For the 25th anniversary of the Linux kernel, I gave a 25 years of Linux in 5 minutes[1] lightning talk at All Things Open[2] in Raleigh. As we approach the kernel's 27th anniversary, I'd like to take a stroll down memory lane and look back at the three releases that have been most significant to me.
Linux 2.4.x
Initially released in January of 2001, the 2.4.x series[3] was significant in the kernel's history and contained many major milestones. USB and Bluetooth support were added, ext3 was released, LVM was introduced, ISA Plug-and-Play support was included, and much, much more.
Although 2.4.x was a successful and long-lived series released during a critical time for Linux adoption, it's significant to me for an entirely different reason. Starting with 2.4.19, I maintained an -lq patchset[4] that became surprisingly popular. In fact, despite my assurances that it would probably result in your machine starting on fire, I found out a couple large companies were using it in production. The patchset began with my desire to have rmap and the O(1) scheduler in the same kernel. It grew based on feature requests from there. I ended up winding down the project after those two features were rolled into mainline, but it was a great learning experience and a rewarding project that I look back on fondly.
Linux 0.99.5
This was the Linux kernel version installed with the first version of Linux that I managed to use on a daily basis. The distribution was Yggdrasil[5], included with Linux Bible[6]. Linux was a bit more raw back then, and it took me a few tries to convert my main