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Linux operating system: a marginal phenomenon on PCs, almost everywhere else
Photo: imago images / imagebroker / begsteiger
The story of the universal Linux operating system, which practically everyone uses, began with a tremendous low-stake. "I'm working on a (free) operating system (just a hobby, it won't be big and professional ...)", the Finnish student Linus Torvalds wrote on August 25, 1991. At the time, he couldn't imagine that 30 years later Linux would not only be based on Around 80 percent of all smartphones will run, but are found in almost every modern car and numerous other devices. Even the Mars helicopter “Ingenuity”, which explores the red planet together with the “Perseverance” ground vehicle, is powered by Linux.
Linux was initially only intended to run on the widespread PCs with x86 chips from Intel. Even then, the architecture specified by Torvalds was in principle suitable for being used as an operating system regardless of the existing hardware. Today, all high-performance computers that are on the top 500 list of the fastest computers run on the free operating system, which has overtaken the technically related Unix. Because Linux can also run on smartphones, the system is the foundation for Google's Android.
In contrast to commercial software platforms such as Microsoft's Windows, Linux was free from the start in two senses of the word: free as free speech and free as free beer.
The fact that no license payments were due promoted the spread immensely.
In addition, there were early technical fundamental decisions by Torvalds and his team, which in retrospect have proven to be spot on.
For example, the installation of the Internet protocol TCP / IP.
"A cancerous ulcer"
Torvalds and his colleagues initially met with opposition, especially in their own scene. The influential computer scientist Andrew Tanenbaum could not imagine how distributed programming should succeed: "I think that coordinating 1000 prima donuts that live all over the world is as easy as herding cats," Tanenbaum wrote in one now legendary debate on Usenet.
But the distributed system worked.
And with the spread of Linux, even large software companies got nervous.
"Linux is a cancer that affects everything it touches in terms of intellectual property," the then Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer rumbled in an interview in 2001.
He was bothered by the basic idea of free software: the source code of software must not be a trade secret, but is made available to all interested parties.
Then others can improve and add to the code, but have to make it available again for the community.
Under Ballmer's successor, Satya Nadella, Microsoft made its peace with Linux and uses the system itself for some cloud applications.
Blueprint for open source projects
A program development as "open source" as with Linux is now practically a prerequisite for many complex software projects.
This is how the RKI's corona warning app was created open-source and under a free license.
The program code could be viewed on the Github platform and suggestions for changes could be submitted to the app makers of the software group SAP and Deutsche Telekom.
Linux, however, has not made the breakthrough in all areas.
With the Linux variant Android, the system dominates the mass market for smartphones.
Most of the web servers in the network also run on Linux.
But of all things with the platform for which Linux was invented 30 years ago, namely with ordinary desktop computers, the system plays a subordinate role.
No success on the desk
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The analytics company Statcounter recently recorded a market share of almost 2.4 percent for Linux, while Windows was installed on 73 percent of PCs.
The 1.2 percent for portable Chromebooks with Google's Chrome OS software, which is also a Linux variant, can be added to the Linux camp.
In the past few years, the dominance of Microsoft was most likely to have been questioned by Apple with the macOS operating system.
The Apple software currently has a market share of 15.4 percent.
There are several reasons why Linux has never really gained a foothold on the PC: On the one hand, manufacturers such as Lenovo, Dell and HP do not deliver their devices "naked", ie without an operating system, but with a pre-installed Windows.
It is not clear to buyers how high the share for Windows is in the purchase price, because it is not shown separately.
The problem with the applications
For a long time it was also quite complicated for technical laypeople to install Linux.
In the meantime, Linux distributions like Ubuntu can be made up and running with just a few clicks of the mouse.
But the system still has a reputation for being complicated.
In the early Linux phase, there were no applications that one knew as a Windows or Mac user.
Some of them do not exist to this day, such as Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft's Office programs and many games.
Proponents of Linux point out that a number of programs for image processing, daily office tasks or for gaming have long been available.
But even Torvalds admitted in 2014 that it was "damn complicated" for programmers to make applications available for Linux because there is no uniform system, but rather many different Linux distributions.
You can't do everything yourself
Linux programmer Linus Torvalds with Tux, the operating system's mascot (archive image)
Photo: AP
As the leading developer of the Linux operating system kernel, Torvalds has only limited influence on how the different variants are designed. He is also dependent on hardware manufacturers getting involved and providing suitable drivers. If a manufacturer such as the graphics card provider Nvidia refuses, all they can do is curse them on the open stage and show the finger. Things have calmed down around Torvalds in recent years, also because the father of the free operating system took a break in 2018.
In the meantime, Torvalds is active again and now and again distributes heavily on the mailing lists for everything to do with Linux development.
Most recently he made headlines when he reprimanded vaccine skeptics: "You don't know what you're talking about, you don't know what mRNA is and you spread stupid lies."
Christoph Dernbach, dpa