Linux was invented by Finnish software engineer Linus Torvalds in 1991.

Inventor

Linus Torvalds created the Linux kernel as a Unix-like operating system kernel while he was a computer science student at the University of Helsinki. He announced the project and released early versions publicly in 1991, inviting others to contribute.

Role of others

Although Torvalds is the original inventor of the Linux kernel, thousands of developers worldwide have since contributed to its development. The broader GNU/Linux operating system also builds on components from the GNU Project started by Richard Stallman, combined with the Linux kernel that Torvalds wrote.