses Git for its version control, but its real repo is _not_ on GitHub. The thing you see on GitHub is only an official *mirror* of the real Linux kernel repo.

[@lithiumwyvern_]

Is it really cancer if it is only beneficial to the world, including everyone directly involved? I mean, the definition of cancer literally contains the word "malignant".

[@shanethomas2280]

Please do a video on software installation, ppa's, software suites, etc. on Linux. I believe that many people would stand to benefit between the differences on direct downloads, package managers, etc.

[@malgailany]

Since you mentioned Git, how about explaining Git in one of your nice videos? Thanks

[@dstinnettmusic]

It would be a short video lol Hey, this one time, Linus invented some tech so he could easily update and share Linux code updates. People liked it and its pretty much the standard. If I take my Linux hat off, it's probably the most important thing Linus ever did.

[@RocktCityTim]

Reexamine those first Distros. In 92/93, most of us were using archie/gopher and uucp from our SCO or SunOS systems to pull the code from funet.fi. The first "distros" were SLS, Yggdrasil, TAMU, and TSX-11 with Yggdrasil being the first commercially packaged kit (booklet, boot floppies, and CD) in Dec 1992 (kernel 0.98pl1). DebIan (named after Ian Murdoch and his wife, Debbie) started pushing beta builds in September of 1993. Patrick's Slackware was based on the SLS collection and became available via FTP in late 1993, as well.

[@ashique1682]

Great job could you make a video about RISC-V or ARM vs RISC-V

[@MatCendana]

After 18 years of "wanting to" - and didn't for various reasons - I'm FINALLY starting to use Linux. Thanks to various guide videos at KZbin, I learned how to download a Linux Mint ISO and install it on a 5-year-old Asus eee netbook. So much had happened over the years since 2000 when I first wanted to. Thanks to all those passionate and helpful people involved in open source and Linux, it's now very easy for newcomers to at least give this OS a try. I'm pleasantly surprised by how the programmers and developers have handled issues that would have discouraged newbies from continuing with using Linux. Critical issues like hardware drivers, internet connection etc. which have become like Windows and OSX - plug-and-play. Then the availability of tons of good programs and utilities, with most of these being free of charge. Right now Linux is a more-than-capable replacement for the Windows 10 laptop I've been using. With the exception of a few programs that I simply must use (work-related) like Microsoft Publisher. I'm also having trouble handling those tar.gz files. But other than these, using Linux as my main system is making more sense.

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

4:31 I recall something called the “Big Kernel Lock” (BKL). Presumably this was pre-2.2.

[@georganatoly6646]

Didn't know that about Git. Really interesting video!

[@e4r281]

"I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones." - Linus Torvalds

[@aiosquadron]

Yea, sure.

[@e4r281]

@@aiosquadron ?

[@aiosquadron]

@@e4r281 I'm being sarcastic of the statement. Like, yeah, it sure wouldn't be a "big and professional thing"

[@aakashsuryavanshi5985]

that aged like milk

[@jagardina]

I remember downloading slackware on multiple floppy disks. Running x-windows was painful. You had to know all kinds of config details for your graphics card and monitor. Good times.

[@billbez7465]

Thanks Gary. Appreciate your excellent & informative videos.

[@personanongratis]

I'm a simple man,I see a ''Gary Explains'' video I click like!

[@1MarkKeller]

Truth!

[@Kneedragon1962]

Thank you Gary, excellent work. Favourite milestones... I'm not entirely sure. The birth of Mate, which was just restarting dev + maintenance on the gnome2 system, when the gnomes moved to gnome3. I'm not sure, I've been using Linux now for about 23 years, so... The birth of Debian and the release of the first Debian distro, that was a major. Start of Canonical & Ubuntu. Start of Mint.... Generally I think you've listed the biggest & most important ones.

[@alenkruth]

Very nice one Sir. Loved it♥️💯

[@erikpolano7680]

Another great video!

[@BasavarajuBV]

Thank you for sharing history. Can you please make video on Windows Subsystem for Linux which was released with windows 10 anniversary update?

