Linus Torvald und andere Linux Experten zurück
Punkt 1 Fragen Experten Links Orginaltexte
LT
Als Studienanfänger an der Universität in Helsinki war er mit dem bestehenden Unix Versionen für Intel Prozessoren unzufrieden und begann mit Unterstützung vieler weiterer Entwickler sich sein eigenes POSIX kompatibles Betriebssystem zu bauen. Später portierte er den Linux Kernel auf die 64-Bit DEC Alpha Architektur. Alle nachfolgenden Linux Portierungen auf die Architekturen mit Sparc, Motorola 68K, PowerPC, ARM und MIPS Prozessoren wurden von weiteren Freiwilligen mit Teils erheblicher Unterstützung der Herstellerfirmen vorgenommen.
Linus wurde als Mitglied der schwedisch sprechenden Minderheit (ca 6% aller Finnen, schwedisch ist die zweite offizielle Amtssprache in Finnland) in Finnland geboren.
Anfang 1997 ist Linus zu den vielen anderen Computerpionieren nach Santa Clara in die USA gezogen. Dort arbeitet er seither im Silicon Valley für die Firma Transmeta Inc.
Niemand weiss so recht, was Transmeta eigentlich macht, allerdings hat Linus weiterhin beliebig viel Zeit um an seinem Betriebssystemkern weiterzuentwicklen, sofern er nicht mit dem Wickeln seiner zwei Kleinkinder beschäftigt ist .
Linus Torvalds
Linus Benedict Torvalds (* 28. Dezember 1969 in Helsinki, Finnland) ist der Gründer und Markeninhaber von Linux, für welches er auch heute noch vorwiegend koordiniert und weiterhin programmiert; da er mittlerweile bei den OSDL (Open Source Development Labs) angestellt ist, wird er dafür sogar bezahlt.
Er wurde als Sohn von Nils und Anna Torvalds geboren und nach Linus Pauling benannt. Seine Familie gehört zur Schwedisch sprechenden Minderheit in Finnland. Er besuchte ab 1988 die Universität in Helsinki.
Am 25. August 1991 kündigte der Informatik-Student in der Newsgroup comp.os.minix an, dass er an einem neuen Betriebssystem programmiere. Am 17. September 1991 stellte er dann Linux 0.01 auf einen öffentlichen FTP-Server. Der Quellcode für das neue Unix-Betriebssystem umfasste 241 KByte und das Makefile war 96 Zeilen lang. Dabei waren noch eine Bash und Update als Binaries.
Am 9. Juli 1996 veröffentlichte Linus Torvalds den Linux-Kernel 2.0. Zusammen mit der freien GNU-Software der Free Software Foundation (Gründer: Richard Stallman) und vieler anderer Open Source Software verbreitete sich das Linux-Betriebssystem auf vielen verschiedenen Computerarchitekturen auch mit Prozessoren, die nicht von Intel stammen. Am selben Tag wurde Tux der Pinguin zum offiziellen Logo für Linux.
Linus lebt zur Zeit mit seiner Frau Tove und seinen drei Töchtern Patricia Miranda (* 5. Dezember 1996), Daniela Yolanda (* 16. April 1998) und Celeste Amanda (* 20. November 2000) in Santa Clara, Kalifornien. Er arbeitete von Februar 1997 bis Juni 2003 bei Transmeta und ist jetzt beim Open Source Development Lab (OSDL) angestellt um hauptberuflich an der Weiterentwicklung des Linux-Kernel zu arbeiten.
Zitat
Software is like sex: it's better when it's free.
Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it.
Literatur
Torvalds, Linus & Diamond, David: Just for Fun. Wie ein Freak die Computerwelt revolutionierte. Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag, 2002. ISBN 3-423-36299-5 (deutsche Ausgabe)
Torvalds, Linus & Diamond, David: Just for Fun. The story of an accidental revolutionary. New York: Texere, 2001. ISBN 1-58799-080-6 (englische Ausgabe)
Weblinks
Homepage von Linus Torvalds http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/torvalds/
http://liw.iki.fi/liw/ Anekdoten
The Rampantly Unofficial Linus Torvalds FAQ http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/linus/
Das Usenet Posting, in dem Linus ein neues Betriebssystem ankündigt
siehe zb http://www.kofler.cc/
Frage zu allen Bereichen an Experten
Alan Cox, geb. 1970, ist zusammen mit Linus Torvalds der wohl aktivste und wichtigste Programmierer des Linux Kernels. Er ist zusammen mit Linus auch Projektleiter für die neueste Kernelversion 2.4. Alan wird von RedHat finanziell unterstützt. Seine Welt war und ist das stundenlange Code-"hacken" und bisher hat er jeden Tag seine Arbeit in einem übers Web öffentlich zugänglichen Tagebuch festgehalten. Alan's Markenzeichen sind lange Haare, roter Hut und Sonnenbrille auch in dunklen Räumen.
