The history of the today well-known Linux begins in Finland, Helsinki around 1991. Linus Torvalds
wishes to understand his computer better and develops a terminal emulation. Tied up by his hobby he extended the terminal emulation on and on, until he recognized that it resembles rather an operating system.

For the first time he announces it in various Usenet- groups as the operating system Minix, comp.os.minix. As early as in the end of 1991 on a server the system is offered to curious users.

At that time the administrator of the FTP server, Ari Lemmke, with which Linus Torvalds co-operates, disagrees with Freax or Buggix, the intended name of the system. At the end Torvald made the system available under the name Linux. At that time no licence which forbade the commercial use of the name and Linux existed.

Torvalds made the system more and more transparent and gave to all developers more and more freedome. In 1992 Linux was put under the GNU GPL. The first free operating system was born. The popularity of Linux rose rapidly! The system was revolutionary - it allowed an easy modification and spreading.! 1996 Linux receives its mascot, the penguin Tux, which was born during a design competition. The Linux system also became a patron of a asteroid discovered on the 12th of October, 1994 (9885).