Why are there so many Linux distros? Take a brief journey through the history of Linux to understand hundreds of different distros exist today https://fireship.io/

00:00 In the Beginning
01:10 GNU + Linux
02:44 What is a Distro?
03:29 Slackware
03:48 Debian 
05:30 Redhat
06:17 Arch
06:59 Independent Distros
07:58 Bonus Mindblower

#linux #dev #history

References:

Linux https://www.linux.org/
96.3% of servers run Linux https://www.zdnet.com/article/can-the-internet-exist-without-linux/
Torvalds uses Fedora https://www.zdnet.com/article/look-whats-inside-linus-torvalds-latest-linux-development-pc/
GNU/Linux Unified Logo https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/2a8xvf/solved_gnulinux_unified_logo_3/
Linux Army https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmasterrace/comments/29718s/linux_army_anyone/
Distro Timeline https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Linux_Distribution_Timeline.svg
2024-02-04T14:14:08.666Z
nova-2
2-general-nova
2024-01-09.29447
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67875a7f-c9c4-48a0-aa55-5bdb8a91c34a
deprecated
August 25, 1991.
A 21 year old graduate student in Helsinki named Linus Torvalds announces he's doing a free operating system.
Just a hobby won't be a big professional thing.
Fast forward a few years later, and that hobby evolves into one of the most important projects in the history free of computing.
Most operating systems were created to make shitloads of money.
That's right.
It's $99.
It's an incredible value, but it's true.
It's Windows from Microsoft.
Order today.
But he order today.
But Linux was a revolution based on a simple principle.
Software should be free and open.
Today, we'll take a look at the weird history of Linux and, in the process, answer the question of why are there so many Linux distros?
But before we can even talk about Linux, we need to travel back to 19 69.
While grandpa was dropping acid at Woodstock, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie were creating the Unix operating system.
Unix was well loved by both businesses had universities.
There was one problem though.
The code was owned by AT and T.
And in 1977, when UC Berkeley created their own Berkeley placed software distribution, AT and T sued them.
That put limitations on Unix development and led to a period known as the Unix Wars.
A few years later in 1983, Richard Stallman creates the GNU project, which was intended to be a free and open replacement for Unix.
But Unix was a big YIG Complex project with 100 of different applications, and replacing it was no easy task.
Over the next few years, the project created many of the applications that you know and love today.
Tools that are often used synonymously with Linux, like tar, bash, and emacs, just to name a few.
By the early nineties, GNU had all this great software, but it was missing one essential component, the operating system some kernel.
A complete operating system needs a kernel to sit in between the hardware and the software, where it can allocate CPU UN memory resources to run software applications.
Luckily, it was right around this time that Linus Torvalds was working on his his hobby operating system.
Originally, it was going to be called Freeaxe because the name Linux was too egotistical.
But as fate would have it, the admin for the FTP PC server at the time didn't like the name and changed it without his consent, and the name stuck from there on out.
Initially, Linux was released with a proprietary license that had limitations on commercial use.
However, by the end of 1992, it was released under the GNU general public license.
And this gave birth to a complete operating system that we know today as GNU plus Linux.
The following year, hundreds of developers jumped on the Linux project and started adapting it to the GNU environment.
The the beauty of the Linux kernel is that it gave developers the ability to build custom operating systems that felt like Unix, but didn't come with the fear of being sued down the road.
Ultimately, this led to some of the 1st Linux distributions, like Soft Landing, Yggdrasil, and Slackware.
But what is a Linux distro exactly?
A distro is a complete operating system based on the Linux kernel that contains a bunch of packages and libraries, and typically a package manager to install all additional applications, and possibly a Windows system if there's a GUI involved.
Many distros might share the same default user interface.
Popular UI options include GNOME, kdePlasma, mate, cinnamon, and a bunch of others.
Today, there's nearly a 1000 different Linux distros out there, and they've all been customized to serve different purposes.
Some of them are designed for enterprise users, while others are for home users.
Some distros only run on servers, while others are designed for desktop, mobile, and embedded devices.
And each distro is usually backed by a community that has its own set philosophical and technical opinions.
Most of these older distros are no longer maintained and just considered historical artifacts.
One exception is Slackware.
It had a release recently as 2016, and has spawned a bunch of different variations.
Most notably, it led to the OpenSUSE project, which remains a very popular general purpose distro, and is usually associated did with professional power users.
But the most significant distro to come out of 1993 was Debian.
It was established by Ian Murdoch, and its name comes from his name combined with his ex wife's name.
And its first official release came in 1996 as version 1.1 buzzed.
And since then, each release contains a codename with a Toy Story character.
A few years later, it led to the creation of Advanced Package Tool or APT, although it was originally developed under the codename deity.
The the Debian community is huge and it's a great distro today and very popular on servers, but can also be used as a general purpose distro.
It's minimal and stable, which are traits that have allowed it to father a huge number of offspring distros.
Some of them are highly specialized like Raspberry Pi OS or Steam OS.
But, by far, the most popular child of Debian is Ubuntu, which was first released in 2004 and is managed by a British company called Canonical.
It follows a semi annual release schedule where each release is named after an animal and a word with the same letter, like cosmic cuttlefish.
It's extremely beginner friendly and was really one of the first distros to open up Linux to the main stream home computer user.
In recent years, though, it's received a lot of hate from the Linux community for releasing closed source software and also selling data that 2 third party companies.
In any case, it remains extremely popular, and it even has a variety of different flavors like Kubuntu, Zubantu, and Lubantu, which are their own distributions that offer slight variations on the original.
Like, Kubuntu, for example, is designed to be a great entry point if you're transitioning from Microsoft Windows to Linux.
In addition, Ubuntu has spawned many other variations like Linux Mint, Peppermint, and Pop!OS just to name a few of the most popular options.
Debian has a huge family tree, but if we go back to 1994, there is another Linux distro that also has a huge family tree called Red Hat.
It was created by Mark Ewing and is known for its focus on security and reliability for enterprise users.
Red Hat adopted a business model where they maintain an open source operating system, then make money by selling consulting integration and add on services to big enterprise clients.
Today, it generates 1,000,000,000 of dollars in revenue and was recently acquired by IBM for an 11 figure price tag.
Red Hat has given birth to a bunch of children, most of which are associated with enterprise work, and use either the RPM or Yum package manager.
Popular descendants include rhel, CentOS, and Fedora, which is not only great for enterprise servers, but also works well as a personal work station, and it's even the distro of choice by Linus Torvalds himself.
Now, one thing that you'll notice about Linux distros is that many of them do a lot of stuff that you don't actually need.
That takes up space on your hardware and ultimately makes your life more complex.
There are 2 Linux families that came out in the early 2000 that are focused on simplicity, performance, and minimalism.
Gentoo, with its Enoch distro, came out in 2000 and Arch came out in 2002.
If you like to keep things simple, then you'll probably like the Arch family of Linux distros.
It has its own package manager called Pacman and has adopted a rolling release model.
Like Ubuntu that has a new major release every 6 months, Arch releases small updates that can be continuously updated in the OS.
Arch is also the parent of Manjaro, which is one of the most popular distros up today.
In addition to all these families that we've looked at, there are many popular independent distros, like the extremely lightweight Alpine, Fire OS for Amazon Devices, and Android, which is used by billions of people every day.
When you think of the Linux kernel like the engine in your car, it starts to answer the question of why are there so many Linux distros.
Some cars are designed to go fast, others for comfort, some are engineered for enterprise and others are just for fun.
As a developer, Linux is like a free engine that you can use to build your own car.
That freedom, along with GNU and the greater open source ecosystem, motivates people to try new things and to profit by creating innovation within that system.
People who are threatened by it call it communism, but in reality, it's the polar opposite and the free market at its finest.
Today, even Microsoft he fully supports Linux through its WSL project.
I'm gonna go ahead and wrap things up there.
There's a lot of aspects of the Linux history and the histories of individual distros that we didn't cover.
But, hopefully, this gives you a general idea of how Linux came into existence and the evolution of Linux distros over time.
Oh, and there's one random thing I almost forgot.
Back in 2005, the source code for Linux was managed under a version control system called BitKeeper.
That was controversial though because it's proprietary software.
So Linus Torvalds did what any legend would do and he created Git.
Before you go, make sure to like and subscribe and stay tuned for a lot more Linux his content on this channel.
Thanks for watching and I will see you in the next one.

