Tutorial 01: Linux Operating System History and Directory Structure
Punjab University College of Information Technology 1
Punjab University College of Information Technology
CS – 317: System Programming Fall – 2005
Tutorial 01: Linux Operating System History and Directory Structure
• Linux Operating System
• Linux directory structure
• Important directories
Linux Operating System
• Linux is an offshoot of UNIX operating system.
• History of UNIX:
o UNIX was developed by Ken Thomson of AT & T’s Bell Laboratories in
late 1960’s
o UNIX was a byproduct of a project by AT & T’s Bell Laboratories, MIT
and others for designing of multi user operating system named MULTICS,
which has never completed.
o withdraw of Bell Laboratories from this project and interest of Ken
Thomson in games urged him to develop a operating system for a tiny
machine DEC PDP – 7 called Unics and later became UNIX.
o UNIX was widely distributed by AT&T to universities and research
institutions that gave it popularity.
o in 1980’s AT&T asserted proprietary rights and started charging
substantial license fee.
• GNU
1
o MIT Professor Richard Stallman lunched a project named GNU focused
on creating UNIX like operating system that could be freely distributed.
o GNU Project has designed a GPL (general public license) for software
use.
o for supporting GNU they created Free Software Foundation
2
in 1984
aimed at following features for software distribution
can be used for any purpose
can be studied to learn how it work and adapt to meet your needs
can be copied and redistributed
can be distributed as a part of improved software
• MINIX
3
o after the proprietary claim of AT&T at UNIX universities required
replacement.
1
www.gnu.org
2
www.fsf.org
3
See Andrew S. Tanenbaum and Albert S. Woodhull “Operating System Design and Implementation”, 2
nd
Ed, Prentice Hall, pp (13–15, History of MINIX)