Linux Box

In 1991, in Helsinki, Linus Torvalds began a project that later became the Linux kernel.  It was initially a terminal emulator, which Torvalds used to access the large UNIX servers of the university.  He wrote the program specifically for the hardware he was using and independent of an operating system because he wanted to use the functions of his new PC with an 80386 processor.  Development was done on MINIX using the GNU C compiler, which is still the main choice for compiling Linux today (although the code can be built with other compilers, such as the Intel C Compiler).

Torvalds had wanted to call his invention Freax, a portmanteau of “freak”, “free”, and “x” (as an allusion to Unix).  During the start of his work on the system, he stored the files under the name of “Freax” for about half of a year.  However, Ari Lemmke, Torvald’s co-worker at the HUT who was responsible for the servers at the time, did not think that “Freax” was a good name.  Lemmke considered several options such as Linix, but he named the project “Linux” on the server without consulting Tolvalds.  Later, Torvalds consented to the name, and “Linux” was born.

Over the years, there have been many popular misspellings such as Linix.  There was even a controversy over the name of the official mascot, Tux.  Torvalds announced in 1996 that there would be a penguin mascot.  The name Tux was suggested by James Hughes as a derivative of Torvalds’ UniX. If Ari Lemmke and Torvald had originally settled on the name Linix, the mascot’s name might have been Nix!

If you are looking for more information and a good version of Linux (sometimes misspelled Linix), please click here.