The Past, Present and Future of the Linux Operating Systems

Chang, Victor (2006) The Past, Present and Future of the Linux Operating Systems

Abstract

(This technical report will be published to become a working paper) This paper summarizes the history and the development process of the Linux Operating Systems (OS), and recommends several best practices for both the academic and industrial environments. Originally created by Linus Torvalds in September 1991, the first Linux operating system had a basic functionality and it was made publicly available for software improvement and contributions. The growth in the popularity increased in the 1990s. In the late 1990s, the Linux had divided into different packages of software, which was known as “distribution”, where different organizations developed their own versions of software based on Linus Torvald’s kernel (the engine of the Linux), including the well-known Red Hat, Debian, SuSE and Turbolinux. By the end of the year 2005, there are several new concepts and deployment added to the development of Linux. Firstly, there are “live CD” distributions, which enable booting Linux from CDs without installing the Linux on the hardware. Secondly, the installation processes have become much easier since the 1990s, where installations on the Graphical Interfaces have become the main stream. Thirdly, the Linux OS have become much more user-friendly, thus being particularly true with regards to Desktop distributions, where the multimedia, publishing and desktop functions are easy to use. Fourthly, more and more countries are developing their own versions of Linux for easy customization, personalization and full language support, which all lead to a surge of Linux distributions. Fifthly, many Linux OS provide the 64-bit versions, which offer a better performance than the traditional 32-bit Linux OS. Finally, some of the Linux organizations have successfully transformed into commercial organizations including Red Hat, Novell and Mandriva. This paper also investigates both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Linux OS, which include: Red Hat Enterprise WS/ES/AS 3/4, Red Hat 8.0/9.0, Fedora Core 4, CentOS 4.2, SuSE 9.3/10.0, Novell Desktop 9.0, Gentoo 2005.1, Ubuntu 5.10/6.0.4, Kbuntu 5.10/6.04, Mandriva 2006, Debian 3.1, Red Flag 5.0, TurboLinux 10, PCLinux OS 0.92, XandrOS Desktop 3.0.1, Knoppix 4.0.2/Parallel Knoppix 2005.12, Kanotix 2005.4, playLinEx 1.0, Tao 4.0, Studio64, MEPIS 3.4.1/3.4.3, Damn Small 2.2, Puppy 1.0.7, Berry 0.66/0.67, Fox 1.0 and B2D 2005.12. Finally, this paper presents a break-through in the technology – integrating twelve different Linux distributions on a single 64-bit machine and providing stable, robust and multi-functional server-side applications. This is part of the fundamental system/software architecture for the Personal High Performance Computing (PHPC), where the Integrated Linux, Windows and Macintosh Cluster is implemented and used for (a) running Java and .NET Web Services and (b) sharing jobs at different platforms, which can run single jobs altogether or run different jobs simultaneously.

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