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The Linux kernel is publicly announced on August 25 by then 21year old Finnish student Linus Benedict Torvalds. On September 17 the first public version appears on an ftp server. Some developers are interested in the project and contribute improvements and extensions.
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More than 100 developers work on the Linux kernel. With its help the kernel is adapted to the GNU environment, which creates a huge spectrum of application types for the new operating system created from the union of software from the GNU Project, various Free Software programs and the Linux kernel. In this year, also the Wine project begins its development and the oldest currently active distribution, Slackware, is released for the first time.
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In March, the next stable Linux branch appears, the 1.2 series. Later, Linux is ported to the DEC and SUNSPARC computing platforms. During the following years it is transported to an increasing number of platforms.
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Computer companies like IBM, Compaq and Oracle announce support for Linux. In addition, a group of programmers begins to develop the KDE graphical user interface, the first of its kind for Linux, with the aim of providing user-friendliness.
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The Linux kernel 2.2 series was released in January with improved networking and SMP support. At the same time, a group of developers begins to work on the GNOME graphical environment, which will compete with KDE in terms of ease of use and efficiency for the user. During that year, IBM announces an extensive project to support Linux.
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In January, the 2.4 series of the Linux kernel is released. The Linux kernel now supports up to 64 Gb of RAM, 64-bit systems, USB devices, and a journaling file system
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At the end of the year, the 2.6 series of the Linux kernel is released, after which Linus Torvalds goes to work for the OSDL. Linux is most widely used on embedded systems.
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The openSUSE project is started as a free distribution from the Novell community. In addition, the OpenOffice.org project plans to release version 2.0 that supports the OASIS OpenDocument standard in October.
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May 19, 2008: The Free Software Foundation releases Linux-libre, a fork of Linux that does not include any proprietary BLOBs, such as device firmware, in its distribution. December 24, 2008 Linux 2.6.28 was released with 10,195,402 lines of code.
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May 30, 2011: Linus Torvalds announced14 that the kernel version will be upgraded to 3.0 in the next release. July 21, 2011: Torvalds posted on his Google+ profile that kernel version 3.0 was ready with the phrase "3.0 PushedOut".
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Many users are calling 2017 the year of the Gnu/Linux desktop. The year in which the free operating system conquers the Desktop and desktop computers. A conquest that seems more idealized than real, but even so, the Penguin's conquest in this field is advancing.