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# 1 The Linux operating system

In March 1991 Linus Benedict Torvalds bought the multitasking system Minix for his AT 386. He used it to develop his own multitasking system which he called Linux. In September 1991 he released the first prototype by e-mail to some other Minix users on the internet, thus beginning the Linux project. Many programmers from that point on have supported Linux. They have added device drivers, developed applications, and aimed for POSIX compliance. Today Linux is very powerful, but what is best is that it's free. Work is beeing done to port Linux to other platforms.