Happy birthday, Linux: 15 years old

The first ever Linux version was released in September 1991 and was dubbed version 0.01. This was followed by version 0.02 which was released in October of the same year. Versions 0.03, 0.10, and 0.11 followed in rapid succession. In February of 1992, upon releasing version 0.12, Linus Torvalds ditched his self-drafted license in favor of the GPL (GNU General Public License).

Then on March 14, 1994, Torvalds posted this on comp.os.minix:

Article 573 of comp.os.linux.announce:
Xref: cstreet comp.os.linux.announce:573 comp.os.linux.development:4739
 comp.os.linux.misc:7996
Path: cstreet!backbone!crcnis1.unl.edu!wupost!howland.reston.ans.net!EU.net!sunic!
 news.funet.fi!hydra.Helsinki.FI!usenet
From: Linus Torvalds 
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce,comp.os.linux.development,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Linux 1.0---A better UNIX than Windows NT
Followup-To: comp.os.linux.misc
Date: 14 Mar 1994 12:51:16 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki
Lines: 138
Approved: linux-announce@tc.cornell.edu (Lars Wirzenius)
Message-ID: <2m1mk4$qc9@hydra.Helsinki.FI>
NNTP-Posting-Host: hydra.helsinki.fi
Summary: Linux 1.0 released
Keywords: Linux Kernel 1.0 Academy Awards
X-Moderator-Added-Keywords: universe, end of

Finally, here it is.  Almost on time (being just two years late is
peanuts in the OS industry), and better than ever:

	Linux kernel release 1.0

This release has no new major features compared to the pl15 kernels, but
contains lots and lots of bugfixes: all the major ones are gone, the
smaller ones are hidden better.  Hopefully there are no major new ones. 

The Linux kernel can be found as source on most of the Linux ftp-sites
under the names

	linux-1.0.tar.gz		(full source)
	linux-1.0.patch.pl15.gz		(patch against linux-0.99pl15)
	linux-1.0.patch.alpha.gz	(patch from linux-pre-1.0)

it should be available at least at the sites

	ftp.funet.fi:
		pub/OS/Linux/PEOPLE/Linus	(now)
	sunsite.unc.ed:
		pub/Linux/Incoming		(now)
		pub/Linux/kernel		(soon)
	tsx-11.mit.edu:
		pub/linux/sources/system	(soon)
	ftp.cs.helsinki.fi:
		pub/Software/Linux/Kernel	(now)

This release finally moves Linux out of Beta status and is meant as a
base for distributions to build on.  It will neither change Linux'
status as FreeWare under the GPL, nor will it mean the end of
development on Linux.  In fact many new features where held back for
later releases so that 1.0 could become a well tested and hopefully
stable release. 

The Linux kernel wouldn't be where it is today without the help of lots
of people: the kernel developers, the people who did user-level programs
making linux useful, and the brave and foolhardy people who risked their
harddisks and sanity to test it all out.  My thanks to you all. 
(Editorial note: if you think this sounds too much like the Academy
Awards ceremony, just skip this: it's not getting any better.)

Thanks to people like Aaron Kushner, Danny ter Haar and the authors of
the AnwenderHandbuch (and others) who have helped me with hardware or
monetary donations (and to the Oxford Beer Trolls and others who took
care of the drinkware).  And thanks to Dirk, who helped me write this
announcement despite my lazyness ("hey, it's just another release, who
needs an announcement anyway?"). 

To make a long and boring story a bit shorter and boring, here is at
least a partial list of people who have been helping make Linux what it
is today.  Thanks to you all,

	Krishna Balasubramanian 
	Arindam Banerji 
	Peter Bauer <100136.3530@compuserve.com>
	Fred Baumgarten 
	Donald Becker 
	Stephen R. van den Berg 
	Hennus Bergman 
	Ross Biro 
	Bill Bogstad 
	John Boyd 
	Andries Brouwer  
	Remy Card 
	Ed Carp 
	Raymond Chen 
	Alan Cox 
	Laurence Culhane 
	Wayne Davison 
	Thomas Dunbar  
	Torsten Duwe 
	Drew Eckhardt 
	Bjorn Ekwall 
	Doug Evans 
	Rik Faith 
	Juergen Fischer 
	Jeremy Fitzhardinge 
	Ralf Flaxa 
	Nigel Gamble 
	Philip Gladstone 
	Bruno Haible 
	Andrew Haylett 
	Dirk Hohndel 
	Nick Holloway 
	Ron Holt 
	Rob W. W. Hooft 
	Michael K. Johnson 
	Fred N. van Kempen 
	Olaf Kirch 
	Ian Kluft 
	Rudolf Koenig 
	Bas Laarhoven 
	Warner Losh 
	H.J. Lu 
	Tuomas J. Lukka 
	Kai M"akisara 
	Pat Mackinlay 
	John A. Martin 
	Bradley McLean  
	Craig Metz 
	William (Bill) Metzenthen 
	Rick Miller 
	Corey Minyard 
	Eberhard Moenkeberg 
	Ian A. Murdock 
	Johan Myreen 
	Stefan Probst 
	Daniel Quinlan 
	Florian La Roche 
	Robert Sanders 
	Peter De Schrijver 
	Darren Senn 
	Chris Smith 
	Drew Sullivan  
	Tommy Thorn 
	Jon Tombs 
	Theodore Ts'o 
	Simmule Turner 
	Stephen Tweedie 
	Thomas Uhl  
	Juergen Weigert 
	Matt Welsh 
	Marco van Wieringen 
	Stephen D. Williams 
	Gunter Windau 
	Lars Wirzenius 
	Roger E. Wolff 
	Frank Xia  
	Eric Youngdale 
	Orest Zborowski 

A more detailed list with contact and description information can be
found in the CREDITS file that accompanies the kernel sources. 

--
Mail submissions for comp.os.linux.announce to: linux-announce@tc.cornell.edu
PLEASE remember Keywords: and a short description of the software.

That version (1.0) of the Linux kernel was written with only 176,250 lines of code. For comparison, Linux 2.6.28 which was released last December 2008 had 10,195,402 lines of code.