Linus Torvalds was really bored one evening and was looking for something to create, something that would be free that could be shared everywhere. Being an avid programer and geek extraordinaire he decided he might want to try his hand at improving the operating system mini unix or (minix), he had already seen the desktop market flooded by Microsoft Windows and Steve Jobs at Apple had created the Mac OS operating system – Linus wanted to create something anyone could use that would be cool and free, thus one night, exactly 20 years ago today Linix was born with a short but amazingly significant post to the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.minix asking, “What would you like to see most in minix?” Little did Linus know that such a simple query would lead to such an explosive out pouring of ideas creating a bubble of inovation that still continues to grow today. What began as a little hobby for a super geek, would soon become what some techno geeks might argue was the achievement of a lifetime, the creation and growth of the Linix kernel – the core and brain of the free Linux operating system that makes it go. Today Linix is made up of contributions from 1000s of other computer geeks that share Linus’s passion for computers and making them go. Some may even refer to Linus Torvalds as the father of the open source software movement because he created a culture where other coders could be open to create and share and build something great together, something they could look back on and say, “Hey we did that, and boy was that cool!” Today Linix is made up of contributions from folks everywhere, I bet Linus had no idea that one little Usenet post was going to spark the growth of one of the neatest most collaborative free software movements ever. Thanks Linus – we love you for incredible and free software

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