It was twenty years ago today...

Sam Varghese
Thursday, 25 August 2011 00:34

Opinion and Analysis

Linus Torvalds didn't use words half as lyrical as those of the immortal Beatles when he first announced the arrival of Linux 20 years ago (for those who don't know, the headline for this article is taken from the famous album, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, released by the band in 1967).

Nay, his email was more the request of an eager 21-year-old, written in hope that others could join in his little project, but yet hesitant to characterise what he had developed as a revolutionary development. He simply wasn't sure of what he could move on to.

Torvalds often refers to the fact that he has a massive ego - no doubt this is true because only someone who has an oversized ego would ever think they could attempt something as ambitious as what he did - but in that first note, sent to the comp.os.minix newsgroup on August 25, 1991, there was very little evidence of a swollen head.

What should interest those of us who use the kernel that he announced on that day is why his project grew beyond all imagination and others, who were in the same space before him, who had developed their systems to a much greater degree, did not generate half as much interest.

Torvalds often puts the success of Linux down to the fact that he is lazy and preferred to have others doing the work. But if there was not something appealing about the project, it simply wouldn't have worked the way it has.

One fundamental aspect that made Linux stand out was Torvalds' willingness to accept the contributions of others. In this respect, he could not have differed more from the Jolitzes who developed 386BSD, which was in a far more workable state in 1991, but were unwilling to let others participate and maintained a vice-like grip on their project.

Another aspect of Linux that made it attractive even in its infancy was the massive fight that had gone on over proprietary UNIX. Many people wanted an operating system that worked the same way, that was POSIX-compliant, but were afraid of being hauled up for copyright violations.