27 Sep 99 19:33, Jack Stein wrote to Steven Thompson:

 JS> You heard of LINUX right?

No, but I have heard of Linux.

 JS> AT&T owned that, lock stock and barrel,

Interesting.. Linux has been an open source operating system right from
the start.

 JS> yet, Linus managed to clone the damn thing, didn't he?

Hmm. Another interesting point.

Perhaps you should read this;

% From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
% Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
% Subject: What would you like to see most in minix?
% Summary: small poll for my new operating system
% Message-ID: <1991Aug25.205708.9541@klaava.Helsinki.FI%
% Date: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMT
% Organization: University of Helsinki
% 
% 
% Hello everybody out there using minix -
% 
% I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and
% professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones.  This has been brewing
% since april, and is starting to get ready.  I'd like any feedback on
% things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat
% (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons)
% among other things). 
% 
% I've currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work. 
% This implies that I'll get something practical within a few months, and
% I'd like to know what features most people would want.  Any suggestions
% are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)
% 
%               Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi)
% 
% PS.  Yes - it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs. 
% It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never
% will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I have :-(. 

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