Happy 31st Birthday, Linux!

Linux 31st Birthday

Today is August 25th in many parts of the world, which means that Linux is turning 31 years old, so join me in celebrating Linux’s 31st birthday with a glass of good champagne and a delicious cake!

While some don’t recognize August 25th as Linux’s birthday, I do. It was on August 25th, 1991, when 21-year-old Finnish student Linus Benedict Torvalds made his now-famous announcement on the comp.os.minix newsgroup that he’s working on a free operating system for 386(486) AT clones, just as a “hobby.”

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
PS. Yes – it’s free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs. It is NOT portable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that’s all I have :-(.

He probably never dreamed that the so-called “hobby” turned into something of mass proportion and Linux is now basically everywhere around us, from Android smartphones, Wi-Fi routers, smart assistants, and smart fridges, to big screen TVs, satellites, and airplanes.

Even if you don’t use it, Linux is there, believe me! It powers the entire Internet, the world’s top 500 supercomputers, Wall Street, and even the ISS (International Space Station).

Personally, I don’t like the phrase “this is the year of Linux,” because Linux is in our lives for 31 freaking years and it was always the year of Linux. I’ve enjoyed Linux for more than 20 years now and I still remember my first Mandrake Linux and Red Hat Linux installations, and how hard Slackware Linux was to install.

Without further ado, let’s raise the glass and wish Linux a happy 31st birthday! Here’s to many more years of Linux awesomeness to come and stay right here on 9to5Linux.com for the latest Linux news and Open Source software releases.

Happy 31st birthday, Linux!

Last updated 2 years ago

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