Linus Torvalds was just another computer aficionado when he began working from his home in Finland developing an “open-source” operating system, called Linux Unix. The hacker community ethos that Torvalds shared stood in opposition to the privatization for commercialization for profit of discovers — and he made sure users create, add and share modules for their own use.

On this day, March 14, in 1994 Linus Torvalds released the first official Linux version. He had named it “Freax,” but a university colleague of his did not like the name and changed it to Linux, a name Linus considered but dismissed earlier as too egotistical.

Torvalds never dreams of launching of movement, but that was exactly what he did. Linux operating systems evolved and split off — there is now Unix, and MINX and countless others. Even the Apple company has taken to using Linux for the back end of some of their own devices.