Speaker 0: August 25, 1991. A 21 year old graduate student in Helsinki named Linus Torvalds announces he's doing a free operating system. Just a hobby won't be a big professional thing. Fast forward a few years later, and that hobby evolves into one of the most important projects in the history free of computing. Most operating systems were created to make shitloads of money.

Speaker 1: That's right. It's $99. It's an incredible value, but it's true. It's Windows from Microsoft. Order today.

But he order today.

Speaker 0: But Linux was a revolution based on a simple principle. Software should be free and open. Today, we'll take a look at the weird history of Linux and, in the process, answer the question of why are there so many Linux distros? But before we can even talk about Linux, we need to travel back to 19 69. While grandpa was dropping acid at Woodstock, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie were creating the Unix operating system.

Unix was well loved by both businesses had universities. There was one problem though. The code was owned by AT and T. And in 1977, when UC Berkeley created their own Berkeley placed software distribution, AT and T sued them. That put limitations on Unix development and led to a period known as the Unix Wars.

A few years later in 1983, Richard Stallman creates the GNU project, which was intended to be a free and open replacement for Unix. But Unix was a big YIG Complex project with 100 of different applications, and replacing it was no easy task. Over the next few years, the project created many of the applications that you know and love today. Tools that are often used synonymously with Linux, like tar, bash, and emacs, just to name a few. By the early nineties, GNU had all this great software, but it was missing one essential component, the operating system some kernel.

A complete operating system needs a kernel to sit in between the hardware and the software, where it can allocate CPU UN memory resources to run software applications. Luckily, it was right around this time that Linus Torvalds was working on his his hobby operating system. Originally, it was going to be called Freeaxe because the name Linux was too egotistical. But as fate would have it, the admin for the FTP PC server at the time didn't like the name and changed it without his consent, and the name stuck from there on out. Initially, Linux was released with a proprietary license that had limitations on commercial use.

However, by the end of 1992, it was released under the GNU general public license. And this gave birth to a complete operating system that we know today as GNU plus Linux. The following year, hundreds of developers jumped on the Linux project and started adapting it to the GNU environment. The the beauty of the Linux kernel is that it gave developers the ability to build custom operating systems that felt like Unix, but didn't come with the fear of being sued down the road. Ultimately, this led to some of the 1st Linux distributions, like Soft Landing, Yggdrasil, and Slackware.

But what is a Linux distro exactly? A distro is a complete operating system based on the Linux kernel that contains a bunch of packages and libraries, and typically a package manager to install all additional applications, and possibly a Windows system if there's a GUI involved. Many distros might share the same default user interface. Popular UI options include GNOME, kdePlasma, mate, cinnamon, and a bunch of others. Today, there's nearly a 1000 different Linux distros out there, and they've all been customized to serve different purposes.

Some of them are designed for enterprise users, while others are for home users. Some distros only run on servers, while others are designed for desktop, mobile, and embedded devices. And each distro is usually backed by a community that has its own set philosophical and technical opinions. Most of these older distros are no longer maintained and just considered historical artifacts. One exception is Slackware.

It had a release recently as 2016, and has spawned a bunch of different variations. Most notably, it led to the OpenSUSE project, which remains a very popular general purpose distro, and is usually associated did with professional power users. But the most significant distro to come out of 1993 was Debian. It was established by Ian Murdoch, and its name comes from his name combined with his ex wife's name. And its first official release came in 1996 as version 1.1 buzzed.

And since then, each release contains a codename with a Toy Story character. A few years later, it led to the creation of Advanced Package Tool or APT, although it was originally developed under the codename deity. The the Debian community is huge and it's a great distro today and very popular on servers, but can also be used as a general purpose distro. It's minimal and stable, which are traits that have allowed it to father a huge number of offspring distros. Some of them are highly specialized like Raspberry Pi OS or Steam OS.

But, by far, the most popular child of Debian is Ubuntu, which was first released in 2004 and is managed by a British company called Canonical. It follows a semi annual release schedule where each release is named after an animal and a word with the same letter, like cosmic cuttlefish. It's extremely beginner friendly and was really one of the first distros to open up Linux to the main stream home computer user. In recent years, though, it's received a lot of hate from the Linux community for releasing closed source software and also selling data that 2 third party companies. In any case, it remains extremely popular, and it even has a variety of different flavors like Kubuntu, Zubantu, and Lubantu, which are their own distributions that offer slight variations on the original.

Like, Kubuntu, for example, is designed to be a great entry point if you're transitioning from Microsoft Windows to Linux. In addition, Ubuntu has spawned many other variations like Linux Mint, Peppermint, and Pop!OS just to name a few of the most popular options. Debian has a huge family tree, but if we go back to 1994, there is another Linux distro that also has a huge family tree called Red Hat. It was created by Mark Ewing and is known for its focus on security and reliability for enterprise users. Red Hat adopted a business model where they maintain an open source operating system, then make money by selling consulting integration and add on services to big enterprise clients.

Today, it generates 1,000,000,000 of dollars in revenue and was recently acquired by IBM for an 11 figure price tag. Red Hat has given birth to a bunch of children, most of which are associated with enterprise work, and use either the RPM or Yum package manager. Popular descendants include rhel, CentOS, and Fedora, which is not only great for enterprise servers, but also works well as a personal work station, and it's even the distro of choice by Linus Torvalds himself. Now, one thing that you'll notice about Linux distros is that many of them do a lot of stuff that you don't actually need. That takes up space on your hardware and ultimately makes your life more complex.

There are 2 Linux families that came out in the early 2000 that are focused on simplicity, performance, and minimalism. Gentoo, with its Enoch distro, came out in 2000 and Arch came out in 2002. If you like to keep things simple, then you'll probably like the Arch family of Linux distros. It has its own package manager called Pacman and has adopted a rolling release model. Like Ubuntu that has a new major release every 6 months, Arch releases small updates that can be continuously updated in the OS.

Arch is also the parent of Manjaro, which is one of the most popular distros up today. In addition to all these families that we've looked at, there are many popular independent distros, like the extremely lightweight Alpine, Fire OS for Amazon Devices, and Android, which is used by billions of people every day. When you think of the Linux kernel like the engine in your car, it starts to answer the question of why are there so many Linux distros. Some cars are designed to go fast, others for comfort, some are engineered for enterprise and others are just for fun. As a developer, Linux is like a free engine that you can use to build your own car.

That freedom, along with GNU and the greater open source ecosystem, motivates people to try new things and to profit by creating innovation within that system. People who are threatened by it call it communism, but in reality, it's the polar opposite and the free market at its finest. Today, even Microsoft he fully supports Linux through its WSL project. I'm gonna go ahead and wrap things up there. There's a lot of aspects of the Linux history and the histories of individual distros that we didn't cover.

