Security Strategies in Linux Platforms and Applications, 3rd Edition

The Origins of Linux

The Linux operating system is part of a very long and complicated family tree that began in the 1960s. In 1964, MIT joined with General Electric and Bell Labs to create a ­multiuser, time-sharing operating system. At the time, computers cost hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars and were generally used only by a single user or ­process at a time. The goal of this project was to create an operating system that would allow multiple processes to run, seemingly simultaneously. The operating system was named Multics, short for Multiplexed Information and Computing Service, and its design reflected the concern about protecting one user from another user.

Two members of the Multics team from Bell Labs, Ken Thompson and ...