The Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset (ELKS) is a Unix-like operating system kernel that can run on Intel 8086-compatible microprocessors. ELKS, formerly known as Linux-8086, is a small subset of Linux and can run on machines with limited processor and memory resources, including machines with 16-bit microprocessors that are not supported by Linux.
ELKS is free software and is available under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
History
- 1995 - Development of Linux-8086 by Linux kernel developers Alan Cox and Chad Page starts as a fork of the standard Linux.
- Early 1996 - The project is renamed ELKS, Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset.
- 1997 - The first website http://www.elks.ecs.soton.ac.uk/ (now offline, archived version) is created.
- August 8, 1997 - ELKS 0.0.63 is released.
- June 22, 1999 - ELKS 0.0.77 is released. This version is the first that is able to run a graphical user interface (the Nano-X Window System).
- July 21, 1999 - ELKS boots on a Psion 3a PDA (SIBO architecture).
- January 10, 2000 - ELKS 0.0.82 is released, the first official version which includes the SIBO port.
- March 3, 2000 - The ELKS project is registered on SourceForge, the new website is http://elks.sourceforge.net/.[1]
- January 6, 2001 - Alan Cox declares the project "basically dead".[2]
- June 17, 2001 - ELKS 0.0.84 is released.
- June 24, 2001 - Charilaos Kalogirou adds TCP/IP networking support.
- November 17, 2001 - ELKS 0.0.90 is released
- April 20, 2002 - Charilaos Kalogirou adds virtual memory support with disk swapping capability.
- April 29, 2002 - ELKS 0.1.0 is released, this is the first beta version.[3]
- December 18, 2002 - EDE (the Elks Distribution Edition, a distribution based on the ELKS kernel) version 0.0.5 is released.[4]
- January 6, 2003 - ELKS 0.1.2 is released.[5]
- May 3, 2006 - ELKS 0.1.3 is released, the first official release after a long hiatus in development.[6]
More than 30 developers have contributed to this project since the Linux fork.
Current status and usage
The development, as of 2006, has restarted. The latest released version is 0.1.3[5] and the latest EDE version is 0.0.5b.[7]
ELKS runs on IBM PC compatible systems and on Psion SIBO PDAs. It has been used as the base for the FlightLinux real-time operating system for spacecrafts.[8]
