The beginning of Linux is usually dated to August 25, 1991, the date on which Linus Torvaids sent a posting to the com.os.minix newsgroup describing the work he had done so far. He subsequently invited others to join the project, made the code available by FTP, and offered it under a license allowing free redistribution (originally a license that he wrote himself, but soon afterward moving to the GNU GPL).

A worldwide community quickly arose, working on the Linux kernel and submitting code and patches back to Torvalds to be incorporated into the kernel. As time went on, the number of people working on Linux grew rapidly, and systems were put in place to filter and channel the incoming code; however Linus Torvaids has stayed in charge of the whole project, which has remained independent of any particular vendor.

The remarkable rate at which Linux grew and matured is well known: Linux is living proof of the power of the open source development model.

Both the history of Linux and descriptions of the workings of open source development are well descried in many other publications. Glyn Moody's Rebel Code: Linux and the Open source Revolution has a very good history of Linux and open source movement generally. The classic exposition of why and how the open source development model works so well is in Eric S. Raymond's The Cathedral and the Bazaar."

Both of these are recommended to any readers who want to know more about the history of Linux and open source software, and particularly to anyone who has residual doubts about whether free and open source software can really be secure or reliable.

In the first few years of Linux a number of 'distributions' of Linux emerged. It is important to understand that, properly speaking, the term Linux refers only to the kernel. To create a system that you can install and run, much more is required, including in particular the whole range of GNU utilities and a method of installing the system. A distribution of Linux is a complete set of packages built to work together around a Linux kernel, combined with a complete set of packages built to work together around a Linux kernel, combined with a method of easily installing the system to the hard disk.

Many of the early Linux distributions have been forgotten. But a few companies formed in the early years began to produce important commercial versions of Linus: The most important then were Red Hat, Caldera, and SUSE. The most influential early noncommercial (or possibly semi commercial) distribution was Slackware, which played an important part in the early life of SUSE. The Debian project began at around the same time and also continues to this day as the 'purest' Linux distribution from the point of view of the ideology of software freedom.

Red Hat's IPO (stock market flotation) in mid-1999 was perhaps the event that put Linux on the map for the wider world. The subsequent dramatic rise and equally dramatic fall of the stock price were perhaps at the same time somewhat unfortunate because it gave the perception that Linux was part of the 'Internet bubble' - just another bright idea lacking a coherent business model.

However, the continual increase in the uptake of Linux by business and its endorsement by some of the giants of the computer industry made its importance clear even to the doubters. Oracle announced support for Linux in the mid-1998; Oracle installations on Linux are a significant factor in the acceptance of Linux in the enterprise market. IBM began to take Linux very seriously from 1998 onward and started offering ports of its software to Linux the following year (including the DB2 database and Domino sever); now it forms a major part of the company's strategy.

The past two years have brought us to a point where Linux is regarded as mainstream. All major industry players in both the hardware and software sectors (apart from Microsoft and its close collaborators) have adopted Linux or have a Linux strategy.

The take over of SUSE by Novell at the end of 2003, and Novell's enthusiastic conversions to Linux, is a logical part of that process and is certain to accelerate Linux adoption globally.