It's 35 years since Linus Torvalds first revealed Linux, calling it 'just a hobby' — how wrong he was

Linus Torvalds introduced Linux in 1991 as a modest personal project Linux grew from roughly 10,000 lines into more than 40 million Linux now operates across servers, embedded devices, and cloud infrastructure worldwide On August 25, 1991, a 21-year-old Finnish computer enthusiast introduced an oper

<![CDATA[ <article> <ul><li><strong>Linus Torvalds introduced Linux in 1991 as a modest personal project</strong></li><li><strong>Linux grew from roughly 10,000 lines into more than 40 million</strong></li><li><strong>Linux now operates across servers, embedded devices, and cloud infrastructure worldwide</strong></li></ul><p>On August 25, 1991, a 21-year-old Finnish computer enthusiast introduced an operating system project online.</p><p>At that time, Linus Torvalds was experimenting with Minix, an educational operating system created for teaching operating system principles.</p><p>His announcement appeared on Usenet, where he sought reactions from people familiar with Minix and explained what he was developing.</p><h2 id="a-modest-announcement-becomes-linux">A modest announcement becomes Linux</h2><p>Torvalds described the project cautiously, making clear that he did not expect anything particularly large from his experiment.</p><p>In his original announcement, he wrote, "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)."</p><p>However, this operating system did not remain merely an announcement for very long, because Torvalds released the first version less than one month later.</p><p>Linux became available on September 17, 1991, establishing a project that would continue developing through contributions from programmers worldwide.</p><p>The early project therefore moved quickly from private experimentation into something available for other developers to examine and modify.</p><p>Its development model eventually became closely associated with open-source software, where publicly available code permits further examination and modification.</p><h2 id="from-personal-project-to-computing-mainstay">From personal project to computing mainstay</h2><p>The scale of Linux's later adoption contrasts sharply with the modest expectations expressed in Torvalds' original announcement.</p><p>Linux also became an important foundation for technologies that millions of people encounter without necessarily knowing which operating system supports them.</p><p>What began around personal computers eventually became associated with servers, embedded systems, cloud computing infrastructure, and numerous other computing environments.</p><p>By January 2025, the Linux kernel had grown from roughly 10,000 lines in 1991 to more than 40 million lines of code.</p><p>The 6.19 kernel development cycle involved 2,141 developers and produced 14,344 non-merge changesets during its development.</p><p>Linux also runs on all 500 systems listed in the TOP500 ranking of the world's most powerful supercomputers.</p><p>The project's development now involves thousands of contributors, with Open Hub recording 6,201 contributors during its latest twelve-month period.</p><p>Its continued development has involved contributions from individuals, companies, organisations, and communities working across different parts of the tech industry.</p><p>Thirty-five years after that initial announcement, Torvalds remains closely involved with Linux development, although the project's circumstances have changed considerably.</p><p>The anniversary therefore provides a direct comparison between the project's modest beginnings and its extensive role across modern computing environments.</p><p>Torvalds' original description was understandable given his circumstances, since he was announcing a personal project rather than predicting decades of technological adoption.</p><p>Still, describing Linux as merely a hobby now appears remarkably restrained considering how extensively the operating system subsequently spread.</p><p>The original message remains available today, preserving an unusually clear record of the moment Linux first entered public discussion.</p><p>Via <a href="https://www.xda-developers.com/35-years-ago-linus-torvalds-usenet-linux/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">XDA-Developers</a></p><figure class="van-image-figure inline-layout" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style="max-width:676px;"><p class="vanilla-image-block" style="padding-top:31.51%;"><img id="diM9tpwF2Lz85R8q85CT78" name="tr-g_news" alt="Google logo on a black background next to text reading 'Click to follow TechRadar'" src="https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/diM9tpwF2Lz85R8q85CT78.jpg" mos="" align="middle" fullscreen="" width="676" height="213" attribution="" endorsement="" class="inline"></p></div></div></figure> </article> ]]>