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A Finnish university student published a free Unix-like operating system kernel online. The figure is taken from The Linux Foundation, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

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Linus Torvalds released the first Linux kernel in 1991

A Finnish university student published a free Unix-like operating system kernel online

In August 1991, twenty-one-year-old Linus Torvalds announced on a Usenet newsgroup that he was building a free operating system kernel for Intel 386 computers. Combined with GNU software utilities, Linux grew into a dominant open-source operating system. Today Linux powers nearly all supercomputers, most cloud internet servers, and Android mobile devices.

LinuxCon Europe Linus Torvalds 01 — Krd · CC BY-SA 4.0 · licence · source

Where this comes from

The Linux Foundation

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Tags: linux, open-source, operating-systems

Linus Torvalds released the first Linux kernel in 1991: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: A Finnish university student published a free Unix-like operating system kernel online. The figure is taken from The Linux Foundation, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a technology fact?: Yes. It sits on the Technology shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.