The concept of open source programming has been around for many years—its roots stem from universities that needed to be able to share information as well as allow students and developers to adapt programs to meet their needs. In 1984, Richard Stallman, a researcher at the MIT AI Lab, started a project he called GNU to counter the fast-moving trend toward proprietary, fee-based software. Stallman, who remains an open advocate of open source, believes that making source code available to anyone who wants it is integral to furthering computer science and innovation.
This concept served as the basis of Linux development, the brainchild of Linus Torvalds. When Torvalds began developing Linux in 1991, he was a student at the University of Helsinki and originally targeted Linux at the Intel 386 (although it is now one of the most widely ported operating systems available for PCs). Torvalds wanted to write a new version of UNIX, so he and a group of programmers combined talents and created a core operating system called Linux.
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