Linus Torvalds on How Linux Went From One-Man Show To Group Effort (theregister.com)
- Reference: 0180823372
- News link: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/26/02/18/1822253/linus-torvalds-on-how-linux-went-from-one-man-show-to-group-effort
- Source link: https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/18/linus_torvalds_and_friends/
Torvalds released the first public snapshot, Linux 0.02, on October 5, 1991, on a Finnish FTP server -- about 10,000 lines of code that he had cross-compiled under Minix. He originally wanted to call it "Freax," but his friend Ari Lemmke, who set up the server, named the directory "Linux" instead. Early contributor Theodore Ts'o set up the first North American mirror on his VAXstation at MIT, since the sole 64 kbps link between Finland and the US made downloads painful. That mirror gave developers on this side of the Atlantic their first practical access to the kernel.
Another early developer, Dirk Hohndel, recalled that Torvalds initially threw away incoming patches and reimplemented them from scratch -- a habit he eventually dropped because it did not scale. When Torvalds could not afford to upgrade his underpowered 386, developer H. Peter Anvin collected checks from contributors through his university mailbox and wired the funds to Finland, covering the international banking fees himself. Torvalds got a 486DX/2. In 1992, he moved the kernel to the GPL, and the first full distributions appeared in 1992-1993, turning Linux from a kernel into installable systems.
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/18/linus_torvalds_and_friends/
VAXstation (Score:2)
I wonder what model VAXstation Ts'o had. Not that it matters, I just have fond memories of using VMS on VAX clusters around that same time.
Follow the money ... (Score:1)
Open source development occurs under two scenarios.
(1) Voluntary contributions of time.
(2) Users paying developers to implement the user's needs and wants. Users take various forms, the developer's employer, the developer's client, etc.
Corporations seem to be the largest group of users, so today we have the corporate-driven evolution of Linux. One way or another, they fund the majority of the development. And that's how open source works. You want a change, make it yourself or pay someone else.
Its b
Names are important (Score:2)
... friend Ari Lemmke, who set up the server, named the directory "Linux" instead.
Linus also wanted to name the server as "Finnish Awesome Provisioning" server but Ari kindly pointed out the last thing the internet needed was another fapServer.
With apologies to Heikki Hannikainen and his excellent [1]APRS parser [metacpan.org]
[1] http://metacpan.org/pod/
Re: (Score:1)
Your cowardice is only surpassed by your anonymity.
More like (Score:2)
Plain old faceplant failure.
If you want to troll, at least be entertaining.
The thing that makes this so utterly stupid is, "all resources" of what? That embedded system in the pregnancy tester that troll will never have a use for, or the huge distributed clusters they're not smart enough to know what to do with?
And I guess it also thinks operating systems should not use available resources?
Anyway, the story telling is good. History always is, but this is also useful for pointing out how contingent th
No. (Score:2)
Lol what a hot fuckin' take. No wonder you're AC.
Re: (Score:2)
> scaled to use all resources and is now a lethargic, bloated mess
I'm afraid you have wandered into the wrong forum. Perhaps you thought this was the Windows 11 Sucks subreddit?
Re: (Score:1)
when they fork the entire kernel then rewrite it in rust then do then same for android then we'll see what efficiency means? and they'll port it pentium II just for parity.....
Re:a bloated mess indeed. (Score:5, Interesting)
> Bloated linux that no longer supports the original hardware on which it was developed and is also constantly breaking old working parts in order to "make it better"
*Sigh*. Linux can run today on 386 chips. The versions that support it are widely available for download. Newer Linux versions have moved on from 40 year old processors that are no longer sold. While you are at it, current Linux no longer runs on Itanium, IBM Cell Blade, etc. There is a difference in that Linux still will run with Linux will always accommodate every old platform with the newest versions.
> Bloated in the sense that there are a gazillion embedded platforms which kinda resemble each other but all have to use their own specific kernel patches which offcourse aren't compatible with any latest kernel.
Linux is a kernel. All kernels must have their own specific implementations and patches for specific hardware during compile. Or are you asserting Linux on x86 must work on ARM out of the box without compiling?
> and then it gets even more bloated because some asshats figure the whole system/distribution needs to be more "easily" configurable like windows is and add this insanity that is systemd to it and all the little morons just flock to it because it appeals to their sense of new-ish is better. All the while forgetting the past lessons which were hard earned.
Distros are not under the control of Linus. He is responsible for the kernel.
> Then again, just look at the world, people hardly ever learn and the stupid bullshit keeps on ruining life every few generations. But sure, several others go on defending that linux isn't bloated, as usual.
Who is ruining life? If you want to run older Linux on your older hardware, no one is stopping you. You seem to want the impossible where Linux works on all things equally without any complications.
Re: (Score:2)
Are you sure you didn't start out talking about Windows?
Bloated and no longer supporting the original hardware on which it was developed. Check