Happy Birthday, Linux

Aug 25, 2025

On August 25, Linux officially turns 34.

August 25, 1991 marks an important date for Linux and open-source enthusiasts, because that's the day Linus Torvalds posted to the comp.os.minix newsgroup (remember newsgroups?) the following message:

“Hello everyone out there using minix –

“I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones.”

The message continued with, "This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready.  I'd like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things)."

The first release, version 0.01, was officially released in September of the same year and included just over 10 thousand lines of code. In comparison, the current Linux kernel has surpassed over 40 million lines of code.

It wasn't until a year later that the first official Linux distribution was released by Owen Le Blanc, called MCC Interim Linux, which was soon followed by the first commercial distribution. 

As of 2024, the Linux operating system is valued at approximately $21.97 billion and was predicted to reach nearly $100 billion by 2032.

Over the past 34 years, Linux has evolved from a simple student project to an operating system that powers enterprise businesses and consumer services around the world, as well as Android, IoT devices, artificial intelligence, and just about every embedded system you use.
 
 

 
 
 

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