OK, here are some history lessons. I know this is pretty far afield
of the bash question, but seems like a good place to bring it up.
These first ones are about Unix, which predates GNU and Linux.
Remember, Unix came from the telephone company, not a computer
company.
This is long and very good at explaining how things got here.
http://minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au/TUHS/Mirror/Hauben/unix-Contents.html
These are shorter
http://vertigo.hsrl.rutgers.edu/ug/unix_history.html
http://www.rgs.vt.edu/unix_history.html
Here it is from the horse's mouth.
http://www.bell-labs.com/history/unix/
These are about GNU, which predates Linux
Here's GNU from the horse's mouth. Not long, some good links.
http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-history.html
Here's GNU from the horse's whatever you think. (Hey, I like
the guy, but a lot of people don't. Particularly Microsoft.)
http://www.gnu.org/gnu/thegnuproject.html
How GNU relates to Linux
http://www.ajug.org/info/tech/java-linux/history.html
http://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html
And now Linux. Remember, Linux is just a kernel. LM 7.2 is a
distribution of Linux kernel and a bunch of GNU tools and a bunch of
other tools. (X, for example.)
Again, from the horse's mouth (These are the same text,
just in case one's not available when you look.)
http://www.unix-wizards.com/linux-history.html
http://www.li.org/linuxhistory.php
And other views
http://ragib.hypermart.net/linux/
http://gmml.slctech.org/~mackay/install-guide/node10.html
