Linux'un geçmişi

1991'de Helsinki Üniversitesi'nden Linus Torvalds daha sonra Linux çekirdeği haline gelecek programı yazmaya başldı. 25 Ağustos 1991'de comp.os.minix'e aşağıdaki duyuru atıldı:

“	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-system (due to practical reasons) among other things). I've currently ported bash(1.08) and 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 would want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-) Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi) PS. Yes – it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs. It is NOT portable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I have :-(.	„
—Linus Torvalds

Adlandırma

Önceleri Linus, programa Freax adını vermek istedi fakat sonunda Linux adında karar kılındı.

Maskot

Linus, Linux için bir maskotun penguen olmasını gerektiğini belirtti ve daha sonra bu maskota Torvalds' UniX adından Tux dendi.