2. A Brief History of CentOS Linux

CentOS is one of a number of variants (also referred to as distributions) of the Linux operating system. It is based on the source code of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux distribution, developed by a U.S. company named Red Hat, Inc., based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The company was founded in the mid-1990s through the merger of two companies owned at the time by Marc Ewing and Bob Young. The origins of Linux, however, go back even further. This chapter will outline the history of both the Linux operating system and Red Hat, Inc. before explaining how CentOS fits into this picture.