But, hopefully, this gives you a general idea of how Linux came into existence and the evolution of Linux distros over time. Oh, and there's one random thing I almost forgot. Back in 2005, the source code for Linux was managed under a version control system called BitKeeper. That was controversial though because it's proprietary software. So Linus Torvalds did what any legend would do and he created Git.

Before you go, make sure to like and subscribe and stay tuned for a lot more Linux his content on this channel. Thanks for watching and I will see you in the next one.
August 25, 1991. A 21 year old graduate student in Helsinki named Linus Torvalds announces he's doing a free operating system. Just a hobby won't be a big professional thing. Fast forward a few years later, and that hobby evolves into one of the most important projects in the history free of computing. Most operating systems were created to make shitloads of money. That's right. It's $99. It's an incredible value, but it's true. It's Windows from Microsoft. Order today.
microsoft
computer science
technology
software
computers
But he order today. But Linux was a revolution based on a simple principle. Software should be free and open. Today, we'll take a look at the weird history of Linux and, in the process, answer the question of why are there so many Linux distros? But before we can even talk about Linux, we need to travel back to 19 69. While grandpa was dropping acid at Woodstock, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie were creating the Unix operating system. Unix was well loved by both businesses had universities. There was one problem though. The code was owned by AT and T. And in 1977, when UC Berkeley created their own Berkeley placed software distribution, AT and T sued them. That put limitations on Unix development and led to a period known as the Unix Wars. A few years later in 1983, Richard Stallman creates the GNU project, which was intended to be a free and open replacement for Unix.
But Unix was a big YIG Complex project with 100 of different applications, and replacing it was no easy task. Over the next few years, the project created many of the applications that you know and love today. Tools that are often used synonymously with Linux, like tar, bash, and emacs, just to name a few. By the early nineties, GNU had all this great software, but it was missing one essential component, the operating system some kernel. A complete operating system needs a kernel to sit in between the hardware and the software, where it can allocate CPU UN memory resources to run software applications.
computer science
software
software development
Luckily, it was right around this time that Linus Torvalds was working on his his hobby operating system. Originally, it was going to be called Freeaxe because the name Linux was too egotistical.
But as fate would have it, the admin for the FTP PC server at the time didn't like the name and changed it without his consent, and the name stuck from there on out. Initially, Linux was released with a proprietary license that had limitations on commercial use. However, by the end of 1992, it was released under the GNU general public license. And this gave birth to a complete operating system that we know today as GNU plus Linux. The following year, hundreds of developers jumped on the Linux project and started adapting it to the GNU environment.
copyright licenses
software development
The the beauty of the Linux kernel is that it gave developers the ability to build custom operating systems that felt like Unix, but didn't come with the fear of being sued down the road. Ultimately, this led to some of the 1st Linux distributions, like Soft Landing, Yggdrasil, and Slackware. But what is a Linux distro exactly? A distro is a complete operating system based on the Linux kernel that contains a bunch of packages and libraries, and typically a package manager to install all additional applications, and possibly a Windows system if there's a GUI involved. Many distros might share the same default user interface. Popular UI options include GNOME, kdePlasma, mate, cinnamon, and a bunch of others. Today, there's nearly a 1000 different Linux distros out there, and they've all been customized to serve different purposes. Some of them are designed for enterprise users, while others are for home users. Some distros only run on servers, while others are designed for desktop, mobile, and embedded devices. And each distro is usually backed by a community that has its own set philosophical and technical opinions. Most of these older distros are no longer maintained and just considered historical artifacts. One exception is Slackware. It had a release recently as 2016, and has spawned a bunch of different variations. Most notably, it led to the OpenSUSE project, which remains a very popular general purpose distro, and is usually associated did with professional power users. But the most significant distro to come out of 1993 was Debian. It was established by Ian Murdoch, and its name comes from his name combined with his ex wife's name. And its first official release came in 1996 as version 1.1 buzzed. And since then, each release contains a codename with a Toy Story character. A few years later, it led to the creation of Advanced Package Tool or APT, although it was originally developed under the codename deity. The the Debian community is huge and it's a great distro today and very popular on servers, but can also be used as a general purpose distro. It's minimal and stable, which are traits that have allowed it to father a huge number of offspring distros. Some of them are highly specialized like Raspberry Pi OS or Steam OS. But, by far, the most popular child of Debian is Ubuntu, which was first released in 2004 and is managed by a British company called Canonical.
It follows a semi annual release schedule where each release is named after an animal and a word with the same letter, like cosmic cuttlefish. It's extremely beginner friendly and was really one of the first distros to open up Linux to the main stream home computer user. In recent years, though, it's received a lot of hate from the Linux community for releasing closed source software and also selling data that 2 third party companies.
software
In any case, it remains extremely popular, and it even has a variety of different flavors like Kubuntu, Zubantu, and Lubantu, which are their own distributions that offer slight variations on the original. Like, Kubuntu, for example, is designed to be a great entry point if you're transitioning from Microsoft Windows to Linux. In addition, Ubuntu has spawned many other variations like Linux Mint, Peppermint, and Pop!OS just to name a few of the most popular options. Debian has a huge family tree, but if we go back to 1994, there is another Linux distro that also has a huge family tree called Red Hat.
It was created by Mark Ewing and is known for its focus on security and reliability for enterprise users. Red Hat adopted a business model where they maintain an open source operating system, then make money by selling consulting integration and add on services to big enterprise clients. Today, it generates 1,000,000,000 of dollars in revenue and was recently acquired by IBM for an 11 figure price tag.
technology
industry
business
Red Hat has given birth to a bunch of children, most of which are associated with enterprise work, and use either the RPM or Yum package manager. Popular descendants include rhel, CentOS, and Fedora, which is not only great for enterprise servers, but also works well as a personal work station, and it's even the distro of choice by Linus Torvalds himself. Now, one thing that you'll notice about Linux distros is that many of them do a lot of stuff that you don't actually need. That takes up space on your hardware and ultimately makes your life more complex. There are 2 Linux families that came out in the early 2000 that are focused on simplicity, performance, and minimalism. Gentoo, with its Enoch distro, came out in 2000 and Arch came out in 2002. If you like to keep things simple, then you'll probably like the Arch family of Linux distros. It has its own package manager called Pacman and has adopted a rolling release model. Like Ubuntu that has a new major release every 6 months, Arch releases small updates that can be continuously updated in the OS. Arch is also the parent of Manjaro, which is one of the most popular distros up today. In addition to all these families that we've looked at, there are many popular independent distros, like the extremely lightweight Alpine, Fire OS for Amazon Devices, and Android, which is used by billions of people every day. When you think of the Linux kernel like the engine in your car, it starts to answer the question of why are there so many Linux distros.
