Linux attains adulthood minus one

Yesterday - October 5 2008, Linux turned 17 years old. That is one year short for attaining adulthood if Linux were a human being. Seventeen years is no mean feat in the life of an operating system. Come to think of it, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, OS/2, all lasted only for a few years before they were superseded by their more mature counterparts.

On the other hand, Linux is going strong even after 17 years; Nay, it is surging up in the popularity chart albeit at a glacial pace. Companies like ASUS, DELL and others have started bundling and supporting different flavors of Linux on their laptops.

On the eve of celebrating the birthday of Linux - all of 17 years, what better way than to take a recap of the history of Linux ? Also read the original mail by Linus Torvalds in the Minix mailing list, introducing the Linux kernel to the outside world.

Awesome timeline of Unix, Linux and Mac OSX

A beautifully constructed timeline of Unix which includes modern day Unix descendants such as Solaris and Mac OSX as well as Linux. This timeline is not very much unlike the mind map of Linux I had created a long time back. But this timeline also provides the year when the Unix/Linux flavor was born. [Via: Zwahlen Design blog]

Fig: Unix - Linux timeline

How to pronounce Linux ?

My friend once asked me how you pronounce the word Linux. While I have heard the way it is pronounced from the mouths of numerous Linux users to be certain how you correctly pronounce it, I have felt it would be nice to hear it being pronounced by the father of Linux himself - Linus Torvalds.

It seems Linus Torvalds has tackled this question and has even created an audio of him pronouncing Linux. Paul Sladen has uploaded an audio file on his site, in which Linus is heard pronouncing the word Linux. Take it from me, almost 99.9% of Linux users pronounce it right the first time. But still if you are doubtful ...