Hated To Loved: 10 Facts About Bill Gates' Life

Bill Gates the computer wizard is known for his wealth and power. The owner of the largest personal-computer software company was earlier infamous for his temper and ruthless ways as a businessman. But he is now known as the generous giving man who has pledged his life to charity. Read on to know about Bill’s dramatic journey from being hated to being loved.

 
1. Gates’ early life:

 
Some people understand their life’s calling very early on. Bill Gates was one such man. He had started messing around with computers in his early teens. This was the time when computers were a lesser known machine and were not available in every household.

Bill’s first ever computer program which he wrote when he was in the eighth grade was a simple Tic Tac game that was to be played against the computer. The computer he was working on fascinated him with how accurately it executed every software code perfectly. He said, "There was just something neat about the machine.”

 

2. Gates and Allen meet:

 
Bill met the Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen when they were in ‘lakeside’ a boarding school. They became friends despite the two year age difference. They both shared the love for computers.

The tech duo dreamt of creating computers for everyone. They met the CEO of a computer manufacturing company with a proposal about a software program called BASIC. In reality they did not have any such program. The duo rushed and wrote one in two months. That is how Micro-Soft was born.

3. The crusader against the free software movement:

 
During the 70’s which was the early stage for computers, techies shared and freely pirated software such as Microsoft’s BASIC. Bill Gates was always against this piracy and believed that distribution of software without paying would "prevent good software from being written."

He was a visionary and the paid software made Bill a millionaire. Although he had faced widespread criticism during the 70’s techies around the world now support Bill’s ideas.

4. Bill a brilliant conniver:

 
Gates’ mother Mary Maxwell Gates introduced him to IBM chairman John Opel in 1980. Gates convinced IBM that he had an operating system on which the IBM PC’s could be run. In reality the OS was not Bill’s. He had licensed in from some other company.

He adapted the software for IBM but did not give them the source code. Bill being the visionary had anticipated that other companies would clone IBM’s PC and would want Microsoft’s operating system. He ended up earning millions because of this.

5. Gates not a good boss:

 
Bill Gates is known to be socially challenged. His temper is a menace known to all. He is infamously known for shouting matches with the CEO of other computer companies.

He was not much of a good boss either. Known to have insulted his employees he was abusive while talking to his managers during the meetings and calling their ideas ‘stupid’. This abusive manager style has become engrained in Microsoft’s management DNA. One of Microsoft’s earliest female employees even sued the company for gender discrimination.

6. A mean and unfair businessman:

 
Bill gates is also known for his shrewd and calculating ways. His company has faced numerous law suits ranging from Apple’s accusation of them copying the ‘look and feel’ of Macintosh to the lawsuit for unfair business practices. In 1998, the United States charged Microsoft under antitrust laws. Gates was evasive in court and Microsoft lost the suit.

and keeping other players from entering the market.

7. Gates the eligible bachelor:

 
Gates was never known to be much of a ladies’ man but his immense fortune and powerful standing made him one of the most eligible bachelors in town. His love affair with Melinda French started in 1989 and culminated into a beautiful marriage in 1994. The couple has two daughters and they live in a lavish 66,000 square foot property overlooking lake Washington.

for a reformed software baron.

8. The kinder and nicer Gates:

 
Melinda’s presence in Bill’s life brought a visible change in his attitude towards life. He became a softer and gentler person who wanted to do good for the society. In 1994, he gave up some of his Microsoft shares to set up the William Gates Foundation. In 2000 the couple combined three family foundations and the Bill and Melinda Foundation was born.

He also quit the CEO position in Microsoft and became the ‘chief software architect’. He has now given up the day to day functioning of Microsoft to devote time for charity.

9. Gates initiated the ‘give away billions’ club:

 
Bill Gates along with his best bud Warren buffet signed the ‘Gates Buffet giving pledge’ in 2010 according to which they would donate half of their wealth for charitable purposes. Gates also started to convince other billionaires into given away their money for charity. Mark Zuckerberg was the first to sign the pledge.

