Happy birthday Linux!

Linux is the operating system that everyone wants to try but too often were afraid to ask. Long gone are the days where the Linux operating system was some mysterious faith, worshiped by polo shirted priests, often heard to mutter strange and unintelligible utterances.

As an incredibly popular operating system, many large international financial institutions use it. You will find it on many mobile phones and tablet computers. Google has invested heavily in Linux and a large number of developing nations use Linux for their desktop computer. If this is not enough, the chances are, you're reading this on a web server running on Linux using a popular Linux based application called Apache. You will also discover that all but one of the world’s super computers run on Linux.

Now at the grand old age of 20, Linux has very much come of age, competing with Apple and Microsoft for space in the Operating System world.  Having inhabited the world of the technical priesthood. There are many popular versions of Linux, which can be used by the rest of us.

Creative Commons Image By Maurizio Scorianz via Flickr under Creative Commons license Richard Stallman

Since the original version of the operating system was released by Linus Torvalds in August 1991, there have been many contributors and collaborators. Benefiting from the culture of the free software foundation, lead by Richard Stallman, the core of Linux still uses the GNU (GNU Not Unix) concept, with many free applications and resources available for everyone to use.

This has meant the ideal of open source, having many contributing to the development of a plethora of applications for the Linux operating system. Over the years, this has provided tens of thousands of free applications for the Linux community. In fact one of the largest developments, enabling the average computer user to be able to benefit from the value of Linux (as it is free) was the work accomplished by Canonical, in their release of the Ubuntu distribution of Linux.

Unlike many preceding projects, Ubuntu standardized the release of the operating system in a model that was easy to use by you, and more importantly easy to trust by large corporations who tend to become very emotional when new versions are being released every couple of days.

The recent acquisition of Motorola by Google so close to the 20th anniversary of Linux is an interesting development in the diverse development of the Linux operating system. In 2009, there was reported to be an insignificant market share of 2.8 per cent by Android devices. Whereas at the time of the anniversary there is reported to be at least 33 per cent of the worldwide usage of Smartphone’s running on Android devices. Whilst these figures are not necessarily the most accurate, it is clear that the Android flavour of Linux has opened new horizons for this operating system.

The commercial world now takes notice of anyone with Linux professional skills, with RedHat, the Linux Professional Institute amongst others offering commercially recognized certification in Linux technology and administration. Many professionals now seek Microsoft, Cisco and Linux certification to add to the professional portfolio of skills.

This iTunesU podcast is an introduction to the impact of Linux and gives you, the listener, an overview of the history and the characters that have worked to form the operating system that has become so pervasive. Whilst not definitive, content has been designed to complement your Open University study, or stand alone as a topic introduction.

• Happy birthday Linux on Platform, the OU student portal
• Find out more about Linux: an introduction, a course offered by the Open University