Happy Birthday, Linux!

[Jon 'maddog' Hall]

It was on this date in 1991 that Linus Torvalds had the first "tar ball"
(V0.01 of the kernel) posted to an ftp site.

Originally the name of the kernel project was to be "Freax", but Linus'
friend who did the posting decided to over-rule Linus and renamed it
"Linux".

        Honest I didn't want to ever release it under the name 
        Linux because it was too egotistical. What was the name I reserved 
        for any eventual release? Freax. (Get it? Freaks with the requisite
        X.) In fact, some of the early make files --the files that describe 
        how to compile the sources-- included the word "Freax" for about
        half a year. But it really didn't matter. At that point I didn't need a 
        name for it because I wasn't releasing it to anybody.
        
        	And Ari Lemke, who insured that it made its way to the ftp
        site, hated the name Freax. He preferred the other working name I
        admit that I didn't put up much of a fight. But it was his doing. So
        I can honestly say I wasn't egotistical, or half-honestly say I wasn't
        egotistical. But I thought okay, that's a good name, and I can
        always blame somebody else for it, which I'm doing now.

-- Linus Torvalds p84 and p88 "Just for fun"

So two days after "Software Freedom Day" we have the anniversary of
the birth of "Linux".

maddog

--
Jon "maddog" Hall
Executive Director           Linux International(R)
email: maddog at li.org         80 Amherst St. 
Voice: +1.603.672.4557       Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A.
WWW: http://www.li.org

Board Member: Uniforum Association
Board Member Emeritus: USENIX Association (2000-2006)

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