Linus back in the day Linux was named after him and is pronounced LIN-ucks. Here is Linus on pronunciation. |
The year was 1991, in August, on the 25th day, young computer student Linus Torvalds first announced the earliest version of what was to become the mighty Linux operating system.
Linux is now installed on an estimated 87 million desktop computers, if you include Android smartphones and tablet computers (Android uses the Linux kernel) then then that number jumps to about 1.6 billion!!
Linux is the most popular Operating System for computers serving the web.
More than 99% of supercomputers run Linux.
Not bad for such a young OS that was developed for fun.
Here is Linus' original post:
> From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds) > Newsgroups: comp.os.minix > Subject: What would you like to see most in minix? > Summary: small poll for my new operating system > Message-ID: <1991Aug25.205708.9541@klaava.Helsinki.FI> > Date: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMT > Organization: University of Helsinki > > > Hello everybody out there using minix - > > I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and > professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing > since april, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback on > things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat > (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) > among other things). > > I've currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work. > This implies that I'll get something practical within a few months, and > I'd like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions > are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-) > > Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi) > > PS. Yes - it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs. > It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never > will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I have :-(.
(Crossposted from http://miriam-e.dreamwidth.org/330717.html at my Dreamwidth account. Number of comments there so far: