WI Linus Torvalds compiled the first Linux kernel for a different microprocessor?

WI Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel, decided to create a Minix-derived kernel for a chipset other than the x86 Intel family and clones? Perhaps he might have chosen the Motorola 68x series, or develop a kernel for an entirely new microprocessor family.

The first Linux kernel was compiled on a 386. While there are now Linux-derived kernels for almost every processor out there, Linux has retained its prominence within the Intel family of microprocessors.

What might be some effects of an early shift away from the Intel x86 family?

1) Linux might first be used in embedded systems or as a kernel for professional workstations.

2) While it's highly probable that a programmer or team of programmers would eventually port the Linux kernel to the x86 family, what would this delay in kernel development portend for the majority of home computer users that use PCs?

3) Would the early Linux kernels' endorsement of a less common microcomputer chip series hinder the spread and modification of the Linux kernel? Or, would the endorsement of a niche processor series establish Linux as the kernel of choice for specialized applications?

4) Would a more niche market for the Linux kernel enable open-source versions of BSD to predominate among Intel chip users?
 
He created Linux from tinkering with MINIX, right?

MINIX 1.5, released in 1991, included support for MicroChannel IBM PS/2 systems and was also ported to the Motorola 68000 and SPARC architectures, supporting the Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, Apple Macintosh and Sun SPARCstation computer platforms. There were also unofficial ports to Intel 386 PC compatibles (in 32-bit protected mode), National Semiconductor NS32532, ARM and INMOS transputer processors. Meiko Scientific used an early version of MINIX as the basis for the MeikOS operating system for its transputer-based Computing Surface parallel computers. A version of MINIX running as a user process under SunOS and Solaris was also available, a simulator called SMX.[2][3]

Perhaps some of these are possible alternatives to Intel-based systems.
 
He developed the operating system by himself initially, and for his own computer.

So it's unlikely to be anything other than PC, Apple, Atari ST/TT/Falcon, or Amiga. Or maybe a Sun workstation if Linus inherits a lot of money or finds one in an incredibly lucky dumpster dive (I don't even know if Linus did that - Gates did).

The more obscure the platform he chooses, the more likely it dies or remains an obscure (probably purely personal) project, at the very early stages, for lack of interest from anybody but Linus.
 
What would become Linux was originally just a hobby project Linus started to learn the 386 instruction set. He only completed it because, in his own words, "I'm a stupid git and I auto-dialed my Minix partition by accident"

Basically, Linux was about 70 percent complete when he accidently overwrote his Minix partition, and lost everything. Rather than reinstall it and try to get it back the way he had it before, Linus decided to just finish it and get it to a self-hosting, functional state.
 
The great thing about AH.com is the great variety om topics, stretching across all aspects!! That being said, I am way over my head regarding this topic, so I will from now on just watch in silence.
 
Ian himself should participate in these discussions more often... according to his Technology Problems with the Draka article, he's a computer scientist.
 
That's an interesting question. I guess he and or his family would've had to've had a different computer; neither my computing family nor my programming self had a PC for ages because just because the only OS' were the lame and horrid MS ones. I only bought one after seeing Red Hat on a PC at a computer lab.

One strong possibility's that Linux would've been more portable, and hence popular faster. Torvalds made no effort to write a portability layer of the kind that makes it decently easy to port operating systems. And there weren't as many non-Intel machines with horrors as OS' to have many people interested in writing a porting layer and ports. PCs were the opposite, so he would've had an explosion of help from PC users whom wanted freedom from MS.

Although, maybe he had to have a PC to be motivated in the first place. Can we think of common alternatives that were as bad?
 
wikipedia said:
His interest in computers began with a Commodore VIC-20.[11] After the VIC-20 he purchased a Sinclair QL, which he modified extensively, especially its operating system. He programmed an assembly language and a text editor for the QL, as well as a few games.[12] He is known to have written a Pac-Man clone named Cool Man. On January 5, 1991[13] he purchased an Intel 80386-based IBM PC[14] and spent a month playing the game Prince of Persia before receiving his MINIX copy, which in turn enabled him to begin work on Linux.[7][15]

Assuming the above is true.

In order to change this, he has to decide to buy a different computer than a PC for some reason, and still have him want to run MINIX on it. I have a feeling that he would want to play with MINIX whatever kind of computer he got, as he was already interested in the open source movement of the time, and it appears he was pretty much hooked on unix.

The VIC-20 might have led him down the Amiga path. I believe Amigas were more popular in Europe, but in the U.S. only the real geeks had Amigas (of course, he was technically a real geek). Sinclair (I believe) ran off of Motorola 68k, and he went deep into the Sinclair, so Macs aren't out of the question.

PCs were simply cheaper and more common at the time (and still today), and peripherals aren't controlled so closely by their manufacturers as with Macs, so it is more likely to want to get one. Also, assuming that he is doing this with a plan for a future career in mind, well... he could go the Mac route, but he's already worked on the Motorola 68k with that Sinclair, so he might prefer to branch out into an Intel x86 machine, to diversify his experience.

Really, we need to know why he decided to get a PC in the first place.

Linus Torvalds said:
Linus: I took this course on UNIX and C at the university in the fall of 1990, and I got hooked. I had naturally seen some of the PC-contemptibles running msdos, and I was relatively happy with my QL, although some of the 386's were a lot faster. But one of the books we read during the course was "Operating Systems, Design and Implementation" by Tanenbaum, and that way I learnt about Minix. I wanted my home machine to have a similar setup to the suns at the university, and Minix seemed like a good candidate.
So when I had scrounged up enough money, I bought myself an AT-386 compatible machine (well.. I didn't have enough money, so I'm still paying on it, but it seems I'll get enough money for Linux to finally pay off the last rates). I had long since decided that anything less than a 386 wasn't worth it, and with Minix on it, I thought I'd have a nice enough system.
-- source http://www.abc.se/~m9339/linux/linuxdoc/linuxnews03a.html


So, price was a huge factor in his purchase. Elsewhere on that same page it says that the Sinclair wasn't very common in Finland, so it appears that it was hard to find hardware.


I don't see anywhere where it says that another computer is even a possibility.
 
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Atari is more likely than Amiga, which is much more likely than Apple.

Atari was generally popular in Europe at this time, and I'm pretty sure there was a fairly widespread version of Minix (and maybe also of coherent) on the ST series.

Apple was just too expensive.

The problem with Atari and Amiga, is at that time, most of the cheap machines in their ranges didn't have MMU, and I'd suspect that if Linus bought a 386 in order to write an OS, then getting a machine with an MMU was part of his motivation.

I don't see Vic-20 thing meaning he'd choose Amiga. This was many years before, and he'd already gone to Sinclair (which incidentally had a limited version of the 68K chip - 68008 I think it was called).
 
The problem with Atari and Amiga, is at that time, most of the cheap machines in their ranges didn't have MMU, and I'd suspect that if Linus bought a 386 in order to write an OS, then getting a machine with an MMU was part of his motivation.

I figured there was probably some good reason like that.

I don't see Vic-20 thing meaning he'd choose Amiga.

I said it could have given him a nudge towards it. But, I'm biased towards them, which is probably why I said that in the first place. You're more likely to be right.
 
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