10. The new reputation- ‘a giving angel’:

 
The change in Bill’s attitude helped him reform his image which had taken a severe beating because of the anti-trust lawsuits. He is now known as the one with a heart of gold. His philanthropic efforts have earned him the respect of the world. In 2011, he appeared on Jon Stewart to discuss the eradication of polio in underdeveloped countries.

His transition from the heartless and conniving software wizard to the gentle and giving sole is an interesting saga.

6 New Multibillion Dollar Businesses Facebook Can Bank on

The Facebook IPO was valued at a whopping $ 104 billion. It comes as a surprise for most of us when a company that generates a revenue of $5.8 billion is valued so high. The sole reason for this could be the market’s undying faith in Zuckerberg and company to come up with new ways to monetize the site that has over 900 million users. With Facebook having the attention of an average user for about 8 hours a month they have a deep insight in the psyche of the user which can serve as valuable information for advertisers. Here is a list of six multimillion dollar businesses compiled by VentureBeat, which Facebook can look at to justify its sky high valuation.

 
1. Search:

 
Search is one sector dominated by Google. Google’s primary business is search advertising and the company has a mighty good control over this sector. It would be a little stupid to expect Facebook to compete with Google head-on. But as we know Facebook has an upper hand in user information and preferences. A recent survey by comScore found out that an average American Facebook user spends eight hours on the site per month as compared to two hours spent on Google.

 
Facebook can focus on search terms that can have commercial value, such as clothing or travel. Facebook is uniquely positioned to serve taste-based search terms based on the data it already has on its users. So it is evident that even though the ‘search’ sector is ruled by Google, Facebook still has a huge potential in the sector.

2. Person to Merchant Payments:

 
Facebook can venture in the person to merchant payment sector in Countries such as India; Indonesia etc which are largely cash based economies. It would be easier to set up camp in such nations as compared to United States where going up against Visa, MasterCard, AmEx, and Discover will be incredibly difficult. And Facebook is more likely to rule the market since the basis of commerce is trust and Facebook as a brand is trusted by over 1/7th of the world’s population.

3. Person-to-Person Payments:

 
The most important thing a company needs to venture into the person to person payment sector is its presence everywhere. There are a lot of companies in the US such as PayPal, Amazon, Chase, Citibank, and American Express that are trying to get a hold of this sector but they all lack in ubiquity. Facebook is probably the only site with its unique position where it is present everywhere. This makes person to person payment sector a win-win situation for Facebook.

4. Social Commerce:

 
When one has to plan an event the biggest challenge is to co ordinate with a large group of people at a time. Sites such as groupon and eventbrite have ventured in this sector but none of them possess the unique user insight that Facebook possesses. With its large user base Facebook can help in planning event. Facebook has the data and the network to effectively suggest things that you might want to do with your friends. It could also help organizations in every step of event planning ranging from marketing to inviting people and receiving conformations. Facebook has all the solutions you are looking for.

5. Local Businesses:

 
Local small businesses in smaller parts of the world do not necessarily have the infrastructure or time to maintain websites to cater to their customers. Facebook allows users to create profiles and pages for businesses and organizations. This provides such users a strong positioning on the web. Facebook can bank on such businesses that use Facebook to interact with existing or potential customers. Here too Facebook will benefit from its humungous user base and insightful user information.

6. Television:

 
Facebook can successfully influence what people watch on television. The big bucks in advertising still focuses more on television and Facebook can easily divert traffic to content providers. A lot of the content on Facebook can actually displace some TV viewing time if presented correctly on the big screen.

7 Houses You Won't Believe People Actually Live In

There are many houses around the globe with splendid architecture that are sure to impress you in a big way. Although traditional architecture of historical buildings has undoubtedly been creating an everlasting impact on generations but the marvel of contemporary architecture is no less which speaks about the imagination of people that is just not limited to innovations in science and technology.
Below is the list of some houses, which is like see it to believe it.
1) Just Room Enough:
This cute little house ‘Just Room Enough’ is situated on the St. Lawrence River, between Canada and America. This house is built on an island exactly the same size of the house. The house ‘Just Room Enough’ was purchased by the Sizeland family back in the year 1950s. The family brought this piece of land hoping to stay away from the turmoil of everyday day life. Surprisingly, the island became a tourist attraction due to the uniqueness of the house, reports Eric Yosomono, Mike Cooney in Cracked.com.

