Linux today is built faster than ever before. The latest data proves it. This is due to the distributed, global community of developers, IT managers and companies contributing to it every minute of every day. This massive collaboration is made possible with similarly distributed tools, tools like Git.
Linus Torvalds 10 years ago today released Git after it was clear BitKeeper was no longer an option for the Linux community. He assessed other existing revision control systems and decided none would do. Ultimately, he decided he would just write a new one, so he went away for a weekend and came back with another hole in one. Most people know Linus created Linux, but many don’t know he is the mastermind behind what has become the most popular revision control system in software development today. If you ask him which is his crowning achievement, he’ll say “do I have to have just one?”
Git has also ushered in an era of social coding that is defining how software is developed and is accelerating the adoption and development of projects like Node.js, Ruby and more. GitHub is used by more than 1 million people and hosts more than 2 million code repositories. This is because developers know that building software together, across geographies and often across companies, results in better, more innovative technologies. Linux is the original example of this and more projects are proving this every day.
Both Linux and Git are great software but the communities and industry that have been built around them are a testament to their quality and long-term sustainability. Companies and projects like Atlassian, GerritForge, GitLab, Perforce, RhodeCode and more have built businesses around Git, for example. Great software attracts contributors in the form of development and dollars. When combined, great software and the resources to support it can have an unlimited impact on the world. Just consider what Linux has made possible – from mobile computing to the cloud and supercomputers, among others – and how Git is helping projects emerge quickly to tackle the computing industry’s most lucrative opportunities.
Linus has been working for fun on a third project over the last couple of years, a diving application called Subsurface. We don’t know if this will change the nature of underwater exploration but when it comes to Linus and his code you never know.
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{You can also read the exclusive QA with Linus Torvalds about Git on Linux.com}