The operating system that powers more than 90% of the world’s top servers and cloud infrastructure as well as the internet, Android smartphones, supercomputers, connected cars and the International Space Station was almost named “Freax.”

“I think I emailed five people about the 0.0 release,” said Linus Torvalds (pictured, left), the inventor of Linux, who recalled that a colleague changed the name almost immediately. “I am eternally grateful to other people for having more taste than I did.”

Alternative to MS-DOS

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Linux’s birth. It was the brainchild of Torvalds, who was a 21-year-old software programmer when he developed the new tool in 1991. Torvalds, who doesn’t relish public speaking and seldom makes appearances, marked the occasion by answering questions from Dirk Hohndel (right), vice president and chief open-source officer of VMware Inc., during the Open Source Summit in late September.

Torvalds was a computer science student at the University of Helsinki in 1991. He had purchased an IBM-compatible personal computer, but was dissatisfied with the MS-DOS operating system and wanted to use UNIX instead.

The problem was that a UNIX subscription would have set the student back $5,000 at the time, so he set out to create a UNIX-like operating system for his computer. Although he was a software engineer, Torvalds was especially interested in the hardware side of technology and he professed a deep interest in the 386 microprocessor, introduced by Intel Corp. in 1985.

“People always thank me for Linux, and they didn’t get half from it as I got,” Torvalds said during the Open Source Summit session. “I learned a lot about computer architecture and the 386.”

Torvalds has previously claimed that open source wasn’t on his radar in the beginning when he developed Linux. But he was pleased with what he had done and invited a number of people to submit comments on his project.

As Linux grew in popularity, thousands of people wanted to contribute, so Torvalds found himself managing a larger community and running version control. It was a situation he came to embrace as part of the open-source ethos.

“I am very proud of the fact that there are a fair amount of people still involved in the kernel who came in in 1991,” Torvalds said during his conversation with Hohndel. “I think that’s a testament to how good the community has been. It’s part of what I still strive for.”

Waves of change

Thirty years later, Torvalds still oversees any modification to the Linux kernel, but one of the most recent waves of change is being driven by the rise of Rust as a preferred programming language among many developers.

Last year, a number of Linux kernel developers proposed writing new Linux kernel code in Rust. Amazon Web Services Inc. has released a new open-source Linux distribution called Bottlerocket, built to run on containers and written in Rust.

Torvalds is a big fan of the C programming language, but admitted in his Summit session that its flaws are not always great for the Linux kernel. He has previously stated that he was open to the idea of integrating Rust and reiterated that position during his conversation with Hohndel.

“Rust was the first language I saw which might be a solution to the other part of the problem … the problem of just writing a driver,” Torvalds said.

Torvalds, who turns 52 in December, indicated that he was fine with continuing to oversee Linux’s development for the foreseeable future, although he did drop a hint that his role may have an age limit.

“I’ve been very happy doing the kernel for 30 years,” Torvalds said. “Somehow I don’t see myself doing kernel programming when I’m 70.”

Although he is currently happy managing the Linux kernel, Torvalds has not always been as pleased with other elements of the technology world. In past years, he has expressed displeasure with IT security and GitHub’s support for pull requests.

His ire at Nvidia Corp. over its relationship with Linux developers back in 2012 resulted in a now infamous photo in which Torvalds expressed his opinion using a certain finger. Asked by Hohndel during his Open Source Summit appearance if he had any regrets, Torvalds recalled the story.

“There is a certain picture of me that certain tech news sources like using,” Torvalds said. “That’s a small regret. But in the big picture, who cares?”

Photo: Open Source Summit