I won't talk about Linus Torvalds as a human but as a famous computer programmer - the most famous programmer at all - Who is Linus ?!! ...... and How did he become famous ?!! .... here I will try to answer these questions .
Linus Torvalds is the world's most famous computer programmer . He is the founder and coordinator of Linux , the Unix-like operating system that is beginning to revolutionize the computer industry and possibly much else as well . He is truly one of the great tales in the history of the computers .
Linus Torvalds was born on December 28, 1969 in Helsinki, Finland . He was named after Linus Pauling , the famous physical chemist and Nobel Prize winner. Linus took an early interest in computers mainly through the influence of his maternal grandfather - a professor of statistics at the University of Helsinki .
Linus Torvalds enrolled at the University of Helsinki in 1988 where he studied computer science.
In 1987 Torvalds used his savings to buy his first computer , a Sinclair QL . This was one of the world's first 32-bit computers for home use . however he soon became unhappy with it because of it could not be reprogrammed due to the operating system residing in ROM (read-only memory) . Torvalds was disappointed with the MS-DOS operating system that came with it. That operating system had not advanced sufficiently .
He thus strongly preferred the much more powerful and stable UNIX operating system that he had become accustomed to using on the university's computers . Torvalds attempted to obtain a version of UNIX for his new computer . he could not find even a basic system for less than US$5,000. He also considered MINIX, a small clone of UNIX that was created by operating systems expert , although much more powerful than MS-DOS and designed to run on Intel x86 processors, MINIX still had some serious disadvantages . They included the facts that not all of the source code was made public , it lacked some of the features and performance of UNIX and there was a not-insignificant (although cheaper than many other operating systems) licensing fee .
In 1990 he took his first class in the C programming language, the language that he would soon use to write the Linux kernel (i.e., the core of the operating system).
Source code is the version of software (e.g., an operating system or an application program) as it is originally written (i.e., typed into a computer) by a human using a programming language (such as assembly, BASIC, C or Java) and before it is compiled (i.e., converted by a compiler) into machine language, which the processor (but not humans) can understand directly. Having the source code is necessary in order to study or improve software. A highly skilled programmer such as Torvalds can easily become bored and frustrated with software for which the source code is not available .
So , Torvalds decided to create a new operating system from scratch that was based on both MINIX and UNIX.
Torvalds decided to take a break and devote his full attention to his project.
in 1991 he announced his initial creation on the MINIX newsgroup comp.os.minix :
Message-ID: 1991Aug25.205708.9541@klaava.helsinki.fi
From: torvalds@klaava.helsinki.fi (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
To: Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: What would you like to see most in minix?
Summary: small poll for my new operating system
Hello everybody 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. 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-sytem due to practical reasons)among other things.
I've currently ported bash (1.08) an gcc (1.40), and things seem to work. This implies that i'll get something practical within a few months, and I'd like to know what features most people want.
Any suggestions are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)
Linus Torvalds torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi
after a period of self-imposed isolation he completed his project . Yes !!!!!!!! he did it and achieved Unprecedented success . He decided to release Linux under the GPL (GNU General Public License) rather than under the more restrictive license that he had earlier planned -Code licensed under the GNU GPL can be used in other projects- Developed by Richard Stallman, a notable programmer and a leading advocate of free software, this most popular of the free software licenses allows anyone to study, use, modify, extend and redistribute the software as long as they make the source code freely available for any modified versions that they create and then redistribute .
Torvalds originally gave his new operating system the working name Linux (from Linus' MINIX) .
and gave it the the penguin as logo ,he liked them alot and to make that kind of goofy and fun .
Finally , I can say that Linux is a new birth had just been announced in the open source world .
