Linus Torvalds

Linus Torvalds was born!

Dec 28, 1969

Torvalds was born in Helsinki, Finland to Anna and Nils Torvalds, who were both journalists that attended the same university he did, the University of Helsinki.

Torvalds finds an interest in programming

1981

He begins to dabble in programming at the age of 11 on his grandfather's Commodore VIC-20, using BASIC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuAebQvFnRI (Link to interview where this is mentioned)

Began attending the University of Helsinki

1988

Began pursuing his degree in Computer Science.

Torvalds attends Richard Stallman's speech

1991

Torvalds attends Stallman's speech about his GNU project at the University of Technology. This would eventually lead to him using it to license Linux.

Purchased a Intel 80386-based clone of IBM PC

Jan 5, 1991

Purchased this computer and received his copy of MINIX, which set him on the path to begin working on Linux.

Announced his plan for LINUX

Aug 25, 1991

Torvalds announces that he plans to create a UNIX-inspired operating system called Linux, and begins working on it. This was the first major internet-centered open-source project.

Linux kernel distributions are created

1992

Linux is licensed under GNU GPL and the first distributions of it are created

Many other developers begin working on Linux kernel

1993

Over 100 developers begin working on the Linux kernel, adapting it to the GNU environment.

Version 1.0 of Linux is released

Mar 14, 1994

Torvalds deems Linux and its components to be ready for release and releases version 1.0 of Linux.

Open Source Community recognizes itself

1995

After years of not officially declaring themselves as a community, the group of people who believed in open-source recognized themselves as a community, which can be accredited to Torvalds for encouraging contributions from all.

Graduated from University of Helsinki

1996

He graduated with a masters in Computer Science from the University of Helsinki.

Version 2.0 of Linux is released

Jun 9, 1996

The 2.0 version of Linux is released, increasing its appeal to many companies because of its capability of using multiple processors at the same time by using Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP).

Major companies announce support for Linux

1998

IBM, Compaq, Oracle, and other companies announce that they will support Linux.

Version 3.0 of Linux is released

Jul 22, 2011

Major cosmetic change. Storage backend for Xen is added, and multiple changes are made to Btrfs filesystem and to graphics drivers, among other changes.

Torvalds is awarded the Millennium Technology Prize

2012

Along with Shinya Yamanaka, a stem cell scientist, he is awarded the Millennium Technology Prize and 600,000 euros.

Version 4.0 of Linux is released

Apr 12, 2015

Support for live patching kernel code is added. DAX, Kasan, and lazytime added. New drivers and other small improvements.

Version 5.0 of Linux is released

Mar 3, 2019

Support for energy-aware scheduling added. Adiantum file system encryption is added for lower-power devices. AMD Freesync is supported (among other new features)