Milestones in the creation of Linux

+1960s No one can argue that with the introduction of Unix in the 1960s we would not have Linux today. It was originally developed by AT&T employees at Bell Labs

History of UNIX systems

+1983 The GNU project was started with the purpose of creating a free UNIX style operating system consisting of free and open source software (FOSS)

+1980s BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) was a free operating system project developed from AT&T’s 6th edition of Unix.

+1991 Linus Torvalds realized his terminal emulator based on Minix was turning into an operating system, and this was the makings of today’s Linux kernel

Linus Torvalds

+1992 Linus suggested releasing the kernel under the GNU General Public License. He first announced this decision in the release notes of version 0.12. In the middle of December 1992 he published version 0.99 using the GNU GPL.

Linux and GNU developers worked to integrate GNU components with Linux to make a fully-functional and free operating system. Torvalds has stated, “making Linux GPL’d was definitely the best thing I ever did.”