Happy Birthday, Linux!

The idea behind Linux was to make it free and freely accessible to everyone from the outset - apart from the cost of the floppy disks to distribute the program in the open source community.

Linux was inspired by Unix and GNU, but was developed from scratch. While the so-called Unix wars raged in the 1980s, Linux took over the pioneering role almost unnoticed because the open source community resisted the restrictions of commercialization and licensing models.

The dynamic open source concept has paid off: Linux is now the most widely installed universal operating system - and it is the operating system of over 90 percent of all supercomputers worldwide. Even on Mars, Ingenuity - the tiny helicopter that was the first to fly on a planet other than Earth - runs on Linux. This is why Linux is sometimes compared to air: You can't see it, but you can bet it's there.

Linux itself is basically just a kernel that is developed and maintained by thousands of kernel developers in companies or as individuals. This kernel consists of over eight million lines of code, and over 1000 contributors work on each new version. All applications that run under Linux come from distributions developed by open source companies for specific areas of use.

Linux is now more prevalent than ever before: social media, games, cars, NASA computers, televisions, Apple, routers, POS systems, medical devices and smart watches all run on Linux. It is therefore not just an operating system, but also the biggest phenomenon ever to hit the IT industry.

There are still no signs that the open source idea is losing momentum. The community consists of 56 million contributors, and the trend is rising.