Happy 32nd Birthday, Linux!
On August 25th, 1991, the 21-year-old Finnish student Linus Benedict Torvalds made his now-famous announcement on the comp.os.minix newsgroup that he’s working on a free operating system for 386(486) AT clones, just as a “hobby.”
It’s been 32 years since he made that announcement and he probably never dreamed that the so-called “hobby” would turn into something so huge and used by millions of computer users around the globe.
XDA Developer:
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On this day in 1991, Linus Torvalds announced he was working on what would become Linux
Linux is one of the most popular operating systems besides Windows and MacOS. Its high focus on security, customizability, and portability, together with low hardware usage, make it highly versatile for casual users and developers alike.
Linux wasn’t always a large ecosystem comprising hundreds of distributions. In fact, the OS was originally created by a 21-year-old Linus Benedict Torvalds as a kernel that mimicked Unix, and on August 25, 1991, he publicly announced his plans to create a free operating system. Little did he know that 32 years down the line, this hobby project of his would end up becoming one of the most successful innovations to grace the tech industry.
Neowin:
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A quick look back at the announcement of what would become Linux 32 years ago this week
Earlier this month, Valve updated its Steam survey stats for the month of July. It shows what kinds of PC hardware and software gamers are using on its PC service. One small but interesting milestone for that month was shown in those numbers.
For the first time, the number of Linux gamers accessing Steam (1.96 percent) surpassed those using Apple's MacOS (1.84). That's likely due to the sales success of Valve's Steam Deck portable gaming PC, which uses a Linux-based "SteamOS Holo".
While Linux is still a distance second compared to the 96.21 percent of Windows users, it still shows that Valve's use of the free OS has caused an overall uptick in its use. Indeed Valve has been a champion of promoting Linux PC gaming well before it launched its Steam Deck.