Shekaru 28 da suka gabata, Linus Torvalds ya sanar a rukunin labarai na comp.os.minix cewa ya ƙirƙiri samfurin aiki na sabon tsarin aiki na Linux. Tsarin ya haɗa da bash 1.08 da gcc 1.40, wanda ya ba shi damar ɗaukar kansa.
An ƙirƙiri Linux a matsayin amsa ga MINIX, lasisin wanda bai ƙyale al'umma su yi musayar ci gaba da dacewa ba (a lokaci guda, MINIX na waɗannan shekarun an sanya shi azaman ilimi kuma an iyakance shi musamman a cikin iyawa).
Da farko Linus ya yi niyyar ba wa ɗansa Freax suna (“kyauta”, “freak” da X (Unix)), amma Ari Lemmke, wanda ya ba Linus taimako wajen bugawa ta hanyar sanya ma'ajin OS akan uwar garken, ya sanya wa kundin adireshi suna "linux" .
Asalin lasisin "ba kasuwanci bane," amma bayan sauraron al'ummar da suka girma a kusa da aikin, Linus ya amince ya yi amfani da GPLv2.
source: linux.org.ru