2) House between two stones:
This crazy looking house is situated in Portugal in the Fafe Mountains. The house is built in between two huge stones, which is connected with a concrete mix. The construction is said to have taken inspiration from the American Flintstones cartoon. The house looks pre-historic and has some traditional features like front door, windows and roof. Thousands of tourists are attracted towards this house each year. There isn't much detail regarding the designer and year of construction.
3) Extreme Tree-house:
This tree house is just one example of the typical house used by the Korowai tribe of New Guinea, who were totally detached from the outside world and had no idea about the existing world until 1970.  Normally people build tree houses 10 feet above the ground but, these Korowai tribes build their real tree houses 165 feet above the ground. They build such houses to avoid predators, floods and ant swarms. You can imagine a tree house up in air just looks outstanding and provides breathtaking views.

4) Sidewalk Egg House:
Instead of paying high rents, Dai Haifei, a 24 year-old architect in Beijing built an egg shape house for himself. This six-foot tall, solar-powered ‘Egg House’ is made up of bamboo, wood and grass seeds, which grows in the natural environment and is cold-proof. This house costs $964 and can accommodate a bed, a water tank and a night table. This small egg shaped house actually fits on the sidewalks.
5) Flintstone House:
The Flintstone house is located in Hillsborough, California, which was designed by William Nicholson in the year 1976.The building is a series of domes which looks attractive and unusual. The building was constructed forming a wire mesh over aeronautical balloons which were overblown and then concrete was sprayed on them. Earlier it had an off-white colour, but later on in the mid-80's, it was re-painted with deep-orange colour.
6) Ultramodern Hobbit House:
This ultra modern hobbit house is located in the side of a hill in Switzerland. This hobbit house was designed by a Dutch architecture firm and it looks like the house sunk into the mountain. A huge patio is a distinctive feature of the house, which opens up to provide an elliptical view of the mountains.
7) Free Spirit House:
Free spirit houses are built in British Columbia and Canada, which was invented and manufactured by Tom Chudleigh. The houses are in the shape of sphere which is made of wood and it hangs from trees or cliffs suspended from a rope. One will have to make use of spiral stairway to reach this beautiful house, which looks like a fruit hanging from the tree. The house is mainly meant for grown-ups.

5 Expert Tips to Improve Your Entrepreneurial Productivity

Building a startup is all about multi tasking and speeding up the process of development and marketing to the highest level. Some entrepreneurs are born multi-taskers and finish a set of work in a clean Swiss.  Mashable has dug up some expert tips for the entrepreneurs who want to speed up the process and build effective companies in small span of time.

 
Here are the tips that will lead you to a great startup in quicker time.

 
1.Three priorities a day

 
Multitasking, a highly misunderstood work is actually more about intelligent management and prioritization of work than just doing a lot of work at once and ending up with unfinished and haphazardly done job. So, it is advisable to choose a maximum of three things that you would like to concentrate on a particular day and work on them to the fullest extent.

2. Emails are important

 
Interaction with clients, investors and other important people around your business is important. It is noticed that entrepreneurs either completely neglect the factor or give very high importance to it and waste hours on interacting with investors and clients through emails. To cut a safe way out , what you can do is allot particular slots of about five to ten minutes in your daily schedule to read and reply to your mails.

3. Avoid long meetings

Usually entrepreneurs like having hour long meetings to sort out the business plans and lose out on a lot of time that they could have used for more productive cause. Schedule planned meetings, and brief the attendees about the agenda and the points to be discussed in the meet to keep them short and crisp.

4. The Head-start

You need to give yourself a mental or more precisely an analytical headstart everyday before you start the day’s proceedings. This would help you to keep a neck to neck match with all the issues, duties and key priorities that need to be dealt over the day and would allow you to act quickly around them.

5. Chill out

It is very important to relax yourself, both physically and mentally at the end of every day and perchance for about an hour in the middle of the day. Never compromise on the length of your chill out time for it would hamper your performance and the quality of time you are having in the enterprise.

World's top 10 Online Pirate Nations

The U.S. government released America’s official piracy radar of 2012, a highest priority watch list of countries with highest piracy.

 
Many countries including India made it to the top 10 of the priority watch list, which said, “Online piracy is rapidly supplanting physical piracy in many markets around the world.” The list hopes to shame governments into cracking down on piracy and counterfeiting and updating their copyright laws.

 
Here are the high priority Pirate countries.

 
Russia

 
Russia is a hotbed of piracy where no copyright laws are followed. As an entertainment industry expert states it, “They’ll pirate everything in Russia.” It was Russia's 16th straight year on the list. But recently, due to the hard pressure from the entertainment industry, Russia had started to crack down on infringement.

 
 
Pakistan

 
Illegal audio and video copying is flourishing in Pakistan despite global efforts against it. Widespread counterfeiting and piracy, particularly book and optical disc remains the reason to put country in the watch list. According to the IFPI, Pakistani replication facilities are producing in excess of 230 million copies a year.

 Israel

 
Israel remains on the priority watch list. In additional to online piracy, the Cable piracy rate is high in Israel. Very high penetration rates of broadband Internet favor the digital pirates that make the latest movies, music and TV series nearly immediately available. At one time, the piracy levels of Israel had reached 50 percent. Insufficient local legislation and enforcement were poor in fighting increasing Internet piracy in Israel.

 
 
 Indonesia

 
Indonesia is one country which consistently tops the world rankings for piracy on the Web. The report says, “While Indonesia has smade positive efforts in 2011 to strengthen (intellectual property rights) protections, the United States was still “concerned that Indonesia’s enforcement efforts have not been effective in addressing challenges such as growing piracy over the Internet and the widespread availability of counterfeit pharmaceutical products.

 India

 
India remains on the Priority Watch List in 2012. The report says India’s legal framework and enforcement system remain weak.  The challenge of piracy over the Internet continues to grow and the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, which India had passed in 2010 appears to have stalled.

 
 China

 
Even though China remains under Government’s Big Wall of protection, the piracy rate in the country is high. 99% of all music downloads in China are illegal. The country has been on the priority watch list for eight years and subject to a special monitoring program. A wide range of rights holders reports serious obstacles to effective protection and enforcement of all forms of Intellectual Property rights in China, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and protection of pharmaceutical test data.

Chile

 
Chile continues to rank high as one of the countries with the worst rates of copyright and Internet piracy offenders. Additional to the internet piracy, the film industry is most suffering from pirates in Chile. In 2009, Chilean piracy caused filmmakers losses of US$15 million.

 
 
 Canada

 
Canada remains on the Priority Watch List in 2012. The piracy watchdogs are forcing Canada to enact the long awaited copyright legislation, which will help the country to control piracy to some extend. According to the report, Canada's place on the list was "subject to review" if it enacts the legislation. Recently, the Government of Canada has given priority to the legislation.

 Argentina

 
Eventhough Argentina progress in taking action against the unauthorized distribution of pirated content over the Internet, the judicial system of the country remains inefficient to control the widespread availability of pirated and counterfeit goods.

 
 Algeria

 
Algeria remains on the Priority Watch List in 2012. The country had a low which bans the import of many products to favor the manufacture of local products. There is no protection against the unfair commercial use, as well as unauthorized disclosure of data, in the country.

Country With the Highest Quality of Life

If you are curious to know in which countries people are most happy, then here is your answer. Listed below are 10 countries with the highest quality of life.
Factors included in determining are: income, housing, jobs, community, education, environment, civic engagement, health, life satisfaction, safety, and work-life balance.

