Even if the first Linux kernel was only released on September 17, 1991, August 25, 1991 is generally considered to be the birth of the free Linux operating system, as chief developer Linus Torvalds worked on it Has published a corresponding announcement on Usenet on the day. 30 years later, Linux has long been at home everywhere.
It all began with a hobby called Linux
On August 25, 1991, the then 21 year old student Linus Torvalds published a corresponding announcement in the Usenet topic group “comp.os.minix”, which dealt with the Unix operating system Minix, and promised a free operating system for i386, that should start as a hobby project.
The corresponding announcement on Usenet from August 25, 1991 can still be accessed.
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 :-(.
Linus Torvalds
At that time Linux was still released under a proprietary license from Linus Torvalds, which prohibited commercial use. Since this approach stood in the way of the spread of the operating system, Linux became free software and was placed under the GNUv2 license.
to be found everywhere today
Today Linux can be found almost everywhere and has its domain especially in the areas of servers and supercomputers as well as network components, but smartphones in the form of Android also rely on a Linux basis and the free operating system has also found its niche in the desktop.
After 30 years it is no longer possible to speak of a hobby project, and Linux has become indispensable as an operating system kernel. Reddit is also commemorating Linux's 30th birthday under the motto Tuxs Special Day.
The ComputerBase community has also addressed the topic in the Linux collective thread already accepted and joined the festivities.
The editors thank the community members “Caramon2”, “SE.”, “Alexander2” and “Linuxfreakgraz” for their advice this message.