IntroToLinux

The Birth of Linux

The Story

In 1991, Linus Torvalds, a Finnish computer science student, began working on his own operating system kernel as a hobby project. He was inspired by MINIX but wanted to create something more capable.

Original Announcement (August 25, 1991):

“I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones.”

Why “Linux”?

• Originally called “Freax” (free + freak + Unix)
• The name “Linux” comes from “Linus’ Unix”
• First kernel version: 0.01 (September 1991)
• Version 1.0 released in March 1994

Linux Today:

• Powers most web servers
• Runs on supercomputers
• Used in Android devices
• Foundation for many enterprise systems

• Completely free and open source

Navigation

Next: → Linux Distributions
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Lesson Home: ↑ Lesson 1: Introduction
Course Home: ⌂ Introduction to Linux