History
Linux on System z originated as two separate efforts to port Linux to IBM's largest servers. The first effort, the "Bigfoot" project, developed by Linas Vepstas in late 1998 through early 1999, was an independent distribution and has since been abandoned. IBM published a collection of patches and additions to the Linux 2.2.13 kernel on December 18, 1999, to start today's mainline Linux on System z. Formal product announcements quickly followed in 2000, including the Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL) engines. Think Blue Linux was an early mainframe distribution consisting mainly of Red Hat packages added to the IBM kernel. Commercial Linux distributors introduced mainframe editions very quickly after the initial kernel work, and these mainframe versions have now been available for several years.
At the start of IBM's involvement, Linux patches for System z included some object code only (OCO) modules, without source code. However, currently Linux on System z is completely free software under the GNU General Public License.
Read more about this topic: Linux On System Z
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