Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

A Historical Look At The First Linux Kernel

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the to-configure-simply-recompile dept.

LinuxFan writes "KernelTrap has a fascinating article about the first Linux kernel, version 0.01, complete with source code and photos of Linus Torvalds as a young man attending the University of Helsinki. Torvalds originally planned to call the kernel "Freax," and in his first announcement noted, "I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones." He also stressed that the kernel was very much tied to the i386 processor, "simply, I'd say that porting is impossible." Humble beginnings."

8 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. No sooner had I finished compiling... by kaleco · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...than Gentoo using kernel 0.02 was made available.

    --
    Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped. Calvin Coolidge
  2. Official kernel development strategy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "When the first kernel pops, then toss in about 1/2 cup of open source developers and shake vigorously until the popping dies down. You don't want to leave it on until you hear nothing, because then it's sure to be burnt."

  3. Too bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    that that Torvalds guys project never amounted to anything useful.

  4. Oh No! by MyLongNickName · · Score: 5, Funny

    He looks just like Bill Gates at that age!

    --
    See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
  5. At least two people agree on 640kB by Centurix · · Score: 5, Funny
    From memory.c

    * NOTE 2!! When from==0 we are copying kernel space for the first
      * fork(). Then we DONT want to copy a full page-directory entry, as
      * that would lead to some serious memory waste - we just copy the
      * first 160 pages - 640kB. Even that is more than we need, but it
      * doesn't take any more memory - we don't copy-on-write in the low
      * 1 Mb-range, so the pages can be shared with the kernel. Thus the
      * special case for nr=xxxx.
    --
    Task Mangler
  6. Well by akkarin · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Oh, Linux will *never* have a fan base. Never. Ever. Period."
    - Bill Gates

    --
    This sig left intentionally blank.
  7. Embarassing change of context by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Am I the only one twisted enough to have fixed for a moment on the once perfectly innocent sentence : "Could someone please try to finger me from overseas?"... :)

  8. Ready? by bollucks · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...and it was almost ready for the desktop.