"In what is now known — often pejoratively — as the
'back office of the IT world', the once quaint operating system
Linux is not so niche anymore. Sustained by the reams of code
generated by passionate Linux hackers, zealous GNU Linux Users
Groups that hope to use Free and Open Source Software (Foss) as a
tool to bridge the ubiquitous technological divide and college
GLUGs that keep the 'tinkering' alive, Linux is no longer a 'cool
geeks only' concept confined to the world of academics and tech
specialists.
"Nineteen years ago, on August 25, Linus Torvalds initiated the
development of the Linux Kernel when he announced on a mailing
group that he had created a 'Free' operating system. He named it
'Freax'. Fortunately, better sense prevailed, and the name Linux
was chosen over Torvald's hipper choice.
"Today, Linux is more than just a buzzword or a complex
Operating System for geeks and servers only. Free and Open Source
Software has become so mainstream that even large corporations,
even those known for their exclusive, closed and proprietary
models, today contribute substantially to Open Source."
