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"In 1956, The first operating system in history was developed for the IBM 704." (polimetro.com, 2025). An 'operating system', in this sense, "is the permanently installed program that administers all of the computer's activity" (Houser, 11, 2009). Although Linus did not create the very first OS (he didn't even exist yet), the creation of the OS is crucial to the development of Linux (Linux itself is an OS).
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Linus was born in the 1960's in Helsinki, Finland. His parents were both journalists who once attended the University of Helsinki. (Aron, 30-31, 2012). (Linus's birthyear is stated at the top of Aron's academic article)
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Linus often credits his grandfather, an intelligent professor with a PhD in statistics working for the University of Helsinki, with inspiring him to work with computers. He sparked his interest when he bought one of the first personal computers around the year 1980. (Aron, 30-31, 2012)
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Linus did not invent the GNU, it was created by "Richard Stallman, who had used ITS at the AI Lab, started the GNU (GNU's Not Unix) project in 1984 to develop a free operating system like ITS to support open sharing and collaboration." (Moon, 4, 2000). This was a crucial concept, as "The Gnu GPL ensured both that their contributions would be made accessible to everyone else and that everyone else's contributions would be accessible to them." (Moon, 7, 2000).
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Although Linus did not create Minux, it is important to mention since this inspired Linux. Minux was a simplified variant created by Andrew Tanenbaum, a European Science Professor. It was primarily used in computer science programs considering it cost $79.95 at the time. (Moon, 2000).
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Linus couldn't have created a near exact replica of Minux on his own. According to Jae Yun Moon and Lee Sproull (authors of Essence of Distributed Work The Case of the Linux Kernel), Linus required at least a degree of help from Minux's newsgroup
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Linus announced a new software that was a "free version of a minux-lookalike for AT-386 computers" (Torvalds, 1991). It is a "program for hackers by a hacker" (Torvalds, 1991). -
Linux 1.0 consisted of 9 releases, took about 1 month to release all, and this variant lasted for 12 months (Moon, 2000)
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"In the next thirty months, Torvalds released 90 additional versions of his OS, culminating on March 14, 1994, with the release of version 1.0" (Moon, 2000). -
The moon, Linus, was "named after him" in "1996" (Karhula, 7-9, 2012). Linus "with a 5:1 size ratio" (Brož, 13, 2022), orbits another larger asteroid, (22) Kalliope (Brož, 13, 2022) in the asteroid belt. -
This Linux variant had by far the most amount of releases, with 141 being delivered in just 29 months (2 years, 5 months) (Moon, 2000).
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Linus was "named one of the most influential people in the world" (Karhula, 7, 2012) in 2004. "Time Magazine's Europe edition named him one of the revolutionary heros of the past 60 years" (Karhula, 7, 2012). Eric Raymond, the author of The cathedral The Bazaar, labeled Torvalds as a "damn fine programmer" (Raymond, 1999), while Glyn Moody (yet another great hacker), stated that Linus was the "arch hacker" (Moody, 1997).
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Originally called, "Warty Warthog" (Ubuntu's official documentation site), this version created in 2004 would be the start of Ubuntu Linux. Out of the Linux Kernel, "Ubuntu Linus is perhaps the most popular for use as a desktop operating system" (Houser, 11, 2009). Ubuntu is popular for its "ease of installation, ease of use, a complete set of graphical system utilities, good printing support, and an extensive application menu" (Houser, 11, 2009). -
During the 2012 Internet Society's Global Conference in Switzerland, Torvalds was one of the inaugural inductees into the Internet Hall of Fame (Karhula 7-9, 2012). An 'inaugural inductee' is one of the pioneering members of a certain Hall of Fame, such as the Internet
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Despite Linux's HUGE success, it "currently controls about 1% of the operating system market for personal computers" (Kim, 59, 2014). This is largely due to 'User Resistance to Software Migration', as "Once an individual starts to use a particular software brand, the user is often reluctant to replace it with another kind of software." (Kim, 59, 2014). -
“Complete History of Operating Systems: Evolution, Types and Protagonists.” Polimetro, Multimeter, 20 Apr. 2025, www.polimetro.com/en/history-of-operating-systems/. “List of Releases.” Ubuntu Project, 27 Oct. 2025, documentation.ubuntu.com/project/release-team/list-of- releases/.
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Sources Cited:
Moon, Jae Yun, and Lee Sproull. “Essence of Distributed Work: The Case of the Linux Kernel.” First Monday, 1 Nov. 2000, firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/801. Aron, Jacob. “The Open Road.” New Scientist, vol. 214, no. 2868, June 2012, pp.
30–31. EBSCOhost,
research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=e3e5a4dc-3c87-361d-a58e-7d111354dc28. -
Brož, M., et al. “Discovery of an Asteroid Family Linked to (22) Kalliope and Its Moon Linus.” Astronomy Astrophysics, EDP Sciences, 9 Aug. 2022, www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2022/08/aa43628-22/aa43628-22.html. Current open source software products. (2009). Library Technology Reports, 45(3), 11-17. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.library.arizona.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/current-open- source-software-products/docview/202748763/se-2
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Hee-Woong, K., Chan, H., So-Hyun, L. (2014). User resistance to software migration: The case on linux. Journal of Database Management, 25(1), 59-79. doi:https://doi.org/10.4018/jdm.2014010103 Karhula, Päivikki. “Over a Lunch with Linus.” Accessed through UofA’s Library, Signum, arizona- ua.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01UA_INST/1jpvftf/cdi_proquest_miscellaneous_1125214838. Accessed 15 Nov. 2025.