Linux exists only because of a happy accident

[ingve]

https://augustl.com/blog/2019/linus_and_linux_happy_accident/

[throwGuardian]

It's also an accident that Linux won the mantle of "most popular Unix clone". It could just as easily have been a BSD, and frankly, many wish it actually was

[dTal → throwGuardian]

At this point, Linux's chaotic bazaar nature as compared to the BSDs is more a symptom of its success than any intrinsic technical decision. If a BSD were today's Linux, it would probably look broadly like today's Linux in all the ways that BSD fans dislike.

[djmips]

The accident and then the pain of spending another whole week to re-install Minix. A very interesting case of necessity being the mother of invention.

[badrabbit]

Trivia: it was called 'freax' at first.

[vardump → badrabbit]

Yeah, some FTP server maintainer with a fedora hat (at least last I saw him) renamed it Linux. :-)

[meed]

I wasn't aware of this anectode. It's rather nice, actually.

[toyg]

A case of “eXtreme Dogfooding”.

[AdrienLemaire]

Nice story, didn't know about it. Dual-booting is older than I thought! 1991

[8bitsrule]

Hell, we all only exist because of a happy accident.

(Well ok, not so happy for some cases.)