[@worldhello1234]

@10:16 Yeah, the Mediatek Helio X20 uses big-little.

[@GaryExplains]

As do most mobile processors including most of the Snapdragons, Kirin and Exynos chips.

[@worldhello1234]

If you mean flagship processors, probably yes.

[@GaryExplains]

Not necessarily flagship, all Snapdragon processors above the 400 series use big.LITTLE. Also, all Kirin processors (other than the 910, I think) use big.LITTLE and so on.

[@venkataravieluri9625]

I use Linux and I think this video is very informative. Thanks Gary.

[@voiceoftreason1760]

thanks again for sharing your humble knowledge

[@onisarb]

Quite informative, albeit highly condensed :) kudos.

[@tonifasth]

Great history lesson! I believe that Linux development is just getting started. There's currently a lot of exciting stuff going on. I believe that Linux will soon catch up with Windows and MacOS in terms of daily desktop and gaming usage. Also hardware manufacturer driver support for Linux has grown a lot lately. Even Microsoft sees how powerful Linux can be when given proper support and to be honest I think they've become a bit scared of being overrun. Thus they've added things like WSL with the help of Ubuntu and joined the Linux foundation etc... 😜

[@fuseteam]

add steam adding the ability to run windows games on linux......built in :3

[@tonifasth]

@@fuseteam SteamOS or Steam on Linux has a really long path to walk still. But I can see Linux performing as good or even better for both Linux and Windows games in the near future. Just as a reference: I used to play Unreal Tournament on a dual Celeron system with Voodoo FX3500 on Windows 2000. Then I decided to test how it runs on Linux and to my surprise I got 200-250FPS stable depending on the world with also running a UT server at the same time. On Windows I only got about 50-60FPS and that was without the server running at the same time.

[@fuseteam]

that's true for most windows software on actually which is why they added the feature, the only time when some lag is to be expected is when there is graphic api translation and the biggest obstacle right now is DRM as for why it is faster it is because linux is more light weight than windows :3

[@tonifasth]

Yep, that's one nasty thing that slows down everything. But Linux thread scheduler and networking is also far more superior than we currently have on Windows. This should help quite a lot in catching up. Another thing would be better Vulkan adoption to games. Vulkan support in most games is horrible still, but so is DX12 support too. 😜

[@fuseteam]

well that's the thing about steam support of windows games on linux it uses a DX support on Vulkan using something they call DXVK

[@riyazuddinsh]

So is there a place where we can the complete video?

[@pdavis4853]

Gary. You have several Linux videos. How about a video on which Linux OS is best for different use models (scenarios)? I am personally interested in running Linux as my main OS then running everything in a virtual machine, VMWare or Virtual Box. Any insights or additional reference materials would be quite useful. I think many people will be interested because Microsoft is becoming a poorer OS choice with each release.

[@GaryExplains]

That kind of video will just start a flame war, because whatever distro I suggest there will be angry hoards moaning about why I didn't suggest their favorite distribution. distrowatch.com/ is a good site because you can see what people are searching in general.

[@kiranjha789]

Hey, Merci Gary! Doing great :-)

[@SensSword]

I used Slackware until about 2008. Good times... Editor note: started on 2.2.x kernels.

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

3:28 And your server OSes, and some of the proprietary applications that ran on them, were licensed based on the number of processor sockets! It might have been Intel that persuaded Microsoft not to count multiple CPU cores within a chip as multiple CPUs for licensing purposes. Otherwise Windows might have looked even worse in comparison to Linux than it already was.

[@garruscalibrates2333]

“Android Pie 9.0 - 4.9.84 or newer” Why my Pixel XL running Pie is still on version 3.18.100?

[@GaryExplains]

Because "4.9.84 or newer" applies to new phones released in 2018, not upgraded older phones.

[@garruscalibrates2333]

Gary Explains I see... Thanks man! Learned a lot from your videos!

[@jGRite]

9:20 I have at least five of those Android devices so that's one person using five. I'm sure there's others like that as well. It would be nice if each device was a person.

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

2:52 DEC sent an Alpha to Linus in 1994, with a request that he port Linux onto it. That was only the second architecture that it ran on. So Linux went 64-bit and became portable at the same time!

[@NikhilKolangara]

Great video!❤️ Can you make a video about RISC-V?

[@pooyafitness]

Please do a video about different linuxes. I want to try linux but am confused.

[@HungryGuyStories]

What's a "spinlock?"

[@gowthamkudupudi1012]

Is there any contribution made by Gentoo​ to Linux?

[@MrRobbyvent]

Why at a certain point linux dropped i386 compatibility going for i486?

[@GaryExplains]

Intel stopped making the 386 in 2007 plus keeping it in the kernel was creating extra work for little benefit. Plus it seems that since the 386 didn't support SMP at all, then keeping it in the code was hindering the SMP support.

[@gordoncraig8238]

Interesting. It would good to see what that version could do and not do.

[@josemartins90]

Do a video on RISC-V ;)

[@prasenjeetbanerjee2867]

What presentation software you use in this video??

[@GaryExplains]

Those are just slides made with Google Slides.

[@electrofryed7239]

This video brings me back to my Sun Ultra 60 on Linux 2.

[@hpp6116]

Nice summary! However, I would like to add that Android is not based exactly on the Linux kernel but, on a modified version of it.

[@GaryExplains]

Everything is based on a "modified version" of it. Hardly anyone runs a "pure" kernel.

[@fuseteam]

actually it was merged in version 3.3 no idea why phones kernels aren't kept up to date tho

[@iyaanazeez8989]

Always deep respect for Linus and you

[@fuseteam]

i recently discovered android and linux were "merged" in 3.3 thanks to the android mainlining project, yet most android phones use outdated kernels.........what happened?

[@GaryExplains]

Why do you think most Android phones use outdated kernels? Lots of servers and system are using "older" kernels, the older the kernel the more stable it is.

[@fuseteam]

because most phones that i know of are on the 3.x branch? and maybe because of android fragmentation as a result or is that unrelated 🤔 what i do know is that most android phones can't run on "mainline linux" for one reason or another

[@GaryExplains]

Basically most phones stick with the kernel that they had when they shipped, even if the Android version has been upgraded. So an upgraded first gen Pixel is still going to be using something like 3.18 even if it is running Android 9. It is because before Project Treble the kernel and the hardware had a complex and poorly defined interface. It is much easier and safer for the Android framework to get upgraded while leaving the kernel the same. It has nothing to do with the differences between the mainline kernel and Android kernels.

[@fuseteam]

ah interesting so it is because of a poorly defined interface, so would that mean with project treble phones should be able to be updated to newer kernels? does project treble also include hardware abstraction?

[@GaryExplains]

I made a video about that: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ipK8k5etmseam8k

[@joshuajosephson7965]

Maybe next you can do a history of the Windows KERNEL and leave out everything else.

[@shikhanshu]

very informative!

[@wisteela]

Very interesting 👍

[@himanshuchamoli8269]

Linux distros are very light,just that not all apps are available☹️

[@fuseteam]

eh? what kind of apps are you searching for?

[@RonnieNissan]

Not all the same apps are available, but all apps are actually available.

[@HeyJes]

Gary probably won't see this, but; could you please do a video on building custom GUIs/Desktop Environments for Linux? I'm trying to build one and I'm relatively new to Linux and C.

[@GaryExplains]

I try to read every comment! What exactly do you mean by "building custom GUIs/Desktop Environments for Linux"? Do you mean a replacement for GNOME and/or KDE?

[@HeyJes]

Gary Explains :) I think that's what I'm doing? Maybe? I'm trying to build a custom UI from scratch on top of the Linux kernel using GTK+ (GIMP Toolkit), specifically WebKitGTK+ so I can use what I'm familiar with, HTML/CSS/JavaScript. I think really a custom Distro, or a UI built upon a pre-existing Distro like Arch Linux. I'm really, really new to Linux, 😐.

[@fuseteam]

why built a new desktop environment? why not poke in the unity 8 desktop environment development?

[@GaryExplains]

My advise would be to fully define what you are trying to achieve first of all, worry about the tech, the "how" later.

[@HeyJes]

Gary Explains I'll take that advice. 👍🏻 Keep up the good work on the videos by the way!

[@uttamchandra9726]

Very good evening professor!!!!!!! Library of knowledge!!!!

[@GaryExplains]

Robby!!!

[@ZamanSiddiqui]

Robby!

[@1MarkKeller]

*Robby!*

[@uttamchandra9726]

@@1MarkKeller hiii very good evening classmate!!!

[@uttamchandra9726]

@@ZamanSiddiqui hiiii very good evening class mate!!!!

[@mohammedhijazi5143]

Thank u for this great video

[@THE16THPHANTOM]

9:16 Correction, you mean thare are 2 billion devices using the linux kernel, not 2 billion people. people? no where near that number(probably). i have 3 devices(smart phones) using the linux kernel now you're saying i'm 3 individual people.

[@rezan6971]

Would you explain Ray tracing .. in the "light" of the new Nvidia card :D

[@e-maxwell]

Please make videos about ARM related stuff, like the big.LITTLE.

[@GaryExplains]

I have multiple videos on ARM over on the Android Authority channel. Please check out those videos and then let me know if you think there are any gaps I need to fill. There is a play list on the homepage of this channel.

[@adithyabhat4770]

I use Linux and I live it! It's the best

[@nekdo_kavc]

I switched to Linux Mint last weak and love it.

[@toweroftall9040]

Android good

[@1MarkKeller]

*GARY!!!* *GOOD AFTERNOON PROFESSOR!*

[@GaryExplains]

MARK!!!

[@ZamanSiddiqui]

*GARY!* *Good afternoon, professor!*

[@1MarkKeller]

*Zaman!*

[@SushinPv]

Nice video #subscribed

[@fyrstnaym1236]

Linus made Git, too? Damn, nice.

[@WowplayerMe]

You left out when Richard Stallman gets butthurt cuz no one calls it "GNU/Linux".

[@GaryExplains]

I have a whole separate video about that: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iH_IfIygjN1gqZY

[@elijahhmarshall]

Today I learned: Linus Torvalds wrote git... This man is a legend

[@champenhimself]

You got a Red hat on a Red hat ..... 🎩 magical 👌

[@The_Robert.Fletcher]

Backdrop wrong penguin. Linus was impressed with the little fairy penguins on Philip Island, Victoria, Australia. The origins of Tux.

[@waynestewart1919]

I love Linux. Wearing a 'Linux Powered' T-Shirt.

[@liammay7756]

You left out the part where mayonnaise, peanut butter and bananas taste good

[@owainkanaway8345]

You forgot to mention that Linus Torvalds never intended to release Linux. He was happy with BSD, but BSD was caught up in lawsuit with AT&T (a copyright infringement lawsuit) and that halted development for about four years, and he needed an operating system that was compatible with the i386, so he released Linux 1.0 in 1994. So thanks to our draconian laws, Linux became mainstream and BSD didn't.

[@GaryExplains]

That is indeed an interesting interpretation of the history of Linux. Do you have any references to backup your claims that he never wanted to release Linux? That he was "happy with BSD"? As far as I know the legal case against BSD was brought in 1992, after Linus' famous announcement. Also some would argue that the use of the GPL was a significant factor in the success of Linux and why developers didn't favor BSD. Finally, it seems that Linus was much more enamoured with Minix since he used it as his start point for Linux.

[@rwashi]

Nice, like your video, however Linux is NOT an operating system it's a KERNEL. it's really GNU/Linux, my first distro was Slackware. I don't mind your video being long, it's educational and entertaining.

[@GaryExplains]

I am glad you are enjoying my videos... But there is one more you need to watch: Is Linux an OS, a kernel or both? (Linux vs GNU/Linux) - kzbin.info/www/bejne/iH_IfIygjN1gqZY

[@zackrider3708]

@@GaryExplains So GNU GPL is a type of License for open source software ????

[@rablumberg]

I think to be fair with GNU community, this video should call "history of Linux kernel" or it should mention all GNU effort to have a full GNU/Linux operational system.

[@GaryExplains]

I guess someone hasn't watch this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iH_IfIygjN1gqZY :-)

[@thoaihoquang1578]

As this time, Linux Kernel 5.16 has been released

[@GaryExplains]

Thanks. Obviously there have been lots of releases since I made the video and that will continue in the future.

[@surajkaintura7968]

Bought my first PC in 2009 with Windows XP. i knew nothing. Ran windows vista, 7, 8.1, 10 upto 2016. I still knew nothing. Installed Ubuntu 16 in my laptop and now i am a software Engineer.😊😊

[@surajkaintura7968]

@Selena Ronaldo Full stack developer Microsoft practices.

[@picattiu4813]

I have to reread it and make sure its not linus

[@nimachogyal]

he got bitten by a penguin in Australia and thats how he chose the mascot for linux :3

[@dstinnettmusic]

Dude I want a Red Hat hat

[@angelstudiosmggsg3196]

Pepsi of course app that's the best thing that ever happened man type c support keep it up bro nerd for life

[@pulakroy007]

I love linux.

[@Arrozconchopsticks]

Had to put Linux(Mint 19 XFCE) back on my wife's laptop. I got sick of using Windows 7 on it.

[@emiliokennkierza260]

Can I say that Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, CentOS, openSuse tumbleweed my exes? Because I'm in a relationship with Arch though 😂

[@DarkNeutrino_R]

27 years of development and NVIDIA still sucks at supporting Linux.

[@oisin_doran]

Uses android Points to moon It was Linux this whole time

[@prathamva7392]

Living Encyclopedia...!!

[@adithyabhat4770]

Living*

[@prathamva7392]

@@adithyabhat4770 Thanks

[@bluebirdsigma]

In before the INTERJECTION

[@qianbang_]

Dem. I'm as old as Linux..

[@philipwest4553]

Linux is not "very dominant" is has a minute market share with consumers. It does better with servers but is till a tiny fraction of the server market. [Correction, I overstated this, Linux is not a tiny fraction of the server market, 1/3 is not tiny. Yet it is not dominant, it is not even 1/2.]

[@GaryExplains]

Nonsense. The only area where Linux is not dominant is on the desktop.

[@philipwest4553]

Android is dominant for smart phones(78%+), Windows for desktop(88%+), Proprietary operating systems (48.32&%)dominate in games consoles with Unix being next, for servers it's difficult to get accurate figures - Linux(37%) may be ahead of Windows(34%) but it is close with both being in the 30+% mark and other operating systems (including Unix) making up the rest, for mainframes Unix (72%) dominates, some say for supercomputers Linux is 100% but what that means is anybody's guess. So unless you want to say that Linux is Unix (which it is not) then Linux is not as you claim dominant in everything except Desktop.

[@GaryExplains]

@@philipwest4553 I am in vacation and in using my smartphone, so I don't have access to the numbers I want. But as you said on mobile Linux is dominant. On servers I have higher numbers than the ones you quoted and I think you are forgetting containers and virtualization on mainframe. As for supercomputers, yes, the top 500 supercomputers all run Linux.

[@philipwest4553]

Android is based on Linux but it is not Linux. It's a specialised phone OS with some tablets using it too. The kind of Linux that people using KZbin like is the desktop and maybe Tablet kind. Most people would think of Android as something distinct from Linux; after all Linux distributions do not include Android. Linux distributions are things like Mint, Ubuntu, Red Hat and so forth. And Android apps generally do not work on Linux Distributions.

[@GaryExplains]

I guess you haven't seen my video: Is Android really just Linux - kzbin.info/www/bejne/eJyzZ3mKrpWUars

[@MotokoKaiousei]

the name is unix. you all gnu/linux usurer are stealing.