The release of version 1.0 of the Linux kernel was announced on March 14, 1994. When it was released, it contained 176,250 lines of code.

The Linux mascot is a penguin named Tux, created by Larry Ewing. Many variants of the Tux graphic exist. The mascot is a penguin because as Torvalds put it, "Linus likes penguins. That's it." The name Tux was suggested to represent (T)orvalds (U)ni(X), and it stuck.

To day LINUX is used by over 12 million people as well as by groups like the The GNU Project which was founded by Richard Stallman in 1983. GNU's kernel was never finished,it had text editors, a compiler and many programming tools, libraries, filesystem utilities, and so forth. GNU O.S. had everything but a kernel.Linux came along at the perfect moment to fill that hole. The two forces needed each other, One kernel one, O.S. Thats the main reason why Richard Stallman insists that the proper name is GNU/Linux, rather than plain old Linux.

One of Linux + GNU + FOSS most compelling strengths is their one simple screen for the power to download and install a wide range of free software. There need not be any CD for the most part, you get the absolute latest versions, and all dependencies are resolved. GNU/Linux on the desktop grew in 2008 as a number of substantial milestones were reached that promise to continue to move the Linux desktop/notebook ahead in 2009.

A big problem is that several mainstream applications are not available in GNU.One day the world's ISV will wake up and realize the vast market opportunity that lies in GNU/Linux platform.

To date the Linux 2.6 kernel contains 11,010,647 lines of code.