preview

Essay on The Linux

Better Essays

The Linux was originally founded by Linus Torvalds. In 1991, he was a second year computer science student in Finland. He sought after an operating system that was similar to the UNIX system, but both UNIX and the hardware it ran on were excessively expensive. A UNIX version called Minix was available for free, but it did not reasonably meet his needs as it was simply an operating system for students, designed primarily as a teaching tool rather than an industry strength operating system. As a result, Torvalds studied Minix and proceeded to set out to write a new version. After six months of working to produce the new operating system, Torvalds made very little progress toward the utility of the system.
He began to post his intentions …show more content…

In many systems architecture, the kernel is the lowest level of software that interfaces with the hardware in a computer. In UNIX, users typically have no direct access to it. It is responsible for interfacing all applications that run in user mode including the physical hardware and allowing processes to get information from each other.
Linux kernel developers designed kernel modules that could be loaded and unloaded at runtime. Kernel modules are essential to keeping the kernel functioning with all of the computer’s hardware without consuming all of the available memory. A module generally adds functions based on the users needs to the base kernel for things like file systems and devices. A kernel is essential for any computer system to run and operate properly. The Linux kernel is different than OS X and Windows because it includes drivers at the kernel level, and most other operating systems do not. (Salzman, 2005.)
The Linux operating system has been developed by many intelligent people. Around two percent of the Linux kernel was actually written by Torvalds himself. Today, the Linux kernel has received contributions from thousands of developers across the globe. Torvalds remains the definitive authority on what new codes are incorporated into the Linux kernel. However, Linux distribution modifies the kernel according to each of their users’

Get Access