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Linus Torvalds:
Biography |
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Nationality:
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Finnish |
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Date of Birth: |
December 28th, 1969 |
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Claim to fame: |
The author of the original Linux kernel. Linus has been since June
2003 a full time employee of OSDL working exclusively on the kernel.
Although Linus initially called the kernel 'Freax' he was persuaded to
change the name by a colleague. One of the most heated
debates is whether the operating system should be called GNU/Linux or just
Linux. It's important to remember that Linus contribution rests with
the kernel, a significant proportion of the applications that ship with a
standard Linux distribution are written and maintained by GNU. |
Linus' first announcement of his plan was announced to USENET back in 1991,
which is now part of folklore:
From: torva...@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
Keywords: 386, preferences
Message-ID: <1991Aug25.205708.9541@klaava.Helsinki.FI>
Date: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki
Lines: 20
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 (torva...@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 :-(. |
Significant Awards:
1998 VA Research granted its Excellence in Open Source Software Award
1997 Nokia Foundation Award
Last Updated Sunday, September 30 2007 @ 04:18 AM EDT
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