The Linux sector was
still a good year or two away from full commercial
breakout mode, but those close enough to the hacker
community could feel it: something big was happening.
The Intel 386 chip, the Internet, and the World Wide
Web had hit the marketplace like a set of monster
waves, and Linux-and the host of software programs that
echoed it in terms of source-code accessibility and
permissive licensing-seemed like the largest wave yet.
For Ian Murdock, the programmer courted by Stallman and
then later turned off by Stallman's micromanagement
style, the wave seemed both a fitting tribute and a
fitting punishment for the man who had spent so much
time giving the free software movement an identity.
Like many Linux aficionados, Murdock had seen the
original postings. He'd seen Torvalds's original
admonition that Linux was "just a hobby." He'd also
seen Torvalds's admission to Minix creator Andrew
Tanenbaum: "If the GNU kernel had been ready last
spring, I'd not have bothered to even start my project.
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