An operating system that’s able to be run from a pen drive? Yes, please! Ok, so right out of the gate it already sounds like I’m trying to ‘sell’ the idea of Linux to you. Scratch that. I do, however, think it is a very interesting concept, and the Operating Systems that are developed using the open-source Linux kernel are in themselves very intriguing, and altogether worthwhile.

Now then, to give you a brief overview, we have to go back to the 80′s. Its not been long since the founders of Apple Inc. and Microsoft went their separate ways, and home computing is still in its infancy. In 1983, Richard Stallman creates the GNU Project, with the vision of creating a free, open-source, UNIX-like operating system. However, even after years of development and an almost-complete operating system, the GNU kernel failed to get the required attention from developers to be completed. Enter Linus Torvalds (c1991). Linus took what was previously done under the GNU Project and created another project, that eventually became the Linux kernel. It’s that kernel that is still under development and iteration today, and that all Linux ‘flavours‘ must build upon.

(more…)