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Linus Torvalds is born to a family of journalists. Growing up in a book-filled home, he's encouraged in curiosity and learning from a young age.
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At age 11, Linus gets his grandfather's Commodore VIC-20. He dives into BASIC programming and machine code, sparking a lifelong love of computing.
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Torvalds buys a Sinclair QL and heavily modifies its OS, writing his own assembler, libraries, and a Pac-Man clone called Cool Man.
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Linus completes about 11 months of mandatory military service as an artillery observer in Finland's Navy, reaching the rank of second lieutenant.
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Linus encounters the Unix operating system on a DEC MicroVAX running ULTRIX. The elegance and power of Unix inspire him deeply.
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Linus begins writing a small Unix-like kernel for Intel 386 PCs as a personal hobby project.
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Linux 0.01 goes online, sparking worldwide interest in this new open-source OS.
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