Miro Frybort, geb. 1969 in der Schweiz. Vielleicht der beste Linux- und Internetspezialist, den das deutschsprachige Europa als Antwort auf die amerikanische Fach-Dominanz vorzuweisen hat. Kennt das Betriebssystem Linux, welche Leute daran arbeiten, das Silicon Valley und die Technologie des World Wide Web wie seine Westentasche. Hat auf unsere Anfrage hin freiwillig binnen 24 (!) Stunden das Webdesign für diese Web-Site bereitgestellt damit wir es mit Inhalten füllen konnten. Pendelt derzeit zwischen Berlin und Zürich hin und her.
Eric Steven Raymond wird gemeinhein als "Open Source - Guru" anerkannt, ebenso als (allerdings nicht unumstrittener) Sprecher der Linux Gemeinde. 1999 hatte er seinen "Job" in einem ausführlichen Schreiben zur Verfügung gestellt. Offenbar macht ihm die vermehrte Zerstrittenheit der Linux Gemeinde zu schaffen und dass er von einigen Seiten kritisiert wurde, obwohl er "Blut, Schweiss und Tränen in die Linux Bewegung gesteckt hat", wie er selber sagt. Er lebt in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Im Werk "The Cathedral & the Bazaar" hat er die Vorteile der freien Software dargelegt und die Gründe warum sie sich durchsetzen wird.
Richard M. Stallman ist Präsident der weltweiten "Free Software Foundation" (FSF) und Gründer des GNU-Projekts für die Entwicklung eines freien Betriebssystems. Ohne GNU wäre das Komplettsystem Linux, von dem der Linux Kernel nur ein Teil ist, kaum zustandegekommen. Stallman lieferte den meisten Programmiercode für den GNU C Compiler, den GNU Symbolic Debugger und GNU Emacs. Als Hobbies gibt er an: Computer, Musik und Schmetterlinge. Die FSF setzt sich auch für andere Projekte ein, wie z.B. für die Redefreiheit im Internet.
Matthias Ettrich
Matthias Ettrich (* 14. Juni 1972 in Bietigheim) ist der Initiator des KDE Projekts und Autor des grafischen TeX Frontends "LyX".
Er arbeitet zur Zeit bei Trolltech in Oslo an der Weiterentwicklung von QT, der Toolkitbasis von KDE.
Von:Linus Benedict Torvalds (torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI)
Betrifft:What would you like to see most in minix?
View: Complete Thread (8 Beiträge)
Original Format
Newsgroups:comp.os.minix
Datum:1991-08-25 23:12:08 PST
Hello everybody out there using minix -
I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and
professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing
since april, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback on
things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat
(same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons)
among other things).
I've currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work.
This implies that I'll get something practical within a few months, and
I'd like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions
are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)
Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi)
PS. Yes - it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs.
It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never
will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I have :-(.
Von:Linus Benedict Torvalds (torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI)
Betrifft:What would you like to see most in minix?
View this article only
Newsgroups:comp.os.minix
Datum:1991-08-25 23:12:08 PST
Hello everybody out there using minix -
I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and
professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing
since april, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback on
things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat
(same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons)
among other things).
I've currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work.
This implies that I'll get something practical within a few months, and
I'd like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions
are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)
Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi)
PS. Yes - it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs.
It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never
will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I have :-(.
Beitrag 2 aus der Diskussionsgruppe
Von:Jyrki Kuoppala (jkp@cs.HUT.FI)
Betrifft:Re: What would you like to see most in minix?
View this article only
Newsgroups:comp.os.minix
Datum:1991-08-25 23:26:09 PST
In article <1991Aug25.205708.9541@klaava.Helsinki.FI>, torvalds@klaava (Linus Benedict Torvalds) writes:
>I've currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work.
>This implies that I'll get something practical within a few months, and
>I'd like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions
>are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)
Tell us more! Does it need a MMU?
>PS. Yes - it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs.
>It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc)
How much of it is in C? What difficulties will there be in porting?
Nobody will believe you about non-portability ;-), and I for one would
like to port it to my Amiga (Mach needs a MMU and Minix is not free).
