Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index

Timeline of Linux development

This is the timeline of the Linux kernel.

(this page is very incomplete)

Timeline
Apr 1991Linus Torvalds, then 21 starts working on some simple ideas for a operating-system. Starting with a task-switcher in 386-assembly and a terminal-driver.
25 Aug 1991Linus posts to comp.os.minix:
"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"

Sep 1991Linux version 0.01 is released, the source is all of 64kb.
Dec 1991Linux 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)
31 Mar 1992The newsgroup comp.os.linux is created
Apr 1992Linux version 0.96 is the first to be capable of running the X Window System.
14 Mar 1994Linux 1.0 is released.
Mar 1995Linux 1.2 is released
9 May 1996Tux the penguin, is suggested as mascot for Linux
9 Jun 1996Linux 2.0 is released.
25 Jan 1999Linux 2.2 is released, very buggy at first.
4 Jan 2001Linux 2.4 is released
18 Dec 2003Linux 2.6 is released

External links