Aug. 25, 1991: Kid From Helsinki Foments Linux Revolution, Aug 24, 2009

1991: Linus Torvalds, a 21-year-old university student from Finland, writes a post to a user group asking for feedback on a little project he’s working on. He’s built a simple kernel for a Unix-like operating system that runs on an Intel 386 processor, and he wants to develop it further. The kernel eventually becomes Linux, which is released in 1994 and distributed over the internet for free.

The open source movement gave rise to Linux and spawned a generation of collaborative coders. Now it's extending its reach to the hardware industry.

Mary Lou Jepsen didn't set out to invent the netbook and turn the computer industry upside down. She was just trying to create a supercheap laptop.

Once piece of welcome news is that Adobe is releasing the Flash Player 10 beta for all major platforms — Windows, Mac and Linux. Adobe has even upped the Linux ante with a new installer specially tailored for Ubuntu users.

The jury deliberating the Hans Reiser murder trial left the courthouse here about 3:15 p.m. Pacific time Thursday, its second full day of deliberations.

The Ubuntu team has announced the arrival of the release candidate for Ubuntu 8.04, code-named "Hardy Heron." The release candidate is considered complete, stable, and suitable for testing by any user.

Everex's gPC mini is the third in its new lineup of cheap, linux-powered computers. With smoothly rounded corners and a pearly-white paint job, it's like a Mac Mini from another universe. And that's certainly what its designers want you to think: at $500, it's a mass market PC that comes in a similar tiny form and at an even tinier price.

Linux fans that need a Windows app or two can take advantage of WINE, but what about Windows fans that need to run Linux apps? If you're lucky someone has already ported your favorite Linux app over to Windows, but if they haven't, you might want to check out and Linux.

The next release of Ubuntu is slated to arrive in April, but already the developers are making plans for the future of the popular Linux distribution.

The Linux Foundation has posted the second half of its long and thorough interview with Linux founder Linus Torvalds, part of the Foundation's "open voices" podcast. While the first part of the interview focused on the Linux development community, this time Torvalds sounds off on everything from patents and innovation to the future of Linux.

Actually, I'm sticking with Ubuntu. But there's no denying that one of the appeals of Linux is the DIY spirit behind it. While many find the number of distributions daunting, it's also evidence that anyone, even you, can build their version of Linux just like Linus and friends did in the beginning.

The next generation of KDE, the popular Linux desktop environment, has arrived. KDE 4.0 features a completely re-written core with new multimedia libraries, better hardware abstraction and desktop eye candy that puts Windows Vista to shame.

Linux users unhappy with the GIMP image editor may want to take a look at Pixel, a cross platform image editing application, which more closely mirrors the behavior of Adobe Photoshop.

The hottest thing on YouTube this month isn't The Dark Knight trailer or that clip of a baby giving an evil eye. It's video of somebody downloading a copy of Ubuntu, a Linux-based operating system.

Firefox is headed for the beauty salon. The new look won't make it in the upcoming beta 1 release, but there's a new look on the way for the third version of the venerable browser.

The prosecutor in the Hans Reiser murder trial concluded nearly three days of opening statements, urging jurors Thursday to convict the star Linux engineer on trial here for allegedly killing his wife.

This turns what might otherwise be a bog-standard Windows PC into open source's first major assault on the most massive PC mass-market of them all: Wal-Mart shoppers that even Everex identifies as "unsophisticated."

Nokia, who happens to own a 47 percent stake in Symbian, may have welcomed Google's Android mobile OS with open arms yesterday, but the same can't be said for Symbian's CEO Nigel Clifford

The defense attorney for Hans Reiser -- the murder suspect and prominent Linux open source programmer -- said Monday he was "apprehensive" that his client wanted to testify on his own behalf.

The Neo1973 is the first physical manifestation of a grand idea -- a new breed of wireless handheld built for the open-source age.