Ka la 25 August, 1991, ka mor'a likhoeli tse hlano tsa tsoelo-pele, seithuti se lilemo li 21 Linus Torvalds. tsebisitsoe sehlopheng sa litaba sa comp.os.minix mabapi le ho theoa ha prototype e sebetsang ea sistimi e ncha ea ts'ebetso ea Linux, eo ho ile ha hlokomeloa ho phetheloa ha porting bash 1.08 le gcc 1.40. Phatlalatso ea pele ea sechaba ea Linux kernel e phatlalalitsoe ka September 17th. Ea mantlha 0.0.1 e ne e na le boholo ba 62 KB ka foromo e hatelitsoeng mme e na le mela e ka bang likete tse 10 ea khoutu ea mohloli. Linux kernel ea sejoale-joale e na le mela e fetang limilione tse 26 ea khoutu. Ho ea ka phuputso ea 2010 e rometsoeng ke European Union, litšenyehelo tse hakanyetsoang tsa ho theha morero ho tloha qalong o ts'oanang le Linux kernel ea sejoale-joale e tla ba. e fetang bilione Lidolara tsa US (palo e entsoe ha kernel e na le mela e limilione tse 13 ea khoutu), ho latela ba bang likhakanyo - tse fetang limilione tse 3.
Linux kernel e bululetsoe ke tsamaiso ea MINIX, eo Linus a sa kang a e rata ka lebaka la tumello ea eona e fokolang. Kamora moo, ha Linux e fetoha projeke e tsebahalang, batho ba sa tsotelleng ba ile ba leka ho qosa Linus ka ho kopitsa khoutu ea lits'ebetso tse ling tsa MINIX ka kotloloho. Tlhaselo eo e ile ea hlakoloa ke Andrew Tanenbaum, mongoli oa MINIX, ea ileng a abela e mong oa liithuti tsa hae ho etsa papiso e qaqileng ea khoutu ea Minix le liphetolelo tsa pele tsa sechaba tsa Linux. Liphetho lipatlisiso li bonts'itse feela tse 'ne tse nyane tsa li-block block ka lebaka la litlhoko tsa POSIX le ANSI C.
Qalong Linus o ne a nahana ho bitsa kernel Freax, ho tloha mantsoeng "mahala", "freak" le X (Unix). Empa kernel e ile ea fumana lebitso "Linux" ka lebaka la Ari Lemmke, eo, ka kopo ea Linus, a ileng a beha kernel holim'a eona. Seva ea FTP univesithing, a reha bukana e nang le li-archive eseng "freax", joalo ka ha Torvalds a kopile, empa "linux". Hoa hlokomeleha hore mohoebi ea kenang khoebong William Della Croce o ile a khona ho ngolisa letšoao la khoebo la Linux 'me a batla ho bokella likoloto ka mor'a nako, empa hamorao a fetola maikutlo a hae' me a fetisetsa litokelo tsohle ho letšoao la khoebo ho Linus. Mascot ea semmuso ea Linux kernel, Tux penguin, e khethiloe ka lebaka leo litlholisano, e ileng ea tšoaroa ka 1996. Lebitso Tux le emetse Torvalds UniX.
Matla a kholo ea codebase (palo ea mela ea khoutu ea mohloli) ea kernel:
0.0.1 - September 1991, mela e likete tse 10 tsa khoutu;
1.0.0 - March 1994, 176 likete mela ea khoutu;
1.2.0 - March 1995, 311 likete mela ea khoutu;
2.0.0 - June 1996, 778 likete mela ea khoutu;
2.2.0 - January 1999, mela e limilione tse 1.8 ea khoutu;
2.4.0 - January 2001, mela e limilione tse 3.4 ea khoutu;
2.6.0 - December 2003, mela ea khoutu e limilione tse 5.9;
2.6.28 - December 2008, mela ea khoutu e limilione tse 10.2;
2.6.35 - Phato 2010, mela e limilione tse 13.4 ea khoutu;
3.0 - Phato 2011, mela e limilione tse 14.6 ea khoutu.
3.5 - July 2012, limilione tse 15.5 mela ea khoutu.
3.10 - Phupu 2013, mela ea khoutu e limilione tse 15.8;
3.16 - Phato 2014, mela e limilione tse 17.5 ea khoutu;
4.1 - Phuptjane 2015, mela ea khoutu e limilione tse 19.5;
4.7 - Phupu 2016, mela ea khoutu e limilione tse 21.7;
4.12 - Phupu 2017, mela ea khoutu e limilione tse 24.1;
4.18 - Phato 2018, mela e limilione tse 25.3 ea khoutu.
5.2 - July 2019, limilione tse 26.55 mela ea khoutu.
Tsoelo-pele ea Ntšetso-pele:
Linux 0.0.1 - Loetse 1991, tokollo ea pele ea sechaba e tšehetsang i386 CPU feela le ho qala ka floppy;
Linux 0.12 - Pherekhong 1992, khoutu e ile ea qala ho ajoa tlasa laesense ea GPLv2;
Linux 0.95 - Hlakubele 1992, e ekelitse bokhoni ba ho tsamaisa X Window System, e kentse ts'ehetso bakeng sa mohopolo o hlakileng le karohano ea swap.
Linux 0.96-0.99 - 1992-1993, mosebetsi o qalile ho stack ea marang-rang. Tsamaiso ea faele ea Ext2 e ile ea hlahisoa, tšehetso ea sebopeho sa faele ea ELF e ile ea eketsoa, bakhanni ba likarete tsa molumo le balaoli ba SCSI ba ile ba hlahisoa, ho kenngoa ha li-module tsa kernel le tsamaiso ea faele ea / proc e ile ea kenngoa ts'ebetsong.
Ka 1992, ho ile ha hlaha kabo ea pele ea SLS le Yggdrasil. Lehlabuleng la 1993, ho ile ha thehoa merero ea Slackware le Debian.
Linux 1.0 - Hlakubele 1994, tokollo ea pele e tsitsitseng ka molao;
Linux 1.2 - Hlakubele 1995, keketseho e kholo ea palo ea bakhanni, tšehetso bakeng sa sethala sa Alpha, MIPS le SPARC, bokhoni bo atolositsoeng ba marang-rang, ponahalo ea sefahla sa pakete, tšehetso ea NFS;
Linux 2.0 - Phuptjane 1996, tšehetso ea litsamaiso tse ngata tsa processor;
March 1997: LKML, Linux kernel lenane la mangolo le thehiloe;
1998: E ile ea tsebisa sehlopha sa pele sa Top500 Linux-based, se nang le li-node tse 68 tse nang le Alpha CPUs;
Linux 2.2 - Pherekhong 1999, ts'ebetso e ntlafalitsoeng ea sistimi ea taolo ea memori, tšehetso e ekelitsoeng bakeng sa IPv6, e kentse ts'ebetso ea firewall e ncha, e hlahisitse sistimi e ncha ea molumo;
Linux 2.4 - February 2001, tšehetso bakeng sa lisebelisoa tsa 8-processor le 64 GB ea RAM, tsamaiso ea faele ea Ext3, tšehetso ea USB, ACPI;
Linux 2.6 - Tšitoe 2003, tšehetso ea SELinux, lisebelisoa tsa tokiso ea kernel ea othomathike, li-sysfs, sistimi e hlophisitsoeng bocha ea taolo ea memori;
Ka 2005, Xen hypervisor e ile ea hlahisoa, e ileng ea kenya nako ea ho bona hantle;
Ka September 2008, ho ile ha thehoa tokollo ea pele ea sethala sa Android se thehiloeng ho Linux kernel;
Ka July 2011, ka mor'a lilemo tse 10 tsa tsoelo-pele ea lekala la 2.6.x kenngwa tshebetsong ho fetela ho palo 3.x. Palo ea lintho tse polokelong ea Git e fihlile ho limilione tse 2;
Selemong sa 2015 etsahetse ho lokolloa ha Linux kernel 4.0. Palo ea lintho tsa git sebakeng sa polokelo e fihlile ho limilione tse 4;
Ka la 2018 Hlakubele hlola ketsahalo ea bohlokoahali ea lintho tse limilione tse 6 tsa git sebakeng sa polokelo ea kernel.
Ka January 2019, ho ile ha thehoa lekala la kernel Linux 5.0. Sebaka sa polokelo se fihletse lintho tsa git tse limilione tse 6.5.