Some cars are designed to go fast, others for comfort, some are engineered for enterprise and others are just for fun. As a developer, Linux is like a free engine that you can use to build your own car. That freedom, along with GNU and the greater open source ecosystem, motivates people to try new things and to profit by creating innovation within that system. People who are threatened by it call it communism, but in reality, it's the polar opposite and the free market at its finest. Today, even Microsoft he fully supports Linux through its WSL project. I'm gonna go ahead and wrap things up there. There's a lot of aspects of the Linux history and the histories of individual distros that we didn't cover.
communism
socialism
electric vehicles
democracy
totalitarianism
capitalism
software development
But, hopefully, this gives you a general idea of how Linux came into existence and the evolution of Linux distros over time. Oh, and there's one random thing I almost forgot.
Back in 2005, the source code for Linux was managed under a version control system called BitKeeper. That was controversial though because it's proprietary software. So Linus Torvalds did what any legend would do and he created Git. Before you go, make sure to like and subscribe and stay tuned for a lot more Linux his content on this channel.
software
software development
Thanks for watching and I will see you in the next one.
August 25, 1991. A 21 year old graduate student in Helsinki named Linus Torvalds announces he's doing a free operating system. Just a hobby won't be a big professional thing. Fast forward a few years later, and that hobby evolves into one of the most important projects in the history free of computing. Most operating systems were created to make shitloads of money. That's right. It's $99. It's an incredible value, but it's true. It's Windows from Microsoft. Order today. But he order today. But Linux was a revolution based on a simple principle. Software should be free and open. Today, we'll take a look at the weird history of Linux and, in the process, answer the question of why are there so many Linux distros? But before we can even talk about Linux, we need to travel back to 19 69. While grandpa was dropping acid at Woodstock, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie were creating the Unix operating system. Unix was well loved by both businesses had universities. There was one problem though. The code was owned by AT and T. And in 1977, when UC Berkeley created their own Berkeley placed software distribution, AT and T sued them. That put limitations on Unix development and led to a period known as the Unix Wars. A few years later in 1983, Richard Stallman creates the GNU project, which was intended to be a free and open replacement for Unix. But Unix was a big YIG Complex project with 100 of different applications, and replacing it was no easy task. Over the next few years, the project created many of the applications that you know and love today. Tools that are often used synonymously with Linux, like tar, bash, and emacs, just to name a few. By the early nineties, GNU had all this great software, but it was missing one essential component, the operating system some kernel. A complete operating system needs a kernel to sit in between the hardware and the software, where it can allocate CPU UN memory resources to run software applications. Luckily, it was right around this time that Linus Torvalds was working on his his hobby operating system. Originally, it was going to be called Freeaxe because the name Linux was too egotistical. But as fate would have it, the admin for the FTP PC server at the time didn't like the name and changed it without his consent, and the name stuck from there on out. Initially, Linux was released with a proprietary license that had limitations on commercial use. However, by the end of 1992, it was released under the GNU general public license. And this gave birth to a complete operating system that we know today as GNU plus Linux. The following year, hundreds of developers jumped on the Linux project and started adapting it to the GNU environment. The the beauty of the Linux kernel is that it gave developers the ability to build custom operating systems that felt like Unix, but didn't come with the fear of being sued down the road. Ultimately, this led to some of the 1st Linux distributions, like Soft Landing, Yggdrasil, and Slackware. But what is a Linux distro exactly? A distro is a complete operating system based on the Linux kernel that contains a bunch of packages and libraries, and typically a package manager to install all additional applications, and possibly a Windows system if there's a GUI involved. Many distros might share the same default user interface. Popular UI options include GNOME, kdePlasma, mate, cinnamon, and a bunch of others. Today, there's nearly a 1000 different Linux distros out there, and they've all been customized to serve different purposes. Some of them are designed for enterprise users, while others are for home users. Some distros only run on servers, while others are designed for desktop, mobile, and embedded devices. And each distro is usually backed by a community that has its own set philosophical and technical opinions. Most of these older distros are no longer maintained and just considered historical artifacts. One exception is Slackware. It had a release recently as 2016, and has spawned a bunch of different variations. Most notably, it led to the OpenSUSE project, which remains a very popular general purpose distro, and is usually associated did with professional power users. But the most significant distro to come out of 1993 was Debian. It was established by Ian Murdoch, and its name comes from his name combined with his ex wife's name. And its first official release came in 1996 as version 1.1 buzzed. And since then, each release contains a codename with a Toy Story character. A few years later, it led to the creation of Advanced Package Tool or APT, although it was originally developed under the codename deity. The the Debian community is huge and it's a great distro today and very popular on servers, but can also be used as a general purpose distro. It's minimal and stable, which are traits that have allowed it to father a huge number of offspring distros. Some of them are highly specialized like Raspberry Pi OS or Steam OS. But, by far, the most popular child of Debian is Ubuntu, which was first released in 2004 and is managed by a British company called Canonical. It follows a semi annual release schedule where each release is named after an animal and a word with the same letter, like cosmic cuttlefish. It's extremely beginner friendly and was really one of the first distros to open up Linux to the main stream home computer user. In recent years, though, it's received a lot of hate from the Linux community for releasing closed source software and also selling data that 2 third party companies. In any case, it remains extremely popular, and it even has a variety of different flavors like Kubuntu, Zubantu, and Lubantu, which are their own distributions that offer slight variations on the original. Like, Kubuntu, for example, is designed to be a great entry point if you're transitioning from Microsoft Windows to Linux. In addition, Ubuntu has spawned many other variations like Linux Mint, Peppermint, and Pop!OS just to name a few of the most popular options. Debian has a huge family tree, but if we go back to 1994, there is another Linux distro that also has a huge family tree called Red Hat. It was created by Mark Ewing and is known for its focus on security and reliability for enterprise