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Template:Two other uses The XO laptop project of One Laptop Per Child is creating a new and potentially much larger Linux community which is planned to reach millions of schoolchildren and their families in the developing world. Major supporters of the project include Google, Red Hat, and eBay. Although the XO will have a Windows option, it will be primarily deployed with Fedora Linux while using Sugar as the desktop environment.

For years Linux has been the platform of choice in the film industry. The first major film produced on Linux servers was 1997's Titanic. Since then major studios including Dreamworks Animation, Pixar, Weta Digital, and Industrial Light & Magic have migrated to Linux. According to the Linux Movies Group, more than 95% of the servers and desktops at large animation and visual effects companies use Linux.

Copyright and naming

Linux and most GNU software are licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The GPL requires that anyone who distributes Linux must make the source code (and any modifications) available to the recipient under the same terms. Other key components of a software system may use other licenses; many libraries use the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), a more permissive variant of the GPL, and the X.org implementation of the X Window System uses the MIT License.

Torvalds states that the Linux kernel will not move from version 2 of the GPL to version 3. He specifically dislikes some provisions in the new license which prohibit the use of the software in digital rights management, and it would also be impractical to obtain permission from all the copyright holders, who number in the thousands.

A 2001 study of Red Hat Linux 7.1 found that this distribution contained 30 million source lines of code. Using the Constructive Cost Model, the study estimated that this distribution required about eight thousand man-years of development time. According to the study, if all this software had been developed by conventional proprietary means, it would have cost about $1.91 billion (2024 US dollars) to develop in the United States.

Most of the code (71%) was written in the C programming language, but many other languages were used, including C++, assembly language, Perl, Python, Fortran, and various shell scripting languages. Slightly over half of all lines of code were licensed under the GPL. The Linux kernel itself was 2.4 million lines of code, or 8% of the total.

In a later study, the same analysis was performed for Debian GNU/Linux version 4.0 (etch, which was released in 2007). This distribution contained close to 283 million source lines of code, and the study estimated that it would have required about seventy three thousand man-years and cost US$10.5 billion (in 2024 dollars) to develop by conventional means.

In the United States, the name Linux is a trademark registered to Linus Torvalds. Initially, nobody registered it, but on 15 August 1994, William R. Della Croce, Jr. filed for the trademark Linux, and then demanded royalties from Linux distributors. In 1996, Torvalds and some affected organizations sued him to have the trademark assigned to Torvalds, and in 1997 the case was settled. The licensing of the trademark has since been handled by the Linux Mark Institute. Torvalds has stated that he trademarked the name only to prevent someone else from using it. LMI originally charged a nominal sublicensing fee for use of the Linux name as part of trademarks, but later changed this in favor of offering a free, perpetual worldwide sublicense.

GNU/Linux

The Free Software Foundation views Linux distributions that use GNU software as GNU variants and they ask that such operating systems be referred to as GNU/Linux or a Linux-based GNU system. The media and common usage, however, refers to this family of operating systems simply as Linux, as do many large Linux distributions (e.g. SUSE Linux or Mandriva Linux). Some distributions, notably those based on Debian, use GNU/Linux. The naming issue remains controversial.

See also

• List of Linux distributions
• Comparison of Linux distributions
• Comparison of open source and closed source
• Comparison of operating systems
• Comparison of Windows and Linux
• Linux Documentation Project
• Linux Mark Institute
• Linux.com
• List of operating systems
• Usage share of operating systems
• 9885 Linux

References

1. "mission". laptop.org. Retrieved 2008-08-14.
2. One Laptop per Child (OLPC), a low-cost, connected laptop for the world's children's education
3. "Industry of Change: Linux Storms Hollywood". Retrieved 2009-03-11.
4. "Tux with Shades, Linux in Hollywood". Retrieved 2009-03-11.
5. "Weta Digital – Jobs". Retrieved 2010-11-17.
6. "LinuxMovies.org – Advancing Linux Motion Picture Technology". Retrieved 2009-03-11.
7. Torvalds, Linus (2006-01-26). "Re: GPL V3 and Linux ─ Dead Copyright Holders". Linux Kernel Mailing List.
8. Torvalds, Linus (2006-09-25). "Re: GPLv3 Position Statement". Linux Kernel Mailing List.
9. "– Keeping an Eye on the Penguin". Linux-watch.com. 2006-02-07. Retrieved 2010-11-09.
10. ^ Wheeler, David A (2002-07-29). "More Than a Gigabuck: Estimating GNU/Linux's Size". Retrieved 2006-05-11.
11. Amor, Juan José (17 June 2007). "Measuring Etch: the size of Debian 4.0" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-09-16. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
12. "U.S. Reg No: 1916230". United States Patent and Trademark Office. Retrieved 2006-04-01.
13. "Linux Timeline". Linux Journal. 31 May 2006.
14. Neil McAllister (2005-09-05). "Linus gets tough on Linux trademark". InfoWorld. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
15. "Linux Mark Institute". Retrieved 2008-02-24. LMI has restructured its sublicensing program. Our new sublicense agreement is: Free – approved sublicense holders pay no fees; Perpetual – sublicense terminates only in breach of the agreement or when your organization ceases to use its mark; Worldwide – one sublicense covers your use of the mark anywhere in the world
16. Stallman, Richard (2007-03-03). "Linux and the GNU Project". Free Software Foundation. Retrieved 2007-03-12.

External links

• Template:Dmoz
• Graphical map of GNU/Linux OS Internals
• Linux kernel website and archives
• Linux.org

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