Linus Torvalds Releases Linux 1.2.0

Tuesday, March 7, 1995, Linus Torvalds released Linux 1.2.0, also called “Linux '95”, little less than a year after his release of the ground-breaking Linux 1.0. In his announcement, Linus pointed out an important difference—the license—between the two operating systems, with an elaborate spoof on Microsoft's license explanation. Here's a short sample from Linus's spoof:

Linux '95 has several types of licenses, including, but not limited to:

Large institutions that want to possibly combine several licenses can do so with a standard licensing fee reduction. Please contact our licensing department for further details.

[...]

We thank you for using Linux '95,

Linus

Of course, Linux 1.2 is still freely available under the GNU public license, just as Linux 1.0 was, and just as future versions will continue to be, and so all the licensing fees mentioned above are $0 per copy...except maybe the “I've got too much money” license.

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Here is a list of a few of the new features that version 1.2 has, compared to version 1.0:

Most Linux vendors are expected to release new versions of their distributions containing Linux 1.2 soon.

If you have Internet access, you can download the source code for the new kernel via ftp from ftp.funet.fi, in the directory /pub/OS/Linux/PEOPLE/Linus/v1.2/. Version 1.2.0 is in the file linux-1.2.0.tar.gz; by the time you read this, it is likely that a few bug fixes will have been released, so look for the newest version there. If you do not have internet access, a local BBS may have the source code, and any one of the vendors advertising in Linux Journal will be happy to sell you a CD-ROM with the source included as soon as they have them available.

Linus has indicated that further testing, and bug fixing as necessary, will be done for approximately another month, leading to an even more stable Linux 1.2.x release. He has indicated that he will probably begin work on a new development series, Linux 1.3.x, sometime in early April.

Some utilities will need to be upgraded if you upgrade from Linux 1.0 to Linux 1.2, including networking utilities like ifconfig. The update program and the module utilities will also need to be updated. An article in the next issue of Linux Journal will cover the process of updating from 1.0 to 1.2 in detail.

Since Linux version 1.0 was released, the version number has been used to distinguish between “production” or “stable” releases of Linux and “experimental” or “development” versions. Each version number has three parts: the major release number, the minor release number, and the patchlevel. Version 1.1.95, is major version 1, minor version 1, patchlevel 95. Version 1.2.0 is major version 1, minor version 2, patchlevel 0. All version numbers with even minor version numbers are considered production versions, and official patches to production versions only include bug fixes, so for instance, between version 1.0.0 and 1.0.9 there were only bug fixes. All version numbers with odd minor version numbers are development versions, which (although they usually work fine) are not expected to be stable—all sorts of changes might have happened during their development.

Linux 1.2 is the second production release of Linux, and follows the first production release, Linux 1.0, by just under a year.