Richard Stallman at MIT in the early 1980s, plotting open-source world domination


Linux’s story is a long, crazy ride, so let’s buckle up. Back in the early 1980s, Richard Stallman – a hacker at MIT – got pissed off by a printer. The lab’s new Xerox laser printer wouldn’t let him tweak the code (he had gotten the old printer to beep when your job finished!), so he decided to create a free UNIX-like OS where users could modify everything. Stallman started the GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation to build this open operating system. By the early 1990s, GNU had almost everything except a working kernel. Meanwhile, Finnish student Linus Torvalds began tinkering with a UNIX-like kernel (with GNU tools like GCC) as a hobby in 1991. Torvalds released this Linux kernel under a free license, and boom – combine GNU’s tools with Linux, and you essentially have a complete operating system. (Stallman insists on calling it “GNU/Linux,” but most people just say “Linux.”)

Linus Torvalds announcing Linux kernel v0.01 in 1991.

So now we have a free kernel (Linux) and lots of free GNU software, all open source and modifiable by anyone. The stage is set for massive collaboration. Almost immediately people forked and packaged this stack into distributions (distros). The first big distro was Debian (started August 1993 by Ian Murdock). Debian grew from a small group into a huge, community-driven project. Anyone could grab Debian’s source code, tweak it, and share their own distro – and they did. Today Debian is one of the most influential distros because it’s rock-solid and “pure” free software. (It was even briefly sponsored by Stallman’s FSF, and its manifesto made clear it was meant to harness the free-software community)

By now, Linux looks like a family tree on steroids. Debian sits at a major junction, with branches like Ubuntu sprouting off, and each of those spawning their own offshoots. (Seriously, there are so many distros that many differ only by wallpaper.) The open-source nature means anyone can “fork” a distro – copy the codebase, change stuff (often just the theme and icons), and call it a new distribution. The chart above (the famous Linux distro timeline) gives a taste of the chaos. Debian’s open “source everywhere” approach led to an explosion: thousands of distro names exist now, all legal and free to use. No wonder beginners often ask “Which Linux should I pick?” – it can feel overwhelming.

To cut through the confusion, Linux distros are often grouped by their package management system. For example:

  • Debian-based (APT packages): Debian itself and its many descendants like Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop!_OS, etc. (They use .deb packages and the APT or Aptitude tools.)

  • Red Hat-based (RPM packages): Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and its community offshoots like Fedora, CentOS (now Rocky/AlmaLinux), and Oracle Linux. (These use .rpm packages and tools like dnf/yum.)

  • SUSE/openSUSE (RPM): SUSE Linux and openSUSE (also RPMs, but with their own management tools like YaST).

  • Others: Slackware (one of the oldest, with simple tarball packages), Arch Linux (rolling-release, uses pacman), Gentoo (source-based, portage).

Each branch has its fans. But let’s follow the Debian/Ubuntu branch a bit more, since it’s huge.

The Linux family tree is bigger than most actual families.

Debian’s popularity led to Ubuntu (first released 2004), created by Canonical (Mark Shuttleworth’s company) to be a user-friendly Linux. Ubuntu is literally built on Debian – it pulls from Debian’s “unstable” branch and repackages it. Canonical set Ubuntu to come out twice a year (roughly April and October releases). Every 4th release (April of even years) is a Long-Term Support (LTS) version, which gets security updates for 5 years. In between LTS, non-LTS versions are supported for about 9 months. (For example, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS “Noble Numbat” supports until 2029, while 24.10 will only be supported until July 2025.) These predictable cycles ensured new features while keeping Debian’s stability under the hood.

Ubuntu became super popular, so it in turn spawned flavors and forks. Canonical started official “flavors” with different desktops:

  • Kubuntu – Ubuntu + KDE Plasma (the powerful, customizable Qt-based desktop).

  • Ubuntu Studio, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Budgie, etc. – each bundles a different desktop or toolkit.

These flavors still use the same base Ubuntu repository and package system, but cater to different tastes. For instance, Kubuntu “unites Ubuntu with KDE”, meaning you get all your Ubuntu apps but with the KDE Frameworks and Plasma interface instead of Ubuntu’s default.

Desktop Environments: KDE vs Unity

Besides the OS distribution, another big choice in Linux-land is the desktop environment (DE) – basically the look and feel of the user interface. Two notable ones are KDE and Unity.

  • KDE (Plasma): A community-developed DE (originally “K Desktop Environment”) known for its polish and customization. KDE Plasma is written in Qt and offers fancy widgets, multiple workspaces, and virtually every setting you could imagine. The screenshot below is of KDE Plasma (as used by Kubuntu).

    KDE Plasma desktop (as in Kubuntu). It’s Qt-based and highly customizable.

  • Unity: An interface originally developed by Canonical for Ubuntu (default from 2011–2017). Unity had a distinctive global menu bar, HUD (head-up display) search, and a launcher on the side. Ubuntu moved away from GNOME 2 to Unity in 2011. After 6.5 years they switched back to GNOME 3 in 2017, but Unity lives on as a separate flavor (Ubuntu Unity) maintained by fans. The screenshot below is Ubuntu Unity 24.04, showing Unity’s HUD, global menu, and Dash.

Ubuntu with the Unity desktop (Unity Tweak Tool, HUD, etc.).

KDE and Unity are just examples – Linux has many other DEs (GNOME, XFCE, MATE, LXQt, Budgie, Cinnamon, etc.). The beauty (or madness) of Linux is you can pick and mix. Kubuntu gives you KDE; the main Ubuntu gives you GNOME (or Unity if you download that flavor); Xubuntu uses the lightweight XFCE; etc.

The Microsoft Fanbois (and Why They’re Eating Crow)

Yes, this really happened.

Ah, and of course we can’t forget the classic Microsoft vs. Linux saga. Back in the day, Microsoft called Linux “a cancer” and viewed open source as its enemy. Windows fanboys reveled in it. But times change. Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella famously put up a slide saying “Microsoft ♥ Linux” in 2015. Today Microsoft contributes significant code to Linux (by 2011 it was already the 5th-largest contributor to the Linux 3.0 kernel) and even powers Linux in its cloud – over 20% of Azure VMs run Linux! So yes, the same people who insisted only Windows could cut it are now ironically big Linux users. Go figure. ????

The takeaway? Whether you’re a Linux ninja or a Windows fan, Linux is no longer some fringe toy OS. It’s everywhere: servers, phones (Ubuntu Touch), IoT devices, supercomputers, and even on Windows via WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux). It’s a massive, free, ever-changing ecosystem of code – and it all started with a frustrated hacker and a hobbyist kid with a computer.

Key facts to remember: Linux began as Stallman’s free-software UNIX replacement and Torvalds’ kernel. Distributions (distros) like Debian, Red Hat, and Ubuntu bundle that code into usable OSes. Debian (1993) is one of the oldest, spawning Ubuntu (2004). Ubuntu popularized easy desktop Linux and has a six-month release train plus long-term support (LTS) versions. You can choose different GUIs – KDE, Unity, GNOME, XFCE, etc. And by being open-source, anyone (yes, even that guy at Microsoft) can use and improve it.

So pick your flavor and have fun – Linux is basically a choose-your-own-adventure for operating systems.

Written By 
Aash Gates
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