The Growth of the Linux and Open Source Channel since 1989
![The Growth of the Linux and Open Source Channel since 1989 The Growth of the Linux and Open Source Channel since 1989](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blt7f2849bb7c31fd85/6524669cc39fc8d3dfdd6432/linux48_0.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
In November 1989 John Gilmore (pictured here with Richard Stallman in 2009), Michael Tiemann and David Henkel-Wallace founded Cygnus Solutions, the first company to specialize in support services for free software.
Cygnus appeared a time when free software (the term "open source software" did not yet exist) remained relatively obscure and unproven in business settings. GNU was the only major free software project, and Linus Torvalds had not yet started writing Linux. But Cygnus thrived, increasing its bookings from 725,000 dollars during its first full year of operation to 5,700,000 dollars five years later.
By showing that it was possible to make money with software that was given away for free, Cygnus played a key role in pioneering what would become the Linux (and GNU) ecosystem.
Sold by Berkeley-based Yggdrasil Computing, Inc., and named after a holy ash tree from Norse mythology, now-defunct Yggdrasil became available for testing in December 1992 as the first commercial GNU/Linux operating system. The stable version had a price tag of 99 dollars.
Yggdrasil was no runaway commercial success, but it was important as the first platform with a Linux kernel that people paid to use.
Yggdrasil also had the distinction of being the first major distribution available as a "live" CD, which could run in memory without making any permanent changes to the computer. Plus, it could be installed from a single CD — a nice feature in an era when other Linux distributions required as many as seventy-three floppy disks for installation!
Red Hat debuted as a GNU/Linux distribution in October 1994. Named for the Cornell University lacrosse hat that the distribution's founder, Marc Ewing, wore as a student at Carnegie Mellon, the system became the basis for Red Hat the company, the first open source business to go public. (More on that in the next slide…)
Red Hat the company was born in 1995, when Bob Young partnered with Marc Ewing, creator of the Red Hat GNU/Linux distribution, to found Red Hat Software, Inc. Young had previously owned a company called ACC Corporation, which distributed software and documentation for Unix-like systems in the early 1990s.
In Red Hat's early days, it tried to sell Red Hat GNU/Linux and other FOSS products through major retail outlets, such as CompUSA. It ended up creating the Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform and building what is probably the best known brand within the open source ecosystem today.
On August 11, 1999, Red Hat became the first FOSS business to go public. It merged with Cygnus Solutions a few months later.
Red Hat's spectacular success as a publicly traded company was equaled only by the stunning failure of VA Linux after it also went public in 1999.
Founded in 1993, VA Linux attempted to pioneer yet another FOSS-based business strategy. It sold computers with GNU/Linux preinstalled, aiming to compete with the likes of Dell. The company expanded rapidly, boasting 100 million dollars in annual sales by 1998. It went public on December 9, 1999.
Priced initially at thirty dollars per share, the company's stock gained 698 percent in its first day of trading, the highest rise in NASDAQ history. But a year later it was trading for 8.49 dollars per share, about 3.3 percent of its initial high.
In 2005 Google acquired a company called Android, Inc., which built software for digital cameras. Google then turned Android into a Linux-based OS for mobile phones. It issued the first production Android release in November 2007.
In 2010 Google started selling Android-based phones of its own. Three years later Android claimed a stunning eighty percent of global mobile device market share.
You can debate whether or not Android is "really" Linux. But you can't deny its importance in creating enormous partner opportunities in the mobile space.
Rackspace in July 2010 announced the launch of OpenStack, an open source operating system for the cloud. It was based on code created by Rackspace for its hosting business, as well as technology from Nebula, a hosting platform used by NASA.
Today, OpenStack faces plenty of competition from other cloud services, but it's not going anywhere anytime soon. By April 2016 more than 110 companies and 1,100 individuals were active contributors to OpenStack, which assures that Linux will have a long future as the basis for cloud platforms.
A couple of years ago Microsoft announced that it "loves" Linux. From there, the company, whose former CEO once called Linux a "cancer," has forged all manner of partnerships with open source companies like Red Hat and Canonical, and it has made its own technology much easier to use on open source platforms.
Whatever one thinks about Microsoft's true intentions, the company's decision to embrace open source has created plenty of new integration opportunities surrounding Linux.
A couple of years ago Microsoft announced that it "loves" Linux. From there, the company, whose former CEO once called Linux a "cancer," has forged all manner of partnerships with open source companies like Red Hat and Canonical, and it has made its own technology much easier to use on open source platforms.
Whatever one thinks about Microsoft's true intentions, the company's decision to embrace open source has created plenty of new integration opportunities surrounding Linux.
The Linux kernel was born twenty-five years ago this summer. Since that time a thriving partner ecosystem has arisen around open source platforms built on Linux, GNU and other free and open source software products. Here's a look at milestones in the evolution of the Linux channel and partner ecosystem.
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