As for the features; well, pseudo ttys, BSD sockets, user-mode
filesystems (so I can say cat /dev/tcp/kruuna.helsinki.fi/finger),
window size in the tty structure, system calls capable of supporting
POSIX.1. Oh, and bsd-style long file names.
//Jyrki
Beitrag 3 aus der Diskussionsgruppe
Von:Linus Benedict Torvalds (torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI)
Betrifft:Re: What would you like to see most in minix?
View this article only
Newsgroups:comp.os.minix
Datum:1991-08-26 05:51:23 PST
In article <1991Aug25.234450.22562@nntp.hut.fi> jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala) writes:
>> [re: my post about my new OS]
>
>Tell us more! Does it need a MMU?
Yes, it needs a MMU (sorry everybody), and it specifically needs a
386/486 MMU (see later).
>
>>PS. Yes - it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs.
>>It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc)
>
>How much of it is in C? What difficulties will there be in porting?
>Nobody will believe you about non-portability ;-), and I for one would
>like to port it to my Amiga (Mach needs a MMU and Minix is not free).
Simply, I'd say that porting is impossible. It's mostly in C, but most
people wouldn't call what I write C. It uses every conceivable feature
of the 386 I could find, as it was also a project to teach me about the
386. As already mentioned, it uses a MMU, for both paging (not to disk
yet) and segmentation. It's the segmentation that makes it REALLY 386
dependent (every task has a 64Mb segment for code & data - max 64 tasks
in 4Gb. Anybody who needs more than 64Mb/task - tough cookies).
It also uses every feature of gcc I could find, specifically the __asm__
directive, so that I wouldn't need so much assembly language objects.
Some of my "C"-files (specifically mm.c) are almost as much assembler as
C. It would be "interesting" even to port it to another compiler (though
why anybody would want to use anything other than gcc is a mystery).
Unlike minix, I also happen to LIKE interrupts, so interrupts are
handled without trying to hide the reason behind them (I especially like
my hard-disk-driver. Anybody else make interrupts drive a state-
machine?). All in all it's a porters nightmare.
>As for the features; well, pseudo ttys, BSD sockets, user-mode
>filesystems (so I can say cat /dev/tcp/kruuna.helsinki.fi/finger),
>window size in the tty structure, system calls capable of supporting
>POSIX.1. Oh, and bsd-style long file names.
Most of these seem possible (the tty structure already has stubs for
window size), except maybe for the user-mode filesystems. As to POSIX,
I'd be delighted to have it, but posix wants money for their papers, so
that's not currently an option. In any case these are things that won't
be supported for some time yet (first I'll make it a simple minix-
lookalike, keyword SIMPLE).
Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi)
PS. To make things really clear - yes I can run gcc on it, and bash, and
most of the gnu [bin/file]utilities, but it's not very debugged, and the
library is really minimal. It doesn't even support floppy-disks yet. It
won't be ready for distribution for a couple of months. Even then it
probably won't be able to do much more than minix, and much less in some
respects. It will be free though (probably under gnu-license or similar).
Beitrag 4 aus der Diskussionsgruppe
Von:James da Silva (jds@cs.umd.edu)
Betrifft:Re: What would you like to see most in minix?
View this article only
Newsgroups:comp.os.minix
Datum:1991-08-26 11:02:35 PST
In article <1991Aug26.110602.19446@klaava.Helsinki.FI> torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds) writes:
>Unlike minix, I also happen to LIKE interrupts, so interrupts are
>handled without trying to hide the reason behind them (I especially like
>my hard-disk-driver. Anybody else make interrupts drive a state-
>machine?).
Sure. For one example, Alessandro Forin's Mach SCSI adapter drivers are
written this way. A comment from his code:
/*
* This layer works based on small simple 'scripts' that are installed
* at the start of the command and drive the chip to completion.
* The idea comes from the specs of the NCR 53C700 'script' processor.
*
* There are various reasons for this, mainly
* - Performance: identify the common (successful) path, and follow it;
* at interrupt time no code is needed to find the current status
* - Code size: it should be easy to compact common operations
* - Adaptability: the code skeleton should adapt to different chips without
* terrible complications.
* - Error handling: and it is easy to modify the actions performed
* by the scripts to cope with strange but well identified sequences
*
*/
An interesting way to write a device driver. I believe this is a very old
technique, too.
Good luck on your OS project, it sounds like a lot of fun.
Jaime
...........................................................................
