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Birth
Linus Benedict Torvalds was born December 28, 1969 in Helsinki Finland. -
First computer
At age eleven, Torvalds got his first taste of programming on a Commodore Vic 20, an early personal computer given to him by his grandfather. It was on this computer where Linus started writing code in the BASIC programming language. -
Enrolls at the University of Helsinki
Torvalds decides to enroll in the University of Helsinki as a computer science major. -
Announces Linux
Torvalds first announced his intention to create a UNIX and MINIX based kernel in the MINIX newsgroup comp.os.minix. He was primarily interested in getting feedback so he could improve his project. -
Linux is born
In 1991, Linus completes work on the first version (0.01) of the Linux operating system. At this point the project consisted of 10,000 lines of code and was fairly rudimentary compared to later versions. -
Completes master's degree
Torvalds finished his masters degree in computer science at the University of Helsinki. The title of his thesis was Linux: A Portable Operating System. -
Participates in the 86open project
Torvalds joined the steering committee to try and form a consensus on a common binary file format that would be used on UNIX-like systems. -
Employment in Silicon Valley
In 1997, Torvalds decided to move to Santa Clara, California to accept a job a Transmeta Corporation. An arrangement with his new employer allowed him to continue working on the Linux kernel and his new income allowed him to care for his growing family. -
Recieves honorary degree
In 1997, Torvalds received an honorary doctorate from Stockholm University for his contributions to software. -
EFF Pioneer Award
Awarded the pioneer award by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for his development of Linux. -
Financial success
Despite the popularity of his software, Torvalds made very little compared to others major figures in the industry due to his beliefs about free software. This changed in 1999, when the companies Red Hat and VA Linux offered him stock options as a thank you for creating Linux. This made him a millionaire when the stocks later went public. -
Leaves Transmeta for OSDL
Linus decided to leave Transmeta and join the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), which later became the Linux Foundation. Here he would continue his work full-time as the ultimate authority on the Linux kernel. -
Release of Git
After realizing that he could no longer use the BitKeeper system of version control for legal reasons and unhappy with other systems, Linus decided to write his own version control system. Working through a weekend, Linus completed the project and named it Git. It is currently one of the most popular systems of version control used today. -
Developed Subsurface
Released the initial version of the software Subsurface, a free and open source software that is used to collect data when scuba diving. -
At present
Today, Linus continues his work on Linux as a fellow of the Linux Foundation, a non-profit organization that is dedicated to the advancement of Linux and collaborative development projects.
