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Linus Torvalds

From John H – Mr. Pop – Your pages are just full of fascinating tidbits and especially – technology. Can you tell me something or anything about the operating system they call Linux? Thank you.

Mr. Pop History – Sure! The name “Linux” is a cross between Unix and someone’s first name – the guy who came up with it – Linus Torvalds back in 1991. He didn’t like the Microsoft DOS software that came with his computer and wanted something more powerful, like the Unix systems he was using as a second-year computer science student at the University of Helsinki.

Torvaids began writing his own operating system – and offered it free! By 1998 – some 7 million were using Linux.