At 2004-06-29T155958+1200, Jim Cheetham wrote:
> In the meantime, Linus wanted a unix-like system to run on his 386 PC,
> and didn't want to purchase Minix. He started to write what became
> Linux, using the GNU tools (actually, that might not be strictly
> correct, but I believe its close enough).
That's not correct. Torvalds was running Minix and GNU tools, and had
largely started his career in kernel programming thanks to Minix and
Tanenbaum and Woodhull's Operating Systems: Design and Implementation
book. At this time, there were a large number of patches to Minix
floating around that moved it towards being a more "serious" UNIX-like
system, but Tanenbaum wanted to retain the simplicity of the system
because of its educational value.
Linux came about initially from Torvalds teaching himself about task
switching on his shiny new 386... this code turned into a multithreaded
terminal emulator, and then into what became Linux 0.1.
Anyway, if anyone is seriously interested in the history, I suggest you
get it from a reliable source rather than second-hand via a mailing
list. Free as in Freedom and Just for Fun cover the lives of Stallman
(FSF/GNU) and Torvalds (Linux) respectively, and much of the history is
available via Google Groups if you've got the time to find it.
Cheers,
-mjg
--
Matthew Gregan |/
/| [EMAIL PROTECTED]
