GNU and Linux Growth

GNU is a completely free software-based software system developed by Richard Stallman, the father of free software, in 1984. There is a General Public License (GPL) corresponding to this. . Linux and a large amount of software related to her are developed and released under the auspices of the GPL.

The father of free software Stallman spreads the gospel of free software everywhere like a solemn missionary, explaining his dream of creating GNU: "Free thoughts, not free lunches". The free software "top god" has devoted most of his life to his dreams. He not only created many free software such as GCC and GDB, but also his familiar software such as BIND. Perl, Apache, TCP/IP, etc. have become the classics of free software.

If Stallman founded and promoted the development of free software, then Linus did not hesitate to dedicate to GNU Linux, bringing the development of free software to a whole new level.

In fact, Linus is an idealist, but he is very practical. When Linux's first "product" version of Linux 1.0 came out, it was spread by completely freely spreading copyright. He requires all source code for the Linux kernel to be public, and no one can profit from Linux transactions. His pure free software ideal actually hinders the proliferation and development of Linux, because it limits the possibility of Linux distribution in the form of disk copy or CD-ROM, and restricts the participation of some commercial companies in the further development of Linux. A good desire to provide technical support. Linus decided to turn to the GPL copyright, which in addition to the various licenses for free software, allows users to sell copies of their own programs.

This copyright change is crucial to the further development of Linux. Since then, there have been many commercial software companies with strong technical strength and good market operations. They have joined the free software movement that was originally participated by amateurs and cyber hackers, and developed a variety of Linux distributions. It has polished out many of the uneven edges of pure free software, adding a user-friendly graphical user interface and numerous software development tools, which greatly expands the global user base of Linux.

The Linux kernel's capabilities and its integration with the GPL have led many software developers to believe that this is a promising project and begin to participate in the development of the kernel. The GNU project's C library, gcc, Emacs, bash, etc. are quickly ported to the Linux kernel. It can be said that the Linux project was closely integrated with the GNU project from the beginning, and many important components of the system came directly from the GNU project. Other important components of the Linux operating system are from the BSD Unix at the University of California at Berkeley and the XWindows
system project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. These are the results of long-term tests.

It is the combination of the Linux kernel with the GNU project, BSD Unix, and MIT's X11 that makes the entire Linux operating system very fast and builds on a solid foundation.

When Linux matures, some people start building packages to simplify the installation and use of Linux for new users. These packages are called Linux distributions or Linux distributions. Publishing Linux is not something for an individual or organization. Anyone can combine the Linux kernel and other components of the operating system for distribution. In the early days of numerous Linux distributions, the most influential was the release of Slackware. At the time, it was the easiest to install Linux distribution, which played a big role in promoting Linux applications. The Linux Documentation Project (LDP) was written around the release of Slackware. At present, the Red Hat distribution is easier to install and has more applications, and has become the most popular Linux distribution. Caldera is dedicated to the commercial application of Linux, and its development speed is also very fast. The two distributions also have corresponding kits. In terms of Chinese Linux distributions, there are already many Linux vendors in China, such as Red Flag Linux, BluePoint Linux, and ChinaSoft Linux. Each release has its own strengths and weaknesses, but they use the same kernel and development tools.