Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
Open Source Operating Systems Software Linux

Linux Turns 34 (tomshardware.com) 66

Posted by BeauHD from the then-vs-now dept.
Mark Tyson writes via Tom's Hardware: On this day 34 years ago, an unknown computer science student from Finland announced that a new free operating system project was "starting to get ready." Linus Benedict Torvalds elaborated by explaining that the OS was "just a hobby, [it] won't be big and professional like GNU." Of course, this was the first public outing for the colossal collaborative project that is now known as Linux. Above, you can see Torvalds' first posting regarding Linux to the comp.os.minix newsgroup. The now famously caustic, cantankerous, curmudgeon seemed relatively mild, meek, and malleable in this historic Linux milestone posting.

Torvalds asked the Minix community about their thoughts on a free new OS being prepared for Intel 386 and 486 clones. He explained that he'd been brewing the project since April (a few months prior), and asked for direction. Specifically, he sought input about other Minix users' likes and dislikes of that OS, in order to differentiate Linux. The now renowned developer then provided a rough summary of the development so far. Some features of Linux that Torvalds thought were important, or that he was particularly proud of, were then highlighted in the newsgroup posting. For example, the Linux chief mentioned his OS's multithreaded file system, and its absence of any Minix code. However, he humbly admitted the code as it stood was Intel x86 specific, and thus "is not portable."

Last but not least, Torvalds let it be known that version 0.01 of this free OS would be out in the coming month (September 1991). It was indeed released on September 17, 1991, but someone else decided on the OS name at the last minute. Apparently, Torvalds didn't want to release his new OS under the name of Linux, as it would be too egotistical, too self-aggrandizing. He preferred Freax, a portmanteau word formed from Free-and-X. However, one of Torvald's colleagues, who was the administrator for the project's FTP server, did not think that 'Freax' was an appealing name for the OS. So this co-worker went ahead and uploaded the OS as 'Linux' on that date in September, without asking Torvalds.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Linux Turns 34 More

Linux Turns 34

Comments Filter:
  • Apr 2007 [arstechnica.com]: ‘According to a recently uncovered filing in the long-running SCO v. IBM case, SCO tried to have Groklaw—along with a handful of people associated with the open-source movement, like Linus Torvalds—silenced back in 2004. In a letter sent to IBM, dated February 11, 2004, one of SCO's attorneys said that the company "had been told that IBM is a sponsor of Groklaw."’

  • Made My Career Possible (Score:5, Interesting)

    by The Cat ( 19816 ) on Monday August 25, 2025 @08:19PM (#65615616)

    I booted Slackware 3 off a floppy in 1994. I've written ten novels and some sixty other works on Linux. I wrote one of the first web sites ever developed on it. Linux is the technology foundation I've relied on for more than 30 years. It has been the right tool for every technology challenge I've ever faced.

    The world would be a much darker place today if it weren't for Mr. Torvalds. Here's to you, my friend, and here's to 34 more.

    • Don't forget to thank Bill Gates as well. Sometimes it takes one person getting pissed off to rally a revolution.

    • The world would be a much darker place today if it weren't for Mr. Torvalds.

      Or maybe BSD would've taken its place, and we'd be talking about GNU + BSD, who knows?

    • I first downloaded Slackware in 1993 onto a large stack of 3.5" floppies, from a local BBS, using a 14.4 kb/s modem. It took a LONG time (a week, if I remember correctly). I had HD space for one operating system, and my college classes frequently required Windows-only software, so I alternated between Linux (I had moved on to Redhat) and Windows 95.

      Shortly before I finished my degree in 1999, I got a Windows virus that wiped out everything. I had no backups, so I was screwed. Since I had to start over anywa

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dbialac ( 320955 )
      I remember having to manually figure out how to set up my hard drive partitions. I remember trying to use Yggdrasil Linux, but I couldn't get it to boot because it would freeze when it hit an interrupt issue with my Pro Audio Spectrum. For those of you who are nostalgic for the old days, those weren't the old days you should relish.
      • But when you finally got every build dependency, symlinked library, and Makefile correct to run the window manager of your choice it felt like you could conquer anything.

      • Yep. I remember all the hoops I needed to jump through when putting Ubuntu(?) onto a laptop and trying to get the right driver/settings/config for whatever new WiFi chip was in it. Then configureing the wired network chip. Last laptop I put Mint on...it just installed and worked. Well, except for the HP laptop which supposedly has a gigabit ethernet chip in it, which doesn't seem to want to allow itself to be configured as a gigabit interface, even under Windows (yes, I pulled Linux off and reinstalled Wind

    • 34 was my age when I quit my day job, thanks to Linux and the floodgates of open source software it opened for me.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

  • Windows 95 was released. (It was released Aug 24, 1995).

    365 days because 1992 was a leap year so it's technically 4*365 days ago but 1 day short of 4 years.

