[conspire] Happy 31st birthday, Freax^W Linux

[Rick Moen]

It was Ari Lemmke who eventually suggested the term "Linux" 
for Linus Torvalds's kernel effort.  Torvalds wanted to call it 
Freax, for Free Unix.  Because Lemmke administered the first hosting
(ftp server nic.funet.fi), the tarball got the name Lemmke wanted.


Anyway...

On August 25th 1991, Torvalds mentioned his unassuming,
never-will-amount-to-much, then-unnamed hobby, on the comp.os.minix
newsgroup:

  From: torvalds at klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
  Newsgroups: comp.os.minix 
  Subject: What would you like to see most in minix?  
  Summary: small poll for my new operating system 
  Message-ID: <1991Aug25.205708.9541 at klaava.Helsinki.FI> 
  Date: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMT
  Organization: University of Helsinki
  
  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 (torvalds at kruuna.helsinki.fi)
  
  PS.  Yes - it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded
  fs.  It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably
  never will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I
  have :-(. 


There was a follow-up on 4 Oct 1991:

  From: Linus Benedict Torvalds (torvalds at klaava.Helsinki.FI)
  Subject: Free minix-like kernel sources for 386-AT 
  Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
  Date: 1991-10-05 08:53:28 PST 

  Do you pine for the nice days of minix-1.1, when men were men and wrote
  their own device drivers? Are you without a nice project and just dying
  to cut your teeth on a OS you can try to modify for your needs? Are you
  finding it frustrating when everything works on minix? No more all-
  nighters to get a nifty program working? Then this post might be just
  for you :-)

  As I mentioned a month(?) ago, I'm working on a free version of a
  minix-lookalike for AT-386 computers. It has finally reached the stage
  where it's even usable (though may not be depending on what you want),
  and I am willing to put out the sources for wider distribution. It is
  just version 0.02 (+1 (very small) patch already), but I've successfully
  run bash/gcc/gnu-make/gnu-sed/compress etc under it.

  Sources for this pet project of mine can be found at nic.funet.fi
  (128.214.6.100) in the directory /pub/OS/Linux. The directory also
  contains some README-file and a couple of binaries to work under linux
  (bash, update and gcc, what more can you ask for :-). Full kernel
  source is provided, as no minix code has been used. Library sources are
  only partially free, so that cannot be distributed currently. The
  system is able to compile "as-is" and has been known to work. Heh. 
  Sources to the binaries (bash and gcc) can be found at the same place in
  /pub/gnu.

  ALERT! WARNING! NOTE! These sources still need minix-386 to be compiled
  (and gcc-1.40, possibly 1.37.1, haven't tested), and you need minix to
  set it up if you want to run it, so it is not yet a standalone system
  for those of you without minix. I'm working on it. You also need to be
  something of a hacker to set it up (?), so for those hoping for an
  alternative to minix-386, please ignore me. It is currently meant for
  hackers interested in operating systems and 386's with access to minix.

  The system needs an AT-compatible harddisk (IDE is fine) and EGA/VGA. If
  you are still interested, please ftp the README/RELNOTES, and/or mail me
  for additional info.

  I can (well, almost) hear you asking yourselves "why?". Hurd will be
  out in a year (or two, or next month, who knows), and I've already got
  minix. This is a program for hackers by a hacker. I've enjouyed doing
  it, and somebody might enjoy looking at it and even modifying it for
  their own needs. It is still small enough to understand, use and
  modify, and I'm looking forward to any comments you might have.

  I'm also interested in hearing from anybody who has written any of the
  utilities/library functions for minix. If your efforts are freely
  distributable (under copyright or even public domain), I'd like to hear
  from you, so I can add them to the system. I'm using Earl Chews estdio
  right now (thanks for a nice and working system Earl), and similar works
  will be very wellcome. Your (C)'s will of course be left intact. Drop me
  a line if you are willing to let me use your code.

  Linus

  PS. to PHIL NELSON! I'm unable to get through to you, and keep getting
  "forward error - strawberry unknown domain" or something.


Torvalds told Steven Vaughan-Nichols, a year ago, that he had also
semi-publicly mentioned his little hobbyist project in July 1991,
even before the first Usenet posting.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/linus-torvalds-on-linuxs-30th-birthday/