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Timeline of Linux development
This timeline shows the development of the Linux kernel.
| Timeline
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| Apr 1991
| Linus Torvalds, then 21, starts working on some simple ideas for an operating-system. He starts with a task-switcher in 386-assembly and a terminal-driver.
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| 25 August 1991
| Linus posts to comp.os.minix: [1]
"I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things).
I've currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work. This implies that I'll get something practical within a few months [...] Yes - it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs. It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I have :-(.
[...] It's mostly in C, but most people wouldn't call what I write C. It uses every conceivable feature of the 386 I could find, as it was also a project to teach me about the 386. As already mentioned, it uses a MMU, for both paging (not to disk yet) and segmentation. It's the segmentation that makes it REALLY 386 dependent (every task has a 64Mb segment for code & data - max 64 tasks in 4Gb. Anybody who needs more than 64Mb/task - tough cookies). [...] Some of my "C"-files (specifically mm.c) are almost as much assembler as C. [...] Unlike minix, I also happen to LIKE interrupts, so interrupts are handled without trying to hide the reason behind them"
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| Sep 1991
| Linux version 0.01 is released.
| 10,239 lines of code.
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| Oct 1991
| Linux version 0.02 is released. [2]
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| Dec 1991
| Linux 0.11 is released. This version is the first that is self-hosted. (that is: you can compile Linux 0.11 under Linux 0.11)
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| 19 January 1992
| First post to alt.os.linux newsgroup.
[3]
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| 31 March 1992
| The newsgroup comp.os.linux is created. [4]
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| Apr 1992
| Linux version 0.96 is the first to be capable of running the X Window System.
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| During the whole of 1993, and early 1994
| 15 development versions 0.99.*, with 0.99.11 (July 1993 introducing BogoMips into the kernel
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| 14 March 1994
| Linux 1.0.0 is released.
| 176,250 lines of code.
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| Mar 1995
| Linux 1.2.0 is released
| 310,950 lines of code.
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| 9 May 1996
| Tux the penguin, is suggested as mascot for Linux
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| 9 Jun 1996
| Linux 2.0.0 is released.
| 777,956 lines of code.
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| 25 Jan 1999
| Linux 2.2.0 is released, very buggy at first.
| 1,800,847 lines of code.
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| 4 Jan 2001
| Linux 2.4.0 is released.
| 3,377,902 lines of code.
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| 18 Dec 2003
| Linux 2.6.0 is released.
| 5,929,913 lines of code.
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External links
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