Linux evolution

Linux development was started in 1991 by Linus Torvalds, inspired by UNIX (Developed by AT&T in the 1970s).

In 1992, it adopts the General Public License (GPL) allowing the use, modification, copy and redistribution of the OS. This kickstarted the Linux community.

In 1994, Torvalds launched the 1.0 version of the Linux Kernel with the addition of the GNU operating system as an alternative for the (Expensive) UNIX or DOS based OSs.

1993 Debian GNU/Linux: Launched by Ian Murdock. Pretty stable and used mainly in servers. By default it doesn't include any proprietary software.

1994 Red Hat: Develop and maintained by the Red Hat company (acquired by IBM in 2019). Offers support and payed license. In 2003 it changed its name to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

1994 SUSE: Over the years SUSE Linux became mostly known for its YaST configuration tool. This tool allows administrators to install and configure software and hardware, set up servers and networks.

2002 Arch: The project was started by Judd Vinet. Arch Linux is a general-purpose operating system that is free and open source and designed for intermediate to advanced users. [See more](The History of Arch Linux Distribution and Repositories (ubuntumint.com))

2004 Ubuntu: Created by Mark Shuttleworth and its company Canonical. Its objective is to conquer the desktop environment, but there is also a server version. Canonical usually launches a Long Term Support (LTS) version every 2 years.