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Tip For Tomorrow

The document discusses the 20th anniversary of the Linux operating system. It was created by Finnish student Linus Torvalds as a hobby and has since grown to one of the most widely used operating systems, powering everything from phones to supercomputers. The document provides background on Linux and its origins and open source development model.

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19 views1 page

Tip For Tomorrow

The document discusses the 20th anniversary of the Linux operating system. It was created by Finnish student Linus Torvalds as a hobby and has since grown to one of the most widely used operating systems, powering everything from phones to supercomputers. The document provides background on Linux and its origins and open source development model.

Uploaded by

Ethical Hacked
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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TECH FORUM

Tux Turns 20
By Michael Castelluccio, Editor

There was a birthday celebration the last week of August


that escaped most people’s notice. A software program that
began as one Finnish student’s hobby turned 20 on August
25, and geeks around the world observed the day. The pro-
also has a larger set of stereo of memory, it’s an interesting gram is Linux, and it’s a computer operating system (OS)
speakers that feature a wireless exercise that might open up like Windows or OSX. For the average person, that’s about
Bluetooth connection that can new possibilities for your com- as exciting as sand, but, then again, the average person is
be placed as far as 50 feet away puter. This isn’t an experimental likely to be more knowledgeable and care more about
from the tablet source. The wire- version of Linux. The Ubuntu chips that come from Lay’s than the ones from AMD.
less speakers have built-in kernel is in its 11th iteration, But take away the silicon chips that help move, orga-
rechargeable batteries that run and it’s a powerful, secure, nize, light, and heat our world, and the impact would be
up to 10 hours on a charge. The uncluttered operating system. devastating. In a similar way, OSs toil away in the back-
wireless version also comes with A lot of free software runs on ground reading millions of lines of code deep within our
a soft case. www.logitech.com the system, including the full- computing devices, allowing them to correctly follow the
featured OpenOffice from instruction sets of the apps and programs we see doing
The Ubuntu Oracle. The OpenOffice software things on the surface (monitors and cell phone screens).
Operating System suite has word processing, The Linux OS is remarkable for several reasons. First,
One of the best ways to try out spreadsheets, presentations, it isn’t the product of a corporation like IBM (developer
the Linux operating system for graphics, databases, and a of the AIX system) or think tank like Bell Labs (creator of
desktop or laptop computers is number of utility applications. the UNIX OS). Nor is it strictly the product of one devel-
with the Ubuntu system. You OpenOffice is available in a oper. It has been created by hundreds of programmers
can download it for free and number of languages, stores all worldwide, and it has stubbornly remained free, as in
easily set up your laptop or oth- your data in an international “available at no cost,” to whoever wants to load any of its
er computer to dual boot two open standard format, and can variants, called flavors, on any kind of computer or
systems. If you have a computer also read and write files from device from their TiVo to supercomputers. Today, Linux
that runs on an older Windows other common office software is one of the most widely distributed OSs, and its most
system that you’re no longer packages. Like Ubuntu, it’s rapid growth is in the fastest-growing market segment—
happy with, or if you have a free. www.ubuntu.com and mobile computing.
netbook with a decent amount www.openoffice.org
HISTORY
Before we look at the origins, just a word about the folk-
lore. Linux doesn’t have a logo. Instead, it has a penguin.
Like Disney’s mouse, Tux (that’s the penguin’s name) is
the program’s identifier even though he’s likely to assume
different shapes and costumes depending on the Linux
variant. As the story goes, Linus Torvalds, the Finnish stu-
dent who created the open source system, was visiting the
National Zoo and Aquarium with the Canberra Linux
continued on next page

October 2011 I S T R AT E G I C F I N A N C E 59

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