Linux Kernel Announced
Linus Torvalds announced the Linux kernel, launching the open-source operating system
August 25, 1991
A Student Project That Took Over the World
On August 25, 1991, a 21-year-old Finnish computer science student named Linus Torvalds posted a message to an internet newsgroup: "I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones." He was wrong. The Linux kernel he released became the foundation of the most widely used operating system on the planet. Today Linux runs Android phones, most web servers, supercomputers, and the International Space Station.
Why Open Source Won
Torvalds released Linux under an open-source license, meaning anyone could read the code, modify it, and redistribute it — as long as they shared their changes under the same terms. This created a global community of volunteers and later corporate engineers who improved it continuously. IBM, Google, and Red Hat eventually contributed thousands of engineers to Linux development. The model proved that collaborative, decentralized software development could produce a product superior to anything a single company could build alone.
Linux Everywhere
Most people interact with Linux every day without knowing it. The servers that run Google, Amazon, and Facebook run Linux. Android — on over 3 billion devices — is built on the Linux kernel. The world's 500 fastest supercomputers all run Linux. The "hobby project" that Torvalds almost apologized for in 1991 became the most important piece of software infrastructure on Earth.