: domain: jds@cs.umd.edu James da Silva
: path: uunet!mimsy!jds Systems Design & Analysis Group
Beitrag 5 aus der Diskussionsgruppe
Von:Alan Barclay (alan@ukpoit.co.uk)
Betrifft:Re: What would you like to see most in minix?
View this article only
Newsgroups:comp.os.minix
Datum:1991-08-27 14:04:11 PST
In article <1991Aug26.110602.19446@klaava.Helsinki.FI> torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds) writes:
>yet) and segmentation. It's the segmentation that makes it REALLY 386
>dependent (every task has a 64Mb segment for code & data - max 64 tasks
>in 4Gb. Anybody who needs more than 64Mb/task - tough cookies).
>
Is that max 64 64Mb tasks or max 64 tasks no matter what their size?
--
Alan Barclay
iT | E-mail : alan@ukpoit.uucp
Barker Lane | BANG-STYLE : .....!ukc!ukpoit!alan
CHESTERFIELD S40 1DY | VOICE : +44 246 214241
Beitrag 6 aus der Diskussionsgruppe
Von:Linus Benedict Torvalds (torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI)
Betrifft:Re: What would you like to see most in minix?
View this article only
Newsgroups:comp.os.minix
Datum:1991-08-28 06:01:01 PST
In article <1991Aug27.143432.10473@ukpoit.co.uk> alan@ukpoit.co.uk (Alan Barclay) writes:
>In article <1991Aug26.110602.19446@klaava.Helsinki.FI> torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds) writes:
>>yet) and segmentation. It's the segmentation that makes it REALLY 386
>>dependent (every task has a 64Mb segment for code & data - max 64 tasks
>>in 4Gb. Anybody who needs more than 64Mb/task - tough cookies).
>>
>
>Is that max 64 64Mb tasks or max 64 tasks no matter what their size?
I'm afraid that is 64 tasks max (and one is used as swapper), no matter
how small they should be. Fragmentation is evil - this is how it was
handled. As the current opinion seems to be that 64 Mb is more than
enough, but 64 tasks might be a little crowded, I'll probably change the
limits be easily changed (to 32Mb/128 tasks for example) with just a
recompilation of the kernel. I don't want to be on the machine when
someone is spawning >64 processes, though :-)
Linus
Beitrag 7 aus der Diskussionsgruppe
Von:Peter Holzer (hp@vmars.tuwien.ac.at)
Betrifft:Re: What would you like to see most in minix?
View this article only
Newsgroups:comp.os.minix
Datum:1991-08-26 10:42:41 PST
jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala) writes:
>In article <1991Aug25.205708.9541@klaava.Helsinki.FI>, torvalds@klaava (Linus Benedict Torvalds) writes:
>>This implies that I'll get something practical within a few months, and
>>I'd like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions
>>are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)
>As for the features; well, pseudo ttys, BSD sockets, user-mode
>filesystems (so I can say cat /dev/tcp/kruuna.helsinki.fi/finger),
>window size in the tty structure, system calls capable of supporting
>POSIX.1. Oh, and bsd-style long file names.
On a lower level:
I don't like the chmem mechanism of Minix. Processes should start with
a minimal size and grow as they need to until they run out of RAM or
disk space. Paging to disk would be nice, too.
If your OS is message based I would like to have arbitrarily large
messages. They could be implemented efficiently by mapping the pages
into the receivers address space (or just passing a pointer on 68k
systems without MMU). Oh, yes, and the addressing scheme for messages
should be different than in Minix. Messages should not be sent to
process slot numbers, but to ports. That way, user processes can use
messages, too, and it is easier to add your own servers.
PS: I am very interested in this OS. I have already thought of writing
my own OS, but decided I wouldn't have the time to write everything from
scratch. But I guess I could find the time to help raising a baby
OS :-)
--
| _ | Peter J. Holzer | Think of it |
| |_|_) | Technical University Vienna | as evolution |
| | | | Dept. for Real-Time Systems | in action! |
| __/ | hp@vmars.tuwien.ac.at | Tony Rand |
Beitrag 8 aus der Diskussionsgruppe
Von:Adam David (adamd@rhi.hi.is)
Betrifft:Re: What would you like to see most in minix?
View this article only
Newsgroups:comp.os.minix
Datum:1991-08-26 22:12:00 PST
One of the things that really bugs me about minix is the way device drivers
have to be compiled into the kernel. So, how about doing some sensible
installable device driver code (same goes for minix 2.0 whenever).
--
Adam David.
(adamd@rhi.hi.is)