Resume
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On August 25, 1991, Linus Torvalds announced Linux as “just a hobby” on Usenet.
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Released on September 17, 1991, it has grown from a hobbyist to an open source powerhouse.
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Inspired by Minix, Linux sparked an operating system revolution; Torvalds now faces the AI-focused chapter of his work.
Sometimes, if we’re really lucky, we see a moment when a big part of our life takes off for the first time. The good news is that if something starts on the internet, there’s a very good chance we’ll get it logged somewhere. Such is the Usenet post Linus Torvalds created to announce the existence of Linux, and 35 years later, the “just a hobby” OS has become a powerful force in the open source world.
Linus Torvalds first discovered the existence of Linux on August 25, 1991
This post has been in existence for 35 years
An author entry appeared under the full name of Linus Benedict Torvalds comp.os.minix Usenet back in 1991. 21-year-old Torvalds worked on the Minix computer, an operating system released in 1987. The main purpose of Minix was to teach students how the operating system worked, and Torvalds took inspiration from it and set out to create his own.
In a post on comp.os.minix, Torvalds explained what he wanted to build:
“I’m building a (free) OS (just a hobby, not big and professional) for 386(486) AT clones. It’s been in development since April and is getting ready. I’d like any feedback on what people like/dislike about minix, since my OS is a bit similar to it (besides practical things).
It’s funny to look at this post and see the biggest, most successful open source operating system described as “just a hobby” and not “as big and professional as GNU”. To be honest, if I were a 21-year-old announcing a new OS in a forum post, I’d probably even understand the idea of it powering millions of PCs 35 years into the future, so I’ll cut Torvalds some slack here.
The world didn’t have to wait long until Linux was released; it was released a month later, on September 17, 1991, and thus began the OS revolution we know and love today. But the story is not over; in fact, we are now in the midst of an interesting Torvalds AI arc.
