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Linus Torvalds Birthdate
Linus Torvalds was born in Helsinki, Finland on December 28, 1969. -
Linus receives the Commodore Vic 20
Linus' grandfather gave him the Commodore Vic 20. With this gift, Linus was able to realize an important fact about computing. That similar to mathematics, you can make a world with its own rules. -
University of Helsinki
Linus Torvalds applied to and enrolled into the University of Helsinki in Finland. During this time as a student, Linus made a particular discovery in regards to the operating unit of MS-DOS. -
His time in the Finnish Military
After studying at the University of Helsinki, Linus went to spend time within the Finnish military. Specifically, he spent a year serving within the Finnish military in his college days. -
Linus Torvalds First Personal Computer (And the Failings of MS-DOS)
Within his time as a student at the University of Helsinki Linus purchased an IBM clone with an Intel 386 processor. However, he found that the operating system of MS-DOS was lacking. He had a wish to replace MS-DOS with the Unix operating system, but realized that to simply buy Unix would cost him five thousand dollars. -
Linus Posts his Work on Linux
Within a MINIX discussion newsgroup, Linus posted about the wish people had to utilize MINIX to create their own devices. He says that he is working on his own free version, and that he will post the sources to his software so it is able to be distributed as far out as needed. -
Linux 1.0 is Released
Due to posting his software openly online, and utilizing more eyes to find more bugs, Linus was able to have a fully functional kernel. Due to the assistance of other developers and hackers on the internet; the kernel was able to be released fully as Linux 1.0 Linus Torvalds Introduces Linux 1.0 -
Linus Makes the Move to America
During this particular year Linus moved to America due to finding a position at a company. Specifically at Transmeta Corp. within California. Here, he worked with the company to produce and manufacture microprocessors. -
Linus's Nokia Foundation Award
Due to his involvement and contributions within the technology and digital fields, Linus was awarded the 1997 Nokia Foundation Award. -
Linus's Law
Within, The Cathedral and the Bazaar, Eric Raymond put forward the concept of Linus's Law. Linus's Law is the concept that having more eyes on a project would lead to more bugs being found. This concept was proven when Linus posted Linux onto the internet for anyone to look over and edit. Due to this communal interaction, more bugs were readily and easily solved. -
Linux's Widespread Use
Something to note about Linux was how popular the software became. By 1999, around seven million computers were running Linux. This number is large for this time period, but many of the computers running Linux were of large corporations. Such as IBM, Intel, and Dell -
Leaving Transmeta
After working at Transmeta for multiple years, Linus left the company to focus his wok at the Open Source Development Labs or the OSDL. This was a consortium made by multiple tech companies with a particular goal, to promote Linux. -
Designing a Power-Saving CPU
During his time spent working at Transmeta, Linus did help with the designing of a CPU. Specifically, he helped design the Transmeta Crusoe Processor, which was meant for power saving. -
The Creation of Git
Linus's work towards creating more open-source tools did not stop with just Linux. This can be clearly seen within 2005, when he created Git. Another open-source tool with a focus on collaboration built into the software. -
The Creation of the Linux Foundation
Within 2007, the OSDL merged with another group. This group was the Free Standards Group. Once this merge was fully finalized, these two separate groups were renamed into the Linux Foundation. -
Linus's Millennium Technology Prize
Due to his actions for hacking, Linus was awarded the Millennium Technology Prize. This award was given out by the group Technology Academy Finland in 2012. 2012 Millennium Technology Prize Laureate Linus Torvalds