25 Linux Road: Without it the Internet may not be so wonderful

August 25, 1991, Linas Tovoz, a Finnish computer science student, Linus Torvalds to mention his new gadget to a friend: "I'm building a free, open-source operating system." He said he was only interested.

But what he has done is far more than "interest". Today, open source operating system Linux has become one of the most important computer programs in the world. You may be unfamiliar with your name, but it's always around you: your phone, tablet OS is built on Linux. Even if you're using the iphone and Mac, you're also hitting Linux. Because almost all of the sites and pages are driven by Linux. Facebook, Google, Pinterest and Wikipedia-all of their servers are built on Linux.

Simply put, without Linux, the Internet will not be so wonderful today.

And don't assume that Linux is just a thing that exists in the Web world. Now it's also getting into the operating system of televisions and cars. 25 years ago, Linas Tovoz A set of code that came out of his hobby, and now has come into every aspect of our lives. It's not too easy to call it "Cardinal of all things."

Idea origin

The year of building Linux was generated from 25 ago. At that time, the operating systems of the world's servers were monopolized by the UNIX systems at T-Bell Labs. However, the drawback is that UNIX is all rights reserved and can only be run on high-end machines. Geeks are eager to have a system comparable to it, so that ordinary people in their own computers can experience the beauty of technology.

In 1984, Richard Stallman (Richard Stallman) began the GNU project. (Readers can think of this as a free version of Unix) by the year 1991, Stallman and his company have successfully rewritten all of Unix's code. But they missed out on one of the most important parts of the operating system: the kernel. The kernel is an essential part of a mature operating system, and with it, the various information that the hardware transmits can be converted into code that is understood by the software. At this time, Torvalds decided to finish writing the kernel himself.

Then again, it's the history we've seen. Thousands of developers use GNU and Linux as their base, plus the other features they value, to create their own operating systems. Today in these operating systems are collectively referred to as "Gnu/linux derivative distributions". Stallman and Torvalds with a little spark, set off the Internet, a prairie fire.

Web applications

The rise of Linux is a direct impetus to the Internet's prosperity. It's hard to say how popular Linux is in the server world. Unix and Unix-like operating systems drive 67% of the world's Web servers, according to a w3tech statistic. Linux is at least half of the total. Almost become synonymous with server systems.

Microsoft, which has made a fortune in producing personal computer systems, has also launched a server system. The business giant naturally sees Linux as a great misfortune, a long time after Microsoft launched Azure, which has banned users from using Linux on Azure. However, public opinion is difficult to suppress, Microsoft's resistance only persisted until 2012 years, then had to open the embrace to the civilian-born Linux. It is reported that there are about One-third users on azure running Linux systems, rather than Microsoft's own Windows Server. Later, even Microsoft started using Linux to implement some of the features behind Azure. To keep up with the big trends in Linux, Microsoft also partnered with canonical, the famous derivative Ubuntu Publisher, to make it easier for users to write Linux programs on their Windows laptops.

There's a reason why Linux is so unstoppable. The diligent study Qkxue.net thinks the businessman money is up, the free nature is more popular than the charge. The vast majority of Linux distributions are free at a time when Windows Server is selling high prices for business thinking. More importantly, Linux is "open source software", which means that users can modify the Linux program according to their own needs, so as to better serve their needs. And this is not allowed on the business system.

With the development of the network, software developers have been equipping Linux with more complete software functions. Now, some important technologies such as Apache Web server, MySQL database, and the Perl programming language have become essential packages for almost all Linux distributions.

Perhaps the success of Linux can be counted as a fluke in fortune. In the 1990 's, a big wave of Unix-like server operating systems emerged, and the industry-leading at/T would certainly not allow so many competitors to grow. At the time, it hit several powerful rivals through a series of lawsuits and legal lawsuits. But despite the encircle of the industry's big brother, fortunately, the civilian system Linux has finally grown up.

Towards a wider world

In the past countless days and nights, Linux has been in obscurity to assume the role behind the scenes. Dedicated to serving the world's most popular websites. But in the field of personal computers, it has never been successful. Popular users prefer intuitive simplicity, while Linux's complex command line and crappy graphical interface keep ordinary computer users from getting close. The fate of the change came in 2008, in order to curb the rapid development of the iphone, Google launched the Android phone operating system in the year. While Android doesn't run Linux desktop programs directly, Android's success is a big inspiration for open source software like Linux. After 17 years of hard exploration, open source software finally ushered in the dawn of personal devices.

Android has become the big hot word in the smartphone market now. A variety of Android plate-making almost occupy the entire market share outside the iphone. According to Gartner, the first quarter of 2016, the Android mobile phone camp accounted for up to 84% of the market share. But Linux's ambitions are not content with mobile phones. Now you can see it in Samsung and LG's smart TVs. Amazon's Kindle also hides its proud smile.

The ambition of Linux also includes cars. The huge display in Tesla's car is driven by a Linux system. Many other well-known carmakers, such as Toyota, Honda and Ford, have been sponsoring the Automotive Grade Linux project. The latter aims to develop in-vehicle software and realize automotive networking. Now the hot discussion of autonomous vehicles, but also a lot of use of Linux technology to complete the complex automated control.

Whether it's a software developer trying to implement a custom feature or a car company that wants to build its own technology-they all choose Linux for the same reason. Linux allows them to easily modify the code to suit their needs, and then be free to share and go into mass production without having to be licensed as a commercial software. And it all began with the interest of the Finnish student from 25 ago. Linas Tovoz chose to share his work with the world, rather than the closed source fee, and completed the "interest" to boundless Beneficence's magnificent transformation.

25 Linux Road: Without it the Internet may not be so wonderful