以下是Linus Torvalds給當時的minix系統用戶寫的信件原文,經歷過那個年代的朋友們一起來重新回憶一下吧:
Hello everybody out there using minix -
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).
I've currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work. This implies that I'll get something practical within a few months, and I'd like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)
Linus ([email protected])
PS. Yes – it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs. It is NOT portable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I have :-(.
Wikipedia對Linux的介紹節選:
Linux內核最初只是由芬蘭人林納斯·托瓦茲（Linus Torvalds）在赫爾辛基大學上學時出于個人愛好而編寫的，當時他并不滿意Minix這個教學用的操作系統。最初的設想中，Linux 是一種類似 Minix 這樣的一種操作系統。Linux的第一個版本在1991年9月被大學FTP server管理員Ari Lemmke發布在Internet上， 最初Torvalds 稱這個核心的名稱為 "Freax" ，意思是自由（ "free"） 和奇異（ "freak"） 的結合字，并且附上了"X"這個常用的字母，以配合所謂的 Unix-like 的系統。但是FTP server管理員嫌原來的命名“Freax”的名稱不好聽，把核心的稱呼改成“Linux”，當時僅有10000行代碼，仍必須執行于Minix操作系 統之上，并且必須使用硬盤開機；
