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