Luxembourg:



In Luxembourg, the average person makes 35,321 USD a year, more than the OECD average of 22,387USD a year. 65 percent of the people aged 15 to 64 have a job, close to OECD employment average of 66 percent. In terms of literacy, 77 percent of adults aged 25-64 have earned the equivalent of a high-school degree, more than the OECD average of 74 percent. Life expectancy at birth in Luxembourg is 81 years, a year higher than the OECD average of 80 years. There is a strong sense of community and a good civic participation in Luxembourg where 95 percent of people believe that there is someone on whom they can count on in time of need. Voter turnout, which is a good indicator of public trust in government, was 91 percent in the recent elections. OECD average is 73 percent
In general, people in Luxembourg are more satisfied with their lives than the OECD average, with 74 percent of people saying they have more positive experiences in an average day than negative ones.

Clipboard: A Slick New Way to Save and Share the Web

It’s tempting to compare Clipboard, a new service that’s launching today, to Pinterest. Actually, it’s irresistible: Clipboard, like Pinterest, lets you collect interesting tidbits from all over the web, then share them in “boards” which piece together all the tidbits on one page. And Clipboard, unlike Pinterest, lets you share web content of all sorts: images, videos, text and more, preserving the original layout and formatting.

But Clipboard isn’t just a Pinterest variant. It’s also a way to save parts of the web for later reference without ever sharing them with anyone else — something I’ve been doing lately with Evernote — and therefore a useful research tool as much as an exercise in social networking.

You save stuff to Clipboard by using a special bookmark (or a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox) which lets you hover your mouse on any web page and highlight either the entire page or part of it, such as an image, a snippet of text, a video, or a combination thereof. Once the elements you want are highlighted, you click. Clipboard then saves them to your Clipboard, allowing you to tag it and either keep it private, share it with other members or publish it so it’s completely public.

When you clip text and images, Clipboard makes a copy, so they’re preserved even if the original web page changes or vanishes. For content such as videos and Flash elements, it embeds the original version rather than trying to clone it.

(How will publishers feel about Clipboard copying their articles and photos onto its own servers, sans any original advertising? Well…I’m not sure. But the company’s founder, Gary Flake, told me that it, like YouTube, will remove items when copyright holders request a takedown. It’s also working on a Clipboard button which publishers will be able to add to their pages, giving them the ability to help visitors clip specific elements, such as a movie listing.)

You can comment on publicly clipped items, like them, reclip them onto your own Clipboard and share them to Facebook and Twitter. You can also search for tags and text within clips, and can follow other users. If the service takes off, it could become a pretty engaging way to learn, share and generally be social around any topic. Here, for instance, is a public Clipboard that’s all about The Avengers, and here’s one about the president of the United States.

Clipboard’s core technology — the ability to grab chunks of any web page, detach them from the original site and preserve them in their original form — is so ambitious that it’s a wonder that it works at all. And truth to tell, I found that it worked well most of the time, but not all of the time. When I tried to save a Google Map, I got aCAPTCHA instead, and an NYTimes.com story lost its first paragraph. With any luck,  the service will be able to reduce the number of glitchy clips over time; in other respects, it’s already polished, inviting and full of potential.

The Clipboard folks are finishing up work on a mobile-friendly version of the service. (I found that browsing Clipboards on my iPad worked okay, but there’s no way to save new items from Safari.) I’m going to try using it to preserve web articles I’ll need later — and as long as I’m at it, I’m going to share them with the world.

If you give Clipboard a test drive, let us know what you think.

Apple CEO sees TV as area of

Apple Inc (AAPL.O) Chief Executive Tim Cook said technology for televisions was of "intense interest" but stressed the company's efforts would unfold gradually amid speculation the iPad and iPhone maker was on the brink of unveiling a revolutionary iTV.

In one of his more revealing interviews since assuming the helm of the world's most valuable company, Cook also said he hoped someday to see Apple products manufactured in the United States and outlined his approach to managing an organization long-associated with its late founder Steve Jobs.

"Another thing that Steve taught us all is to not to be focused on the past," