Linux: The Origin Story

[@Hallden_]

Hi everyone! thank you all for subscribing, I was not expecting this many of you to sub so quickly, we're past 1k subs in less than 24 hours which is crazy! I'm going to make a slight shift and start posting my informational talking head style videos here and keep the main channel solely focused on programming projects. Building new ideas working on my startup and getting back to the one day builds. I appreciate all of you!

[@moutasim_ayoubi]

Btw, u forgot to put links for some distros, I believe it will be better for new comers

[@divyanshuagarwal20]

Hey Great video style love it. Would also be helpful if you add all of your youtube channels in the Channels section. Makes it easier to hop from one to another 😃

[@jewelflores4105]

💚

[@DiegoDominguezTapia]

I was the 2220 subscriber!!!

[@FedoraRose]

HAHA I Was wondering if that’s your channel

[@MattiasThing]

By the way, the University of Helsinki are pretty proud of him, and you cannot study there in the science department without noticing this! :D

[@mr-ladi617]

They must be

[@barbecue1617]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/nKmZm6eAp9t9sLc

[@tikkasen_urakointi]

And nowadays Finnish universities use only Windows and they don't even host their own email servers anymore...

[@matteofalduto766]

Rightfully so, I would say

[@mmatss]

@@tikkasen_urakointi at least in Aalto you can find ubuntu desktops and macs

[@avi12]

This is mind-blowing to realize that the same guy who created Linux has also created Git

[@MikaelMurstam]

yeah to manage the development of Linux, however, he has quite a lot of influence so someone else's versioning system would probably be used otherwise.

[@satyamevajayate7263]

In a world of false hero like Jobs and Gates, Linus is true legend. Sad part is that not many people have realised that how he has helped us to be free from corporate domination.

[@cgme7076]

I definitely foresee Linux being the leader for OS technology. It’s already leading with ChromeOS for student laptops, Android for phones, Nginx (mostly) for web servers, and many people are all ready jumping ship from Windows 10/11 to (mostly) Debian-based distros. GPU pass-through is also possible with VM technology, something that was not widely foreseen even a few years ago.

[@danielcoffman1022]

Totally agree. It feels like Microsoft is about to jump ship too…which is odd to say. But since the peak of Windows XP, every version of Windows has gotten worse. I realize that it’s been said that Windows has a pattern that goes: good, bad, good, bad, etc. Personally, I believe it’s actually been: good, bad, fixed, worse, sucks less, terrible, etc. Windows 11 is a great example for the downfall of Windows. There can only be so many drops in quality and privacy/ownership before even the greatest of fanboys can admit it’s garbage

[@user-eq2fp6jw4g]

"GPU pass-through is also possible with VM technology" There are very awesome projects like LookingGlass ( An extremely low latency KVMFR (KVM FrameRelay) implementation for guests with VGA PCI Passthrough. ) which make great use of it. Totally recommend.

[@UNSCPILOT]

As a Windows 10 user trying out Garuda Linux on my laptop I'm surprised how easy it's been to adjust and how much more fun it is to use without needing to fight threw Windows nonsense. Sure, it has its problems here and there and a lot it still handled in the terminal, but I think it's starting to hit the critical point where it can start to catch on, especially with people like me fleeing from Windows 11. My experience has been good enough I'm actually planning to get a Pinephone Pro to experiment around with a Linux phone as an alternative to my current (rather old) samsung

[@Setsunone]

@@danielcoffman1022 most reviewers are very positieve about Windows 11...

[@danielcoffman1022]

@@Setsunone and how do we know these reviews weren’t paid?

[@StormCrusher94]

Another good point for Linux is saving old -still perfectly- fine hardware.

[@nojigs]

Definitely. Just installed Zorin on a laptop from 2007.

[@StormCrusher94]

@@nojigscan I ask how much ram and ram speeds it has? As that seems one problem I'm encountering with my old laptop. Also there is an arch Linux distro that seems even more friendly on the computer specs, but the GUI is a lot different.

[@nojigs]

@@StormCrusher94 Celeron 585 2.1GHz. 2Gb of DDR2 RAM, at 667 speed. Lubuntu's another distro that runs well on it. Might be worth giving it a try. Laptop is an emachines E520 from 2008.

[@StormCrusher94]

@@nojigs I see thanks. Seems that the bottleneck in my case is the CPU. Only have 1.3Ghz.

[@nojigs]

@@StormCrusher94 It should still be enough to run a few of the low-spec distros. There's a few to try. Puppy Linux is another that might be worth a shot.

[@Salisbury2015]

What a well produced and interesting history. I look forward to seeing more videos like these on this new channel!

[@aleeexxx9]

Keep going with the good content man, we all enjoy it!

[@christophernuzzi2780]

The computer at 1:58 is not a 386 clone, it is an Apple IIc.

[@jeancorriveau8686]

Good overview of the beginnings of Linux. I switched to Linux six years ago for good. I tried it in 2000 then 2009, but gave up. It wasn't as easy and friendly as Windows. Now, it's better than Windows. Faster. Stable. And it won't ask you to restart the OS each time you install an app.

[@mrkitty777]

Year of desktop Linux is different for anybody. -gingerkitty-

[@petermoeller5901]

Linux is a great OS, but many application packages are not available on Linux, especially professional software. Maybe you can list what you do on your computer, what applications you use? That would give you switching to Linux meaning. I can browse the web and watch KZbin on my phone, or a $100 tablet you know. Many Windows apps can be installed without rebooting. Linux wants to reboot after many updates. No big difference in the reboot department. I think you have the wrong idea - mislead people on purpose. You tell me.

[@jeancorriveau8686]

@@petermoeller5901 Linux, to me, is for personal use, so I don't require professional software. I never have Linux requiring a reboot after an update, except for kernel updates. MS almost always requires rebooting. Have you tried Linux?

[@mrkitty777]

@@jeancorriveau8686 if he has an Android phone then he has Linux 👏 But I understand he probably means GNU/Linux for desktop.

[@stanislausbrown8626]

The computer at 1:58 is an Apple IIC, an 8bit computer, which I had the misfortune to try to program on. You were probably thinking of the IBM PS/2 series which did have 16bit processors. The Model 35 and above had 80386 processors.

[@tommy6322]

Jag har varit en Linux nörd längre än vad jag vill erkänna så jag hade rätt bra koll på Linus historia redan men din video var riktigt bra gjord och det är skit kul att se någon lite yngre än mig och också från samma stad ha en passion för samma sak. Jag ser fram emot nästa video! :)

[@benjaminbialy6284]

great stuff Kalle, looking forward to seeing more of this!

[@MikaNever]

Love these types of educational vids. Very well produced, too. I wasn't sure, what this channel was gonna be, but I'll stick around. 👌🏻

[@Lemniscated]

Love the storytelling! :)

[@hardcoded2051]

Thank you!

[@ahmedsaadsabit1749]

haven't been on youtube long since, thanks for this linux thing, i love you kalle!

[@serpantinthewild]

I've switched from Windows 10 to Linux Mint 8 months ago... love it

[@agroxk]

You are a real "Hard Core Coder" I see. :) I've no words for this kinda Story telling :O. Keep it up, making these videos!

[@aakashjana6225]

Come on Kalle makes by far the most motivating videos of all computer science youtubers. Names like Csdojo, jomatech , techlead , ....others are places you will go to after you watch Kalle's content, because motivation is the single most important driving factor for most of us.

[@ACodingWoof]

Nice story telling talent :O, keep it up, I'll keep watching!

[@hardcoded2051]

Thank you so much! :)

[@spacewolfjr]

I've heard that the final decision to use the name "Linux" was because his friend who created the FTP folder named it Linux because he thought it was a better name. Not sure if this is the case or not.

[@chrkrngl]

It was Ari Lemmke who renamed Freax to Linux on the University of Helsinki's FTP. Lemmke also convinced/pushed Linus to finally choose GNU (while Linus was already considering this.) The first transatlantic copy of Linux on FTP was done by Theodore "Ted" Ts'o. Ts'o is the maintainer of the ext4 filesystem and e2fsprogs to this day. It is said in this French documentary (from the German-French joint channel 'arte') "Codename: Linux" kzbin.info/www/bejne/gH_Fn4puhcSDjtU (around 13:30 to 15:00 m:s). The documentary is sooo good. From the early 2000's. Try searching for English subtitles version.

[@VivekSharma-ux2bl]

I used Linux back in 2010 as part of my computer science engineering course.....it was quite cumbersome because of always having to mess with command line even to install video codecs to watch a movie... so gave up on it rather early......but i definitely understood it's merit....being virtually free of viruses etc...torvalds must be one of the greatest programmers ever to come up with that at such a young age

[@samuelfusato]

As someone who is passionate about Linux, is quite interesting to know such details about its development. Honest question: why Linus Torvalds is not nominated to a Nobel of Science or something like that? Despite its similarities to UNIX, Linux has pretty much revolutionized the world.

[@ninefingerdeathgrip]

Because Nobel of Science does not exist. Categories are Chemistry, Physics, Medicine/Physiology, Literature and Peace. He has been awarded few other prizes though, including Millennium Technology Prize

[@petermoeller5901]

Linux has picked up where Unix and BCD started. Linus has very smartly repacked and ported to PC hardware. You don't get a Nobel prize for that.

[@samuelfusato]

@@ninefingerdeathgrip thanks for your answer.

[@samuelfusato]

@@petermoeller5901 I mean, you don't get a Nobel for repacking an existing OS, but one should indeed be recognized by the fact he did his best to make it available to everyone as an open source software. Also, Git is also an open source project - another important step in software evolution despite its predecessor.

[@dripcode2600]

Great story! Random question: what keyboard is that in the video (4:19)? 65% with a 10 key?!

[@Doorhinge64]

did you find it?

[@xgf122]

long time Fedora user here, I am really happy and thankful to Linus and gentlemen that created RedHat to run UNIX-like OS as my daily driver

[@NeoVerse39]

I have been using Manjaro for some years, I am not a IT professional but I did learn a lot of computer knowledge using Linux and after tweaking the system with the information on Arch wiki, my old 4th Gen Intel PC is working as smoothly as a latest PC, even with dozens of programs running. I am so satisfied with Linux and I don't think Windows can achieve this.

[@richgodusen2303]

wow, really needed to know about all this. the video is very informative, thank you for taking it upon yourself to provide us with this

[@nojigs]

Nice to hear the story behind Linux. I've been using it since Vista replaced Windows XP. It's great for rejuvenating old hardware - I'm running Zorin OS on a laptop from 2007 and it's made it a usable machine again. But it's not just for old hardware. I'm running Manjaro on my powerful Ryzen 5 desktop. Thanks for the video, Kalle. And thanks for the OS, Linus!

[@coolworx]

I switched from Windows to Linux about eight years ago. Yes, there was a learning curve, but it was overwhelmingly worth it.

[@richvanek1363]

You wanted to close the Gates that were open, on purpose.

[@priyanujbora9663]

Awesome and informative. Please keep on uploading such content

[@HektorBandimar]

I have been using Linux Mint and Ubuntu for a few years now, I like those operating systems, I really went over to them full time when Microsoft released Windows 10, which I absolutely hated. I found this video very interesting and educational, thank you.

[@christopherwong6067]

Kalle went from typical self-taught coder to IT documentaries vibe...

[@colivart]

Honestly it’s nice because I think people have run out of context for coding videos for the most part. It’s always just why you shouldn’t learn X, which language is best or how to learn X fast.

[@christopherwong6067]

@@colivart i only do that when i need a quick crash course anyway haha. Yea, lots of coding videos are super repetitive these days. Although recently I'm super into monitors...coding in wide monitor

[@Kevin-ss1by]

I started the exact same way with a $400 Vic20 and Basic programming in 1983. Im now in IT and Software programming too.

[@CarlObermeier]

Why, at 1:58, do you have a picture of an Apple IIc while talking about a 386 PC AT?

[@freddief939]

GNU is not an open source project. It is a libre/free software project.

[@oddvardmyrnes9040]

You omit the GNU contribution. Unix commands are GNU.

[@jasper5016]

It was great intro to Linus and Linux. Thanks

[@ed-ou812]

Linux is NOT the first open source operating system. The A2-System developed by UNIVAC in 1953 was released to customers with source code.

[@richvanek1363]

They seem to forget Unix for pcs Xenix, and Xenix 86. Was our loooong b4 linux.

[@f.finder5909]

Keep doing these things we'll be following

[@AndrewEsh]

1:58 Sorry, but that's not an IBM 386 machine. It's an Apple IIc, running a 65c02 CPU.

[@SunsetGraffiti]

Great storytelling, friend!

[@gururnozoksel]

"This is the story of how one developer created an entire operating system" Stallman was right, calling it just "Linux" creates confusion.

[@andrewmartin3671]

I was looking for a comment on Stallman. Even just saying a single person created an entire kernel would have been fine.

[@andrewmartin3671]

Good video though. I don't want that one word to detract from the important story :)

[@ozz961]

i have been using linux for 8 years, i loved it every single day.

[@thebeastoffeasterpark]

I was born in 1988! I use linux every day!

[@daveminion6209]

IF Linux Ever became better for all gaming (pc, console, phone, etc), Linux will probably , finally, overthrow Windows as the most popular os on desktops. who knows.......

[@shahqu5dohcoh9ri88]

I love how professional this video looks

[@Rouxenator]

I was blown away when I got a Pi 4 8GB, pulled the GIT repo for Xonotic and the build worked - and I could play the game!!! Also host it in dedicated mode. That was awesome. I am still a Windows guy and love Windows 11 - but my latest Linux interaction was amazing.

[@darkod123]

My first encounter with linux was around 2006/7. I had Mandrake, Mandriva, openSUSE and now I'm on Ubuntu. Greetings from the happy Linux user!

[@fngwen5272]

Bro you're so amazing, good luck for 100k subs :)

[@hawksights]

echo "The Year $(expr $(date +%Y) + 1) will be the year of the linux desktop!"

[@Benjamin_Netanyahu_Fans]

My computer's primary operating system is Linux. I started using Linux when I chose my career in web development field : )

[@aesthe_te]

'I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby... " Just a hobby! JUST A HOBBY! DEVELOPING AN OPERATING SYSTEM AS A HOBBY!

[@jasontaubman]

4:20 What type of keyboard is that?

[@user-jv1we6pu8j]

Epomaker sk71

[@novaimsh]

I learnt more about Linux under 10min... keep it up 🔥🔥

[@hardcoded2051]

Nice! Thanks! :)

[@AdamDymitruk]

Well done. I'll throw in my favorite: Kubuntu

[@afanhaqulfadillah6992]

agreed, i don't use kde but i admit that kde is the best desktop when it comes to usability and customization. Combine with ubuntu, the most stable and usable distro, kubuntu is one of the best desktop distro

[@ilovecatsandalsorabbits]

I use Arch btw

[@questioneverything4633]

Bodhi linux is the best *buntu.

[@networkgeek4449]

Love these type of Videos :)

[@VaderDart]

Nice video man. Keep it up.

[@cseonlineclassesmalayalam]

Linux is hard to tame but guards the system. I use ubuntu for more than a year . No antivirus..No virus attack. Hope Linux will be the frontrunner in all fields including space exploration in the days to come.

[@zolongOne]

Nasa use Ubuntu

[@mischavandenburg]

Great video and a lot of production value

[@vishnu.c4652]

Very nice man and also video is also creative, personally I like it very much

[@AaronNewcomb]

1:59 WFT? That's an Apple IIc.

[@iashyam]

Go Kalle we are here for you ❤️

[@moviesync3131]

Hello, this week I said I wanted to check out and understand what a kernel is because I've been hearing that word many times. Now you came and provided a clean and clear understanding w/o me asking. Thanks for that witchcraft

[@devviz]

Fascinating story Kalle👏🏻What a way to start off the channel, keep up the high quality, interesting contents bro👊🏻👌🏻

[@lenny108]

Informative well-done video but the title should be GNU/Linux. Without Dennis Ritchie, there would be no Linus Torvalds, Steve Jobs or Bill Gates

[@thetriumphsprint]

I can't see that Ritchie was part of the GNU project. He might have contributed but his claim to fame was creating Unix with Thompson and Kernighan, and also creation of C. Of course I'm sure he wrote other software, which might be considered Free. GNU is a project started by Richard Stallman.

[@povilasstaniulis9484]

The base kernel can run on pretty much any CPU as long as it has an MMU, enough RAM and a compiler for it's ISA (usually GCC, but not necessarily) is available. This alone makes Linux very attractive choice for the foundation of any OS. Not to mention there's a ton of free software available for use in the userspace which can be readily compiled from source to run on whatever CPU architecture you wish. This is what ultimately has led to the success of Linux. For example, someone got DOOM 3 to run on a Russian Elbrus e2k processor (an unique VLIW architecture).

[@tenghamn]

Really nice! Like this concept!

[@onunnuno]

Keyboard ID @ 7:25 ?? anyone ??

[@pradipta.007]

Correction, Ubuntu is a debian based system and also linux mint too. Though there are some differences.

[@Charlieee1]

2:30 "Using the ... assembly language." *Shows dark mode with coloured text in modern setting (in python)*

[@reffyfikserting]

Why is the 386 AT clone an Apple IIc with an IBM logo on screen? 🤔

[@esmaelmohamed8209]

This person is my ultimate hero of digital world.

[@corvusway]

great vid, keep it up! :)

[@7john7able]

I was very very poor in the past. My pirate copy of Windows became corrupted and I couldn't afford to replace it. So I started with Linux. Now I am much better off and could afford a Windows computer or to get a copy of the Windows O/S but I'm not going to. Because Linux doe's everything better and is so customizable. I love it.

[@satheeskumaran902]

Thanks for great video about Linux!😎

[@rohankumarmanna]

wow that's actually dope, I love to watch more stuff like this 💜💜

[@rustytrax4294]

You mentioned x86 Assembly while showing Javascript?

[@hordeforlife]

He didn't create an operating system, just the kernel. Richard Stallman started a project to create a libre Unix-like operating system which is Not Unix and called the OS "GNU's Not Unix" - GNU. He just didn't have a kernel yet, so Linux (the kernel) was used to create GNU/Linux.

[@UNSCPILOT]

It's still the "heart" that makes the rest of the Linux OS and it's GUI possible so it's still arguably the start of the OS, but yeah, it's not a solo act by any means. I'm just enjoying learning Linux via Garuda Dragonized, entirely because my excitement for the Steamdeck put the thought in my head of "why don't I just try a Arch based linux right now", turning out pretty good so far

[@hordeforlife]

@@UNSCPILOT Linus wasn't set to create an OS, it was a pet project of his that gained popularity after being combined with GNU. GNU project was planning on making Hurd (kernel), but at the time it wasn't usable. The closest to "Linux OS" that exists today would be Alpine and similar distros that don't use GNU programs or use a minimal amount of them, but they would better be described as Linux/musl or Linux/Busybox anyway.

[@igfoobar]

Oh give it up already. It's the Linux operating system.

[@hordeforlife]

@@igfoobar The popularity of a misconception doesn't make it the truth. Neither can time change the truth about who are the principal contributors. Imagine how would you feel if you made a complex project missing a small though critical part, then people combine the missing part made by someone else with your project, and then start calling your project only by that part, as if it was made by that someone else, completely avoiding to give credit to you? That's what happened with GNU and Linux.

[@igfoobar]

@@hordeforlife Wrong. Most of what RMS called "GNU" was appropriated from other sources. What is GNU? Truthfully, GNU is a set of tools and compilers. It is not the operating system.

[@unapologetic7900]

What ever happened to Red Hat and Mandrake distros?

[@AlexRamosDrTaz]

Red Hat became more of a commercial enterprise distribution, currently managed and owned by IBM. It has a free, downloadable fork known as fedora. Mandrake dissolved in 2011. Some of those devs went on to work in other Linux distros, including CentOS IIRC.

[@Kunaltwts]

Its GNU+LINUX not only Linux

[@chickywilly]

Excellent video presentation. 🙂👍

[@markhodgson7241]

Never seen an Apple IIc with IBM on the screen before. Jobs will be spinning like a top. :o)

[@willk7184]

More technical detail into how he made v 0.0.1 would be interesting. I would like to know how one individual could do something as complex as writing a competent task switcher in assembly code back in the early 90's.

[@adyanrehan3360]

One correction they call it gnu/linux because gnu are the coreutils and linux is the kernel , good video btw

[@asphixmx]

He even did not mention Richard Stallman. Not fair.

[@adyanrehan3360]

@@asphixmx so true linux is just the kernel the true effort was in writing the coreutils any one can write a kernel

[@SamtheSham2000]

@@adyanrehan3360 Why didn't GNU write one?

[@adyanrehan3360]

@@SamtheSham2000 u mean stall man yes he wrote one but it wasn't as popular as linux

[@PanDownTiltLeft]

Nice video. Odd that you chose to show a 65C02 based Apple 2C as your example when you said that Linus got a 386 based system...

[@davet712]

Great video, I feel anyone that touches a pc for a living should take 1 introductory Linux course. Imagine going your whole life thinking Windows and PC are synonyms

[@stephenvsawyer]

He technically created a kernel not an operating system 😄

[@adyanrehan3360]

Exactly gnu + linux is the complete os

[@KangJangkrik]

An entire distro is an operating system

[@adyanrehan3360]

@@KangJangkrik well that's not true u can easily boot a kernel from grub without a gui

[@KangJangkrik]

@@adyanrehan3360 I understand there is a thing called "built-in shell" in the kernel. However, you can't run nginx (and other practical apps) from there. Even if possible, you'll put a lot of effort there. So yea- you'll need distro for server stuffs too. (I use arch btw, for home server)

[@adyanrehan3360]

@@KangJangkrik yeah kinda true bcz package managers matter also I don't use linux for both my server and desktop I use openbsd on both of them , I have also tried solaris

[@whizzo94]

The biggest problem I have with trying a Linux distro is which one? So, I decide to try Ubuntu, for example. Then, which desktop do I use? There are so many distros and variations of distros that I find it virtually impossible to choose.

[@derekj.russell458]

This video was awesome!

[@charlessmyth]

I've used Debian for many years. Started with SUSE as it all came on a nice bundle of CDs, then migrated to Slackware. Now use Debian 11

[@vicmulyk5775]

Great job with this documentary! I was in at kernel 0.93 and hooked forever! My best programming jobs involved Linux. Might you consider one on GIT, as you already know the author? ;)

[@sora__kys9584]

really loved this new style of video 🤩

[@ringolee543]

The next person after Oppenheimer who deserves a full length movie.

[@shadowninja_02]

You should make one about Sir Clive Sinclair who jus passed away recently

[@TechBoxNorth]

I have tried to get into using linux so many times but every time I have been forced to go back to macOS and windows because of the enormous skills needed just to make it work properly and do common everyday stuff. So many people saying linux is so easy to use but how is it easier to having to type all these weird sudo apt get -v -m get package -f %qG command for everything than just double clicking an exe file? Anyway thanks for an interesting video, hope to see more soon on this new channel of yours :)

[@trampolinhusetuser7098]

Tell me that opening a browser, searching for a program, finding the download page, downloading, executing the file is easier, than opening a graphical installer on many linux distros and installing a program with just one click? Sure thing, mate. Sounds reasonable

[@questioneverything4633]

Just open Synaptic and download it the easy way if you don't like the terminal... Also, you do realize that mac is just a linux kernel with a bunch of fluff on top and sold for a small fortune, right?

[@tuomashelin555]

@@questioneverything4633 No, OS X uses a Mach kernel, from the days that Steve Jobs was involved in NeXTStep software. If Apple used free software in its operating system, it would have to share the modifications to the free software community according to the GPL. So, no GPL code in Apple computers.

[@questioneverything4633]

@@tuomashelin555 yeah, so they switched to using a rewrite of the linux kernel instead of a verbatim copy. Mmk. It's still a hacked up Linux system.

[@tuomashelin555]

You don't have to use the command line (if you don't want to) with modern Linux distros. The learning curve does seem steep to a noob. Use what suits you, no worries. BTW, do you have an Android phone? Do you have to use the command line for that? I mean, the Linux kernel runs the hardware on those phones, Google just develops a user interface. Not to mention SmartTVs, internet routers et al. .. Linux is just a kernel, the user interfaces are other projects.

[@jamesslick4790]

I also bought my first i386 PC in 1991. I used it for word processing, spreadsheets and a couple of small databases. and SOME QuickBASIC coding. Linus goes and makes an operating system!

[@StanislavPozdnyakov]

Thank you! Interesting video

[@jenpsakiscousin4589]

If you have ever worked with x86 assembly then you understand the the patience and dedication Linus had in his early day. I like Z80 assembly but x86 is way over my head.

[@shailmurtaza9082]

He didn't created whole operating system on his own. It was open source kernal not operating system

[@ChrisPinCornwall]

Very well presented, thank you so much for sharing. I've been primarily on Linux since around 2000, currently Mint, Arch and Opensuse.