users. Red Hat adopted a business model where they maintain an open source operating system, then make money by selling consulting integration and add on services to big enterprise clients. Today, it generates 1,000,000,000 of dollars in revenue and was recently acquired by IBM for an 11 figure price tag. Red Hat has given birth to a bunch of children, most of which are associated with enterprise work, and use either the RPM or Yum package manager. Popular descendants include rhel, CentOS, and Fedora, which is not only great for enterprise servers, but also works well as a personal work station, and it's even the distro of choice by Linus Torvalds himself. Now, one thing that you'll notice about Linux distros is that many of them do a lot of stuff that you don't actually need. That takes up space on your hardware and ultimately makes your life more complex. There are 2 Linux families that came out in the early 2000 that are focused on simplicity, performance, and minimalism. Gentoo, with its Enoch distro, came out in 2000 and Arch came out in 2002. If you like to keep things simple, then you'll probably like the Arch family of Linux distros. It has its own package manager called Pacman and has adopted a rolling release model. Like Ubuntu that has a new major release every 6 months, Arch releases small updates that can be continuously updated in the OS. Arch is also the parent of Manjaro, which is one of the most popular distros up today. In addition to all these families that we've looked at, there are many popular independent distros, like the extremely lightweight Alpine, Fire OS for Amazon Devices, and Android, which is used by billions of people every day. When you think of the Linux kernel like the engine in your car, it starts to answer the question of why are there so many Linux distros. Some cars are designed to go fast, others for comfort, some are engineered for enterprise and others are just for fun. As a developer, Linux is like a free engine that you can use to build your own car. That freedom, along with GNU and the greater open source ecosystem, motivates people to try new things and to profit by creating innovation within that system. People who are threatened by it call it communism, but in reality, it's the polar opposite and the free market at its finest. Today, even Microsoft he fully supports Linux through its WSL project. I'm gonna go ahead and wrap things up there. There's a lot of aspects of the Linux history and the histories of individual distros that we didn't cover. But, hopefully, this gives you a general idea of how Linux came into existence and the evolution of Linux distros over time. Oh, and there's one random thing I almost forgot. Back in 2005, the source code for Linux was managed under a version control system called BitKeeper. That was controversial though because it's proprietary software. So Linus Torvalds did what any legend would do and he created Git. Before you go, make sure to like and subscribe and stay tuned for a lot more Linux his content on this channel. Thanks for watching and I will see you in the next one.
August
august
25,
25
1991.
1991
A
a
21
21
year
year
old
old
graduate
graduate
student
student
in
in
Helsinki
helsinki
named
named
Linus
linus
Torvalds
torvalds
announces
announces
he's
he's
doing
doing
a
a
free
free
operating
operating
system.
system
Just
just
a
a
hobby
hobby
won't
won't
be
be
a
a
big
big
professional
professional
thing.
thing
Fast
fast
forward
forward
a
a
few
few
years
years
later,
later
and
and
that
that
hobby
hobby
evolves
evolves
into
into
one
one
of
of
the
the
most
most
important
important
projects
projects
in
in
the
the
history
history
free
free
of
of
computing.
computing
Most
most
operating
operating
systems
systems
were
were
created
created
to
to
make
make
shitloads
shitloads
of
of
money.
money
That's
that's
right.
right
It's
it's
$99.
$99
It's
it's
an
an
incredible
incredible
value,
value
but
but
it's
it's
true.
true
It's
it's
Windows
windows
from
from
Microsoft.
microsoft
Order
order
today.
today
But
but
he
he
order
order
today.
today
But
but
Linux
linux
was
was
a
a
revolution
revolution
based
based
on
on
a
a
simple
simple
principle.
principle
Software
software
should
should
be
be
free
free
and
and
open.
open
Today,
today
we'll
we'll
take
take
a
a
look
look
at
at
the
the
weird
weird
history
history
of
of
Linux
linux
and,
and
in
in
the
the
process,
process
answer
answer
the
the
question
question
of
of
why
why
are
are
there
there
so
so
many
many
Linux
linux
distros?
distros
But
but
before
before
we
we
can
can
even
even
talk
talk
about
about
Linux,
linux
we
we
need
need
to
to
travel
travel
back
back
to
to
19
19
69.
69
While
while
grandpa
grandpa
was
was
dropping
dropping
acid
acid
at
at
Woodstock,
woodstock
Ken
ken
Thompson
thompson
and
and
Dennis
dennis
Ritchie
ritchie
were
were
creating
creating
the
the
Unix
unix
operating
operating
system.
system
Unix
unix
was
was
well
well
loved
loved
by
by
both
both
businesses
businesses
had
had
universities.
universities
There
there
was
was
one
one
problem
problem
though.
though
The
the
code
code
was
was
owned
owned
by
by
AT
at
and
and
T.
t
And
and
in
in
1977,
1977
when
when
UC
uc
Berkeley
berkeley
created
created
their
their
own
own
Berkeley
berkeley
placed
placed
software
software
distribution,
distribution
AT
at
and
and
T
t
sued
sued
them.
them
That
that
put
put
limitations
limitations
on
on
Unix
unix
development
development
and
and
led
led
to
to
a
a
period
period
known
known
as
as
the
the
Unix
unix
Wars.
wars
A
a
few
few
years
years
later
later
in
in
1983,
1983
Richard
richard
Stallman
stallman
creates
creates
the
the
GNU
gnu
project,
project
which
which
was
was
intended
intended
to
to
be
be
a
a
free
free
and
and
open
open
replacement
replacement
for
for
Unix.
unix
But
but
Unix
unix
was
was
a
a
big
big
YIG
yig
Complex
complex
project
project
with
with
100
100
of
of
different
different
applications,
applications
and
and
replacing
replacing
it
it
was
was
no
no
easy
easy
task.
task
Over
over
the
the
next
next
few
few
years,
years
the
the
project
project
created
created
many
many
of
of
the
the
applications
applications
that
that
you
you
know
know
and
and
love
love
today.
today
Tools
tools
that
that
are
are
often
often
used
used
synonymously
synonymously
with
with
Linux,
linux
like
like
tar,
tar
bash,
bash
and
and
emacs,
emacs
just
just
to
to
name
name
a
a
few.
few
By
by
the
the
early
early
nineties,
nineties
GNU
gnu
had
had
all
all
this
this
great
great
software,
software
but
but
it
it
was
was
missing
missing
one
one
essential
essential
component,
component
the
the
operating
operating
system
system
some
some
kernel.
kernel
A
a
complete
complete
operating
operating
system
system
needs
needs
a
a
kernel
kernel
to
to
sit
sit
in
in
between
between
the
the
hardware
hardware
and
and
the
the
software,
software
where
where
it
it
can
can
allocate
allocate
CPU
cpu
UN
un
memory
memory
resources
resources
to
to
run
run
software
software
applications.
applications
Luckily,
luckily
it
it
was
was
right
right
around
around
this
this
time
time
that
that
Linus
linus
Torvalds
torvalds
was
was
working
working
on
on
his
his
his
his
hobby
hobby
operating
operating
system.
system
Originally,
originally
it
it
was
was
going
going
to
to
be
be
called
called
Freeaxe
freeaxe
because
because
the
the
name
name
Linux
linux
was
was
too
too
egotistical.
egotistical
But
but
as
as
fate
fate
would
would
have
have
it,
it
the
the
admin
admin
for
for
the
the
FTP
ftp
PC
pc
server
server
at
at
the
the
time
time
didn't
didn't
like
like
the
the
name
name
and
and
changed
changed
it
it
without
without
his
his
consent,
consent
and
and
the
the
name
name
stuck
stuck
from
from
there
there
on
on
out.
out
Initially,
initially
Linux
linux
was
was
released
released
with
with
a
a
proprietary
proprietary
license
license
that
that
had
had
limitations
limitations
on
on
commercial
commercial
use.
use
However,
however
by
by
the
the
end
end
of
of
1992,
1992
it
it
was
was
released
released
under
under
the
the
GNU
gnu
general
general
public
public
license.
license
And
and
this
this
gave
gave
birth
birth
to
to
a
a
complete
complete
operating
operating
system
system
that
that
we
we
know
know
today
today
as
as
GNU
gnu
plus
plus
Linux.
linux
The
the
following
following
year,
year
hundreds
