1992: Yggdrasil, the First Commercial Linux-based OS
Sold by Berkeley-based Yggdrasil Computing, Inc., and named after a holy ash tree from Norse mythology, now-defunct Yggdrasil became available for testing in December 1992 as the first commercial GNU/Linux operating system. The stable version had a price tag of 99 dollars.
Yggdrasil was no runaway commercial success, but it was important as the first platform with a Linux kernel that people paid to use.
Yggdrasil also had the distinction of being the first major distribution available as a "live" CD, which could run in memory without making any permanent changes to the computer. Plus, it could be installed from a single CD -- a nice feature in an era when other Linux distributions required as many as seventy-three floppy disks for installation!
Sold by Berkeley-based Yggdrasil Computing, Inc., and named after a holy ash tree from Norse mythology, now-defunct Yggdrasil became available for testing in December 1992 as the first commercial GNU/Linux operating system. The stable version had a price tag of 99 dollars.
Yggdrasil was no runaway commercial success, but it was important as the first platform with a Linux kernel that people paid to use.
Yggdrasil also had the distinction of being the first major distribution available as a "live" CD, which could run in memory without making any permanent changes to the computer. Plus, it could be installed from a single CD — a nice feature in an era when other Linux distributions required as many as seventy-three floppy disks for installation!
