The Linux OS, created by the department alumnus Linus Torvalds (university freshman of 1988), will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year. This jubilee has attracted international attention, e.g. in this spring’s article in PCWorld: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/224426/happy_20th_birthday_linux_the_celebrations_begin.html

In Finland, such media as the Tietokone magazine have observed Linux's 20th anniversary, and dated its birth to this day (26 August):

‘This year, many anniversaries have been celebrated in the world of IT. In June, IBM turned a venerable 100 years, and a few weeks ago its revolutionary innovation, the PC, celebrated its 30th anniversary. The tenth anniversary of Windows XP was also observed this week. Here is one more jubilee that especially Finns should observe: Linux turns 20.

During the summer of 1991, Torvalds, who studied computer science at the University of Helsinki, had been improving the Minix OS to suit his own needs. He described his work for the first time in the Minix newsgroup exactly 20 years ago. This is why this day can be considered the birthday of Linux. Other interpretations are also possible, since the Linux 0.01 version was complete and was offered for downloading in September. The 0.02 version completed in October was finally the one given to anyone to download along with its source code.'

Read the whole story on the Tietokone website (in Finnish): http://www.tietokone.fi/uutiset/linux_tayttaa_20_vuotta

Linux Version 1.0 was published on March 14th, 1994, in a ceremony at the Department of Computer Science. This gives us a good excuse to have another 20th anniversary celebration in couple of years.

Lars Wirzenius, a Linux activist and insider (and also a 1988 university freshman at the department), has published some personal memories of Linux on his website at http://liw.fi/linux20/

The Linux Foundation is naturally part of the celebrations: 

Editor: Hannu Toivonen (also a university freshman of 1988)