9 Projects that CHANGED the Linux world!

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#Linux #opensource

00:00 Intro
00:39 Sponsor: 100$ free credit for your Linux or Gaming servers
01:31 The GNU Project: the actual OS
03:31 Slackware: paving the way
05:02 Yggdrasil: The First Live CD
05:54 X11: yay, graphics!
07:02 Red hat & SUSE: commercial open source
08:54 Debian: the embodiment of FOSS
10:09 Ubuntu: making Linux usable by everyone
11:51 Wine: making Linux gaming possible
13:49 Sponsor: Get a PC made to run Linux, from Tuxedo
14:38 Support the channel

The GNU project was started by Richard Stallman all the way back in 1985, with the main goal of promoting free software, and providing an alternative to proprietary software, that was spreading like wildfire. While GNU was on point for the operating system related tools, they definitely did not manage to make a good kernel. GNU needed a kernel, Linux needed some tools to use that kernel, so it was a match made in heaven.

Slackware isn’t the very first Linux distribution that was created, that honor goes to an unnamed one, distributed on 2 floppies by HJ Lu. But Slackware is the distro that put Linux on the radar for people who were tired of Unix.

UNIX WARS video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF9cus43RMY

Slackware was the first credible alternative to using one of the Unixes on a server, and people noticed. It was stable, reliable, and it followed the Unix principles closely.

Ok, now, something you might not know about: Yggdrasil Linux. It was another Linux distro, with its first alpha version released at the very end of 1992, and what makes it special, is the fact that it was the first to bring a Live CD to Linux.

We also have to talk about X.org. This thing is what powered the graphical part of Linux, the visual elements you can interact with, for most of its existence, and it’s still used by millions today, even though Wayland is absolutely usable these days.

Without XFree86 or X.org as it became to be known, Linux as we know it would probably not exist.

Now, we also have Red hat, and SUSE: they were the first commercial Linux distributions that proved that yes, you could combine open source and making money, and yes, Linux could be a successful product.

On the other side of the fence is Debian, an old distribution dating from 1993 and that of course still exists today. And it’s NOT a commercial entity, even today, all while being a big name in the Linux world.

Debian’s contribution to Linux is the living embodiement of the principles of open source, free software, and the community.

And speaking of Ubuntu, it might not be the paragon of the Linux desktop it once was, but when it was introduced, it was a small revolution. It was a Linux distribution for everyone, not for computer enthusiasts.

Ubuntu showed that Linux COULD be for everyone, when most other distributions never really targeted the general public, or never really focused on the user experience.

Another hugely influential project that made Linux wonderful is Wine. Wine is the compatibility layer that lets you run Windows programs on Linux. Wine is a very important project, because without it, Proton wouldn’t exist, gaming on Linux virtually wouldn’t exist either, and the Steam Deck would never have been a success, or maybe even worked on.