this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2025
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Reminder that Linux's decision to write an entire kernel in C and not a mix of C and assembly was just as controversial back then as Rust vs C is now. The pro-assembly programmers used many similar arguments as the anti-Rust programmers (it's bloated, it's too high level for the kernel, it has a complicated compiler, it's just a pointless abstraction over what's actually happening at the processor level, it's not mature enough, if you were competent in assembly you wouldn't need to use C, if assembly is too difficult for you then you shouldn't even be developing a kernel, etc). Now Linux is hailed as one of the pioneer software projects that led the switch from assembly to C for kernel level code.
was linux ever in majority assembly? was the C thing added on by a separate team?