hundreds
of
of
developers
developers
jumped
jumped
on
on
the
the
Linux
linux
project
project
and
and
started
started
adapting
adapting
it
it
to
to
the
the
GNU
gnu
environment.
environment
The
the
the
the
beauty
beauty
of
of
the
the
Linux
linux
kernel
kernel
is
is
that
that
it
it
gave
gave
developers
developers
the
the
ability
ability
to
to
build
build
custom
custom
operating
operating
systems
systems
that
that
felt
felt
like
like
Unix,
unix
but
but
didn't
didn't
come
come
with
with
the
the
fear
fear
of
of
being
being
sued
sued
down
down
the
the
road.
road
Ultimately,
ultimately
this
this
led
led
to
to
some
some
of
of
the
the
1st
1st
Linux
linux
distributions,
distributions
like
like
Soft
soft
Landing,
landing
Yggdrasil,
yggdrasil
and
and
Slackware.
slackware
But
but
what
what
is
is
a
a
Linux
linux
distro
distro
exactly?
exactly
A
a
distro
distro
is
is
a
a
complete
complete
operating
operating
system
system
based
based
on
on
the
the
Linux
linux
kernel
kernel
that
that
contains
contains
a
a
bunch
bunch
of
of
packages
packages
and
and
libraries,
libraries
and
and
typically
typically
a
a
package
package
manager
manager
to
to
install
install
all
all
additional
additional
applications,
applications
and
and
possibly
possibly
a
a
Windows
windows
system
system
if
if
there's
there's
a
a
GUI
gui
involved.
involved
Many
many
distros
distros
might
might
share
share
the
the
same
same
default
default
user
user
interface.
interface
Popular
popular
UI
ui
options
options
include
include
GNOME,
gnome
kdePlasma,
kdeplasma
mate,
mate
cinnamon,
cinnamon
and
and
a
a
bunch
bunch
of
of
others.
others
Today,
today
there's
there's
nearly
nearly
a
a
1000
1000
different
different
Linux
linux
distros
distros
out
out
there,
there
and
and
they've
they've
all
all
been
been
customized
customized
to
to
serve
serve
different
different
purposes.
purposes
Some
some
of
of
them
them
are
are
designed
designed
for
for
enterprise
enterprise
users,
users
while
while
others
others
are
are
for
for
home
home
users.
users
Some
some
distros
distros
only
only
run
run
on
on
servers,
servers
while
while
others
others
are
are
designed
designed
for
for
desktop,
desktop
mobile,
mobile
and
and
embedded
embedded
devices.
devices
And
and
each
each
distro
distro
is
is
usually
usually
backed
backed
by
by
a
a
community
community
that
that
has
has
its
its
own
own
set
set
philosophical
philosophical
and
and
technical
technical
opinions.
opinions
Most
most
of
of
these
these
older
older
distros
distros
are
are
no
no
longer
longer
maintained
maintained
and
and
just
just
considered
considered
historical
historical
artifacts.
artifacts
One
one
exception
exception
is
is
Slackware.
slackware
It
it
had
had
a
a
release
release
recently
recently
as
as
2016,
2016
and
and
has
has
spawned
spawned
a
a
bunch
bunch
of
of
different
different
variations.
variations
Most
most
notably,
notably
it
it
led
led
to
to
the
the
OpenSUSE
opensuse
project,
project
which
which
remains
remains
a
a
very
very
popular
popular
general
general
purpose
purpose
distro,
distro
and
and
is
is
usually
usually
associated
associated
did
did
with
with
professional
professional
power
power
users.
users
But
but
the
the
most
most
significant
significant
distro
distro
to
to
come
come
out
out
of
of
1993
1993
was
was
Debian.
debian
It
it
was
was
established
established
by
by
Ian
ian
Murdoch,
murdoch
and
and
its
its
name
name
comes
comes
from
from
his
his
name
name
combined
combined
with
with
his
his
ex
ex
wife's
wife's
name.
name
And
and
its
its
first
first
official
official
release
release
came
came
in
in
1996
1996
as
as
version
version
1.1
1.1
buzzed.
buzzed
And
and
since
since
then,
then
each
each
release
release
contains
contains
a
a
codename
codename
with
with
a
a
Toy
toy
Story
story
character.
character
A
a
few
few
years
years
later,
later
it
it
led
led
to
to
the
the
creation
creation
of
of
Advanced
advanced
Package
package
Tool
tool
or
or
APT,
apt
although
although
it
it
was
was
originally
originally
developed
developed
under
under
the
the
codename
codename
deity.
deity
The
the
the
the
Debian
debian
community
community
is
is
huge
huge
and
and
it's
it's
a
a
great
great
distro
distro
today
today
and
and
very
very
popular
popular
on
on
servers,
servers
but
but
can
can
also
also
be
be
used
used
as
as
a
a
general
general
purpose
purpose
distro.
distro
It's
it's
minimal
minimal
and
and
stable,
stable
which
which
are
are
traits
traits
that
that
have
have
allowed
allowed
it
it
to
to
father
father
a
a
huge
huge
number
number
of
of
offspring
offspring
distros.
distros
Some
some
of
of
them
them
are
are
highly
highly
specialized
specialized
like
like
Raspberry
raspberry
Pi
pi
OS
os
or
or
Steam
steam
OS.
os
But,
but
by
by
far,
far
the
the
most
most
popular
popular
child
child
of
of
Debian
debian
is
is
Ubuntu,
ubuntu
which
which
was
was
first
first
released
released
in
in
2004
2004
and
and
is
is
managed
managed
by
by
a
a
British
british
company
company
called
called
Canonical.
canonical
It
it
follows
follows
a
a
semi
semi
annual
annual
release
release
schedule
schedule
where
where
each
each
release
release
is
is
named
named
after
after
an
an
animal
animal
and
and
a
a
word
word
with
with
the
the
same
same
letter,
letter
like
like
cosmic
cosmic
cuttlefish.
cuttlefish
It's
it's
extremely
extremely
beginner
beginner
friendly
friendly
and
and
was
was
really
really
one
one
of
of
the
the
first
first
distros
distros
to
to
open
open
up
up
Linux
linux
to
to
the
the
main
main
stream
stream
home
home
computer
computer
user.
user
In
in
recent
recent
years,
years
though,
though
it's
it's
received
received
a
a
lot
lot
of
of
hate
hate
from
from
the
the
Linux
linux
community
community
for
for
releasing
releasing
closed
closed
source
source
software
software
and
and
also
also
selling
selling
data
data
that
that
2
2
third
third
party
party
companies.
companies
In
in
any
any
case,
case
it
it
remains
remains
extremely
extremely
popular,
popular
and
and
it
it
even
even
has
has
a
a
variety
variety
of
of
different
different
flavors
flavors
like
like
Kubuntu,
kubuntu
Zubantu,
zubantu
and
and
Lubantu,
lubantu
which
which
are
are
their
their
own
own
distributions
distributions
that
that
offer
offer
slight
slight
variations
variations
on
on
the
the
original.
original
Like,
like
Kubuntu,
kubuntu
for
for
example,
example
is
is
designed
designed
to
to
be
be
a
a
great
great
entry
entry
point
point
if
if
you're
you're
transitioning
transitioning
from
from
Microsoft
microsoft
Windows
windows
to
to
Linux.
linux
In
in
addition,
addition
Ubuntu
ubuntu
has
has
spawned
spawned
many
many
other
other
variations
variations
like
like
Linux
linux
Mint,
mint
Peppermint,
peppermint
and
and
Pop!OS
pop!os
just
just
to
to
name
name
a
a
few
few
of
of
the
the
most
most
popular
popular
options.
options
Debian
debian
has
has
a
a
huge
huge
family
family
tree,
tree
but
but
if
if
we
we
go
go
back
back
to
to
1994,
1994
there
there
is
is
another
another
Linux
linux
distro
distro
that
that
also
also
has
has
a
a
huge
huge
family
family
tree
tree
called
called
Red
red
Hat.
hat
It
it
was
was
created
created
by
by
Mark
mark
Ewing
ewing
and
and
is
is
known
known
for
for
its
its
focus
focus
on
on
security
security
and
and
reliability
reliability
for
for
enterprise
enterprise
users.
users
Red
red
Hat
hat
adopted
adopted
a
a
business
business
model
model
where
where
they
they
maintain
maintain
an
an
open
open
source
source
operating
operating
system,
system
then
then
make
make
money
money
by
by
selling
selling
consulting
consulting
integration
integration
and
and
add
add
on
on
services
services
to
to
big
big
enterprise
enterprise
clients.
clients
Today,
today
it
it
generates
generates
1,000,000,000
1,000,000,000
of
of
dollars
dollars
in
in
revenue
revenue
and
and
was
was
recently
recently
acquired
acquired
by
by
IBM
ibm
for
for
an
an
11
11
figure
figure
price
price
tag.
tag
Red
red
Hat
hat
has
has
given
given
birth
birth
to
to
a
a
bunch
bunch
of
of
children,
children
most
most
of
of
which
which
are
are
associated
associated
with
with
enterprise
enterprise
work,
work
and
and
use
use
either
either
the
the
RPM
rpm
or
or
Yum
yum
package
package
manager.
manager
Popular
popular
descendants
descendants
include
include
rhel,
rhel
CentOS,
centos
and
and
Fedora,
fedora
which
which
is
is
not
not
only
only
great
great
for
for
enterprise
enterprise
servers,
servers
but
but
also
also
works
works
well
well
as
as
a
a
personal
personal
work
work
station,
station
and
and
it's
it's
even
even
the
the
distro
distro
of
of
choice
choice
by
by
Linus
linus
Torvalds
torvalds
himself.
himself
Now,
now
one
one
thing
thing
that
that
you'll
you'll
notice
notice
about
about
Linux
linux
distros
distros
is
is
that
that
many
many
of
of
them
them
do
do
a
a
lot
lot
of
of
stuff
stuff
that
that
you
you
don't
don't
actually
actually
need.
need
That
that
takes
takes
up
up
space
space
on
on
your
your
hardware
hardware
and
and
ultimately
ultimately
makes
makes
your
your
life
life
more
more
complex.
complex
There
there
are
are
2
2
Linux
linux
families
families
that
that
came
came
out
out
in
in
the
the
early
early
2000
2000
that
that
are
are
focused
focused
on
on
simplicity,
simplicity
performance,
performance
and
and
minimalism.
minimalism
Gentoo,
gentoo
with
with
its
its
Enoch
enoch
distro,
distro
came
came
out
out
in
in
2000
2000
and
and
Arch
arch
came
came
out
out
in
in
2002.
2002
If
if
you
you
like
like
to
to
keep
keep
things
things
simple,
simple
then
then
you'll
you'll
probably
probably
like
like
the
the
Arch
arch
family
family
of
of
Linux
linux
distros.
distros
It
it
has
has
its
its
own
own
package
package
manager
manager
called
called
Pacman
pacman
and
and
has
has
adopted
adopted
a
a
rolling
rolling
release
release
model.
model
Like
like
Ubuntu
ubuntu
that
that
has
has
a
a
new
new
major
major
release
release
every
every
6
6
months,
months
Arch
arch
releases
releases
small
small
updates
updates
that
that
can
can
be
be
continuously
continuously
updated
updated
in
in
the
the
OS.
os
Arch
arch
is
is
also
also
the
the
parent
parent
of
of
Manjaro,
manjaro
which
which
is
is
one
one
of
of
the
the
most
most
popular
popular
distros
distros
up
up
today.
today
In
in
addition
addition
to
to
all
all
these
these
families
families
that
that
we've
we've
looked
looked
at,
at
there
there
are
are
many
many
popular
popular
independent
independent
distros,
distros
like
like
the
the
extremely
extremely
lightweight
lightweight
Alpine,
alpine
Fire
fire
OS
os
for
for
Amazon
amazon
Devices,
devices
and
and
Android,
android
which
which
is
is
used
used
by
by
billions
billions
of
of
people
people
every
every
day.
day
When
when
you
you
think
think
of
of
the
the
Linux
linux
kernel
kernel
like
like
the
the
engine
engine
in
in
your
your
car,
car
it
it
starts
starts
to
to
answer
answer
the
the
question
question
of
of
why
why
are
are
there
there
so
so
many
many
Linux
linux
distros.
distros
Some
some
cars
cars
are
are
designed
designed
to
to
go
go
fast,
fast
others
others
for
for
comfort,
comfort
some
some
are
are
engineered
engineered
for
for
enterprise
enterprise
and
and
others
others
are
are
just
just
for
for
fun.
fun
As
as
a
a
developer,
developer
Linux
linux
is
is
like
like
a
a
free
free
engine
engine
that
that
you
you
can
can
use
use
to
to
build
build
your
your
own
own
car.
car
That
that
freedom,
freedom
along
along
with
with
GNU
gnu
and
and
the
the
greater
greater
open
open
source
source
ecosystem,
ecosystem
motivates
motivates
people
people
to
to
try
try
new
new
things
things
and
and
to
to
profit
profit
by
by
creating
creating
innovation
innovation
within
within
that
that
system.
system
People
people
who
who
are
are
threatened
threatened
by
by
it
it
call
call
it
it
communism,
communism
but
but
in
in
reality,
reality
it's
it's
the
the
polar
polar
opposite
opposite
and
and
the
the
free
free
market
market
at
at
its
its
finest.
finest
Today,
today
even
even
Microsoft
microsoft
he
he
fully
fully
supports
supports
Linux
linux
through
through
its
its
WSL
wsl
project.
project
I'm
i'm
gonna
gonna
go
go
ahead
ahead
and
and
wrap
wrap
things
things
up
up
there.
there
There's
there's
a
a
lot
lot
of
of
aspects
aspects
of
of
the
the
Linux
linux
history
history
and
and
the
the
histories
histories
of
of
individual
individual
distros
distros
that
that
we
we
didn't
didn't
cover.
cover
But,
but
hopefully,
hopefully
this
this
gives
gives
you
you
a
a
general
general
idea
idea
of
of
how
how
Linux
linux
came
came
into
into
existence
existence
and
and
the
the
evolution
evolution
of
of
Linux
linux
distros
distros
over
over
time.
time
Oh,
oh
and
and
there's
there's
one
one
random
random
thing
thing
I
i
almost
almost
forgot.
forgot
Back
back
in
in
2005,
2005
the
the
source
source
code
code
for
for
Linux
linux
was
was
managed
managed
under
under
a
a
version
version
control
control
system
system
called
called
BitKeeper.
bitkeeper
That
that
was
was
controversial
controversial
though
though
because
because
it's
it's
proprietary
proprietary
software.
software
So
so
Linus
linus
Torvalds
torvalds
did
did
what
what
any
any
legend
legend
would
would
do
do
and
and
he
he
created
created
Git.
git
Before
before
you
you
go,
go
make
make
sure
sure
to
to
like
like
and
and
subscribe
subscribe
and
and
stay
stay
tuned
tuned
for
for
a
a
lot
lot
more
more
Linux
linux
his
his
content
content
on
on
this
this
channel.
channel
Thanks
thanks
for
for
watching
watching
and
and
I
i
will
will
see
see
you
you
in
in
the
the
next
next
one.
one
success
The " Free virtual machine" (VIT) and " Free operating system" (FOO) were created to replace the " Free operating system" with a complete Linux based operating system, and the " Free virtual machine" (VIT) project was created to replace the " Free operating system" with a complete Linux based operating system. The " Free virtual machine" project was created to replace the " Free operating system" with a complete Linux based operating system, and the " Free virtual machine" project was created to replace the " Free operating system" with a complete Linux based operating system. The " Free virtual machine" project was created to replace the " Free operating system" with a complete Linux based operating system, and the " Free virtual machine" project was created to replace the " Free operating system" with a complete Linux based operating system. The " Free virtual machine" project was created to replace the " Free operating system" with a complete Linux based operating system, and the " Free virtual
Why so many distros? The Weird History of Linux
August 25, 1991. A 21 year old graduate student in Helsinki named Linus Torvalds announces he's doing a free operating system. Just a hobby won't be a big professional thing. Fast forward a few years later, and that hobby evolves into one of the most important projects in the history free of computing. Most operating systems were created to make shitloads of money. That's right. It's $99. It's an incredible value, but it's true. It's Windows from Microsoft. Order today. But he order today. But Linux was a revolution based on a simple principle. Software should be free and open. Today, we'll take a look at the weird history of Linux and, in the process, answer the question of why are there so many Linux distros? But before we can even talk about Linux, we need to travel back to 19 69. While grandpa was dropping acid at Woodstock, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie were creating the Unix operating system. Unix was well loved by both businesses had universities. There was one problem though. The code was owned by AT and T. And in 1977, when UC Berkeley created their own Berkeley placed software distribution, AT and T sued them. That put limitations on Unix development and led to a period known as the Unix Wars. A few years later in 1983, Richard Stallman creates the GNU project, which was intended to be a free and open replacement for Unix. But Unix was a big YIG Complex project with 100 of different applications, and replacing it was no easy task. Over the next few years, the project created many of the applications that you know and love today. Tools that are often used synonymously with Linux, like tar, bash, and emacs, just to name a few. By the early nineties, GNU had all this great software, but it was missing one essential component, the operating system some kernel. A complete operating system needs a kernel to sit in between the hardware and the software, where it can allocate CPU UN memory resources to run software applications. Luckily, it was right around this time that Linus Torvalds was working on his his hobby operating system. Originally, it was going to be