在 1991 年 4月，芬兰的赫尔辛基大学年仅 21 岁的学生 Linus Torvalds 开始做一个他自己的操作系统。在 24 年前的今天，即 1991年8月25日，他在 usenet 的 comp.os.minix 新闻组中发布了 Linux 的第一个公告，宣布了 Linux 的诞生。以下是当年 Torvalds 写的邮件：

1. Path: gmdzi!unido!fauern!ira.uka.de!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wupost!uunet!mcsun!news.funet.fi!hydra!klaava!torvalds
2. From: torv...@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
3. Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
4. Subject: What would you like to see most in minix?
5. Summary: small poll for my new operating system
6. Keywords: 386, preferences
7. Message-ID: <1991Aug25.205708.9541@klaava.Helsinki.FI>
8. Date: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMT
9. Organization: University of Helsinki
10. Lines: 20
11.  
12.  
13. Hello everybody out there using minix -
14.  
15. I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and
16. professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing
17. since april, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback on
18. things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat
19. (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons)
20. among other things).
21.  
22. I've currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work.
23. This implies that I'll get something practical within a few months, and
24. I'd like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions
25. are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)
26.  
27. Linus (torv...@kruuna.helsinki.fi)
28.  
29. PS. Yes - it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs.
30. It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never
31. will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I have :-(.

在该年的九月， Linux Kernel 0.01 发布到了芬兰大学和研究网（FUNET） 上的一个 FTP 服务器（ftp.funet.fi）。当时仅有 10239 行代码。到了十月，又发布了 0.02。

转自 http://www.solidot.org/story?sid=45267