    And between Linux and Windows 95 I got on the internet. I still remember the first Linux I used was some Slackware with kernel 1.2.3.

    • And, just throwing this out there... 20 years before Linux, Unix in 1970, then BSD in 1977, and 386BSD in 1992 - which I actually used around then.

  • echo "Happy 35th, Linux ðY â" $(uname -sr), still no kernel_panic && long_uptime!"

  • Linux won't be able to get a job if it gets laid off.

    • If Linus were a tech CEO's wife, he would have already cheated on her with a much younger OS by now.

  • Trying to get Slackware to boot on a turnkey PC server that had arrived with a cracked SCSI drive controller was my very first foray into Linux. (After 12 hours of futile efforts me and my coworker could not)

    I was an OS/2 kid at the time and knew next to nothing about Unix. Thanks to Linux now I do.

  • And then all the other contributors. I first installed it 31 years ago, probably on a DX-something-slow processor PC. Slackware something or other. Currently mainly use flavours of Ubuntu on VIM4 SBC computers and in Vagrant (on a Mac, because the year of the Linux desktop was/will be too late for me). Here's to the next 34 years.

  • SLS 1.0 (Score:2)

    by shm ( 235766 )

    A dozen or so 5 1/4 inch floppies, and an office PC built to spec - I vaguely remember having to find SCSI drives for some reason. Or was it a very specific network card?

    Became the email gateway for the company.

  • In the good 'ole days this kind of news would have had over a thousand comments in a few hours, not 36 in over 5 hours. I really miss the old Slashdot vibe. It has gone downhill, and as an /. old-timer (I was there before uid's and usernames and I lost my first login which is why I have a "recent" uid) I think it's sad to see it in this state.

    However, there's still the odd gem in the comments sometimes. Too bad those are harder and harder to find.

    • Yep. People have move onto other things, but I haven't found anywhere notably better. There are niche special interest forums on reddit (e.g programming), and more generalist ones. But I like the niche slashdot sits in.

      On the flip side, I've watched it in real time play out how people get old and reactionary.

    • I miss the page-widening posts.

    • Back on the day, someone commenting on Slashdot would make the pendantic reminder that it is properly called "GNU/Linux."

      Oops, I guess I just did. And you kids, get off my lawn!

    • /. isn't what it used to be, but more importantly, the world in which /. was great also isn't what it used to be.

      Well, that and no CmdrTaco.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mce ( 509 )

      Same here. I used to spend endless time on /., even while at work, as so much of what happened over here was somehow relevant to my job anyway. Of course, I no longer do that same job, but even if I did I still wouldn't be a daily /. visitor today. Sic transit gloria mundi, I guess, but very sweet memories nonetheless.

      Downloading the floppies for Linux 0.12 at work and then almost literally running home as fast as I could to get it installed is another of those beautiful memories. Especially as it actuall

  • I remember buying my first Linux (Score:5, Interesting)

    by wiredog ( 43288 ) on Tuesday August 26, 2025 @06:33AM (#65616220) Journal

    Yes, buying. I lived in Cedar City Utah and first encountered Linux in a RedHat 2.0 beige box at a gaming store in Red Cliffs Mall in St George. Probably in 1994 or 5. Came with a couple of manuals, a boot floppy, and a CD. Had the 0.95 kernel. Getting dial-up configured was interesting since the ISP only knew about Trumpet Winsock... Then leaving it running for a few hours in the evening to update everything.

    Within a week I was at the local BN buying O'Reilly books.

    • I also bought my first Linux shortly after you. It came on a CD in a big book call Slackware Unleashed. I still have the book somewhere. Funny, I was also living in Utah (Salt Lake) and still do. I've tried several distros since then but keep coming back to Slackware.

      I think that original Slackware install was kernel 1.2.13. I compiled many kernels and kept my 486/66 DX humming nightly on those builds. It was a dream to run real serious software at home. It still is!

  • Are Wayland fixing all the remaining bugs (Gnome/Red Hat/Ubuntu is going no way back to X11 soon so will force the issue), Proton getting anti cheat working and Proton being refocused for desktop apps like MS-Office and Adobe, and getting drivers for every obscure piece of hardware. Do this, and Linux could easily get 10-20% market share from those who want to use it. (It's already 6% now). I'm kind of forced to use Windows 11 on my main pc despite trying Linux every once and a while for over 20 years. Plus

  • When I was in college (in 1995), this one guy was going on about a free OS that was incredible. All I could think of was, sure, a free OS that is good, what a joke is that going to be. So together with another friend we decided to install this free OS and have a good laugh.
    The laugh was on us, it was indeed incredible, offering multitasking, multi user, memory protection, the cli was so powerful, and on top of all that, all the code was open.

Slashdot Top Deals

Measure twice, cut once.

Close