called Freeaxe because the name Linux was too egotistical. But as fate would have it, the admin for the FTP PC server at the time didn't like the name and changed it without his consent, and the name stuck from there on out. Initially, Linux was released with a proprietary license that had limitations on commercial use. However, by the end of 1992, it was released under the GNU general public license. And this gave birth to a complete operating system that we know today as GNU plus Linux. The following year, hundreds of developers jumped on the Linux project and started adapting it to the GNU environment. The the beauty of the Linux kernel is that it gave developers the ability to build custom operating systems that felt like Unix, but didn't come with the fear of being sued down the road. Ultimately, this led to some of the 1st Linux distributions, like Soft Landing, Yggdrasil, and Slackware. But what is a Linux distro exactly? A distro is a complete operating system based on the Linux kernel that contains a bunch of packages and libraries, and typically a package manager to install all additional applications, and possibly a Windows system if there's a GUI involved. Many distros might share the same default user interface. Popular UI options include GNOME, kdePlasma, mate, cinnamon, and a bunch of others. Today, there's nearly a 1000 different Linux distros out there, and they've all been customized to serve different purposes. Some of them are designed for enterprise users, while others are for home users. Some distros only run on servers, while others are designed for desktop, mobile, and embedded devices. And each distro is usually backed by a community that has its own set philosophical and technical opinions. Most of these older distros are no longer maintained and just considered historical artifacts. One exception is Slackware. It had a release recently as 2016, and has spawned a bunch of different variations. Most notably, it led to the OpenSUSE project, which remains a very popular general purpose distro, and is usually associated did with professional power users. But the most significant distro to come out of 1993 was Debian. It was established by Ian Murdoch, and its name comes from his name combined with his ex wife's name. And its first official release came in 1996 as version 1.1 buzzed. And since then, each release contains a codename with a Toy Story character. A few years later, it led to the creation of Advanced Package Tool or APT, although it was originally developed under the codename deity. The the Debian community is huge and it's a great distro today and very popular on servers, but can also be used as a general purpose distro. It's minimal and stable, which are traits that have allowed it to father a huge number of offspring distros. Some of them are highly specialized like Raspberry Pi OS or Steam OS. But, by far, the most popular child of Debian is Ubuntu, which was first released in 2004 and is managed by a British company called Canonical. It follows a semi annual release schedule where each release is named after an animal and a word with the same letter, like cosmic cuttlefish. It's extremely beginner friendly and was really one of the first distros to open up Linux to the main stream home computer user. In recent years, though, it's received a lot of hate from the Linux community for releasing closed source software and also selling data that 2 third party companies. In any case, it remains extremely popular, and it even has a variety of different flavors like Kubuntu, Zubantu, and Lubantu, which are their own distributions that offer slight variations on the original. Like, Kubuntu, for example, is designed to be a great entry point if you're transitioning from Microsoft Windows to Linux. In addition, Ubuntu has spawned many other variations like Linux Mint, Peppermint, and Pop!OS just to name a few of the most popular options. Debian has a huge family tree, but if we go back to 1994, there is another Linux distro that also has a huge family tree called Red Hat. It was created by Mark Ewing and is known for its focus on security and reliability for enterprise users. Red Hat adopted a business model where they maintain an open source operating system, then make money by selling consulting integration and add on services to big enterprise clients. Today, it generates 1,000,000,000 of dollars in revenue and was recently acquired by IBM for an 11 figure price tag. Red Hat has given birth to a bunch of children, most of which are associated with enterprise work, and use either the RPM or Yum package manager. Popular descendants include rhel, CentOS, and Fedora, which is not only great for enterprise servers, but also works well as a personal work station, and it's even the distro of choice by Linus Torvalds himself. Now, one thing that you'll notice about Linux distros is that many of them do a lot of stuff that you don't actually need. That takes up space on your hardware and ultimately makes your life more complex. There are 2 Linux families that came out in the early 2000 that are focused on simplicity, performance, and minimalism. Gentoo, with its Enoch distro, came out in 2000 and Arch came out in 2002. If you like to keep things simple, then you'll probably like the Arch family of Linux distros. It has its own package manager called Pacman and has adopted a rolling release model. Like Ubuntu that has a new major release every 6 months, Arch releases small updates that can be continuously updated in the OS. Arch is also the parent of Manjaro, which is one of the most popular distros up today. In addition to all these families that we've looked at, there are many popular independent distros, like the extremely lightweight Alpine, Fire OS for Amazon Devices, and Android, which is used by billions of people every day. When you think of the Linux kernel like the engine in your car, it starts to answer the question of why are there so many Linux distros. Some cars are designed to go fast, others for comfort, some are engineered for enterprise and others are just for fun. As a developer, Linux is like a free engine that you can use to build your own car. That freedom, along with GNU and the greater open source ecosystem, motivates people to try new things and to profit by creating innovation within that system. People who are threatened by it call it communism, but in reality, it's the polar opposite and the free market at its finest. Today, even Microsoft he fully supports Linux through its WSL project. I'm gonna go ahead and wrap things up there. There's a lot of aspects of the Linux history and the histories of individual distros that we didn't cover. But, hopefully, this gives you a general idea of how Linux came into existence and the evolution of Linux distros over time. Oh, and there's one random thing I almost forgot. Back in 2005, the source code for Linux was managed under a version control system called BitKeeper. That was controversial though because it's proprietary software. So Linus Torvalds did what any legend would do and he created Git. Before you go, make sure to like and subscribe and stay tuned for a lot more Linux his content on this channel. Thanks for watching and I will see you in the next one.
The " Free virtual machine" (VIT) and " Free operating system" (FOO) were created to replace the " Free operating system" with a complete Linux based operating system, and the " Free virtual machine" (VIT) project was created to replace the " Free operating system" with a complete Linux based operating system. The " Free virtual machine" project was created to replace the " Free operating system" with a complete Linux based operating system, and the " Free virtual machine" project was created to replace the " Free operating system" with a complete Linux based operating system. The " Free virtual machine" project was created to replace the " Free operating system" with a complete Linux based operating system, and the " Free virtual machine" project was created to replace the " Free operating system" with a complete Linux based operating system. The " Free virtual machine" project was created to replace the " Free operating system" with a complete Linux based operating system, and the " Free virtual