
Linux Torvalds named most influential open source voice - dreemteem
http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/open-source-business/news/index.cfm?newsid=19425
======
barnaby
Who's Linux Torvalds?

Oh you mean Linus, with an S

Interesting comparison with O'Reilly. Linus talks less but his words have more
weight, Tim blogs, tweets, facebooks etc. frequently to get his word out.

~~~
ledger123
I came to know about Linux first and than Linus and always wondered why Linux
was not called Linus.

~~~
pmjordan
Unix-inspired systems have traditionally often had the letter X in their name,
e.g.: UNIX itself (ex Unics), Irix, AIX, Minix, NeXTStep, Xenix, HP/UX, Linux,
Mac OS X in no particular order.

Of course not all do, e.g. Free/Open/NetBSD (though they were originally based
on "BSD UNIX"), Solaris/SunOS, etc.

~~~
darshan
With that "should end in X" idea in mind, Linus chose to name it Freax
(because it was a /free/ UNIX).

When he uploaded a very early version to an FTP server at Helsinki, his
friend, who administered the server, changed the directory name from "freax"
to "linux", thinking the latter was a much better name. Linus at first thought
it would be too egotistical to name it that, but he let the name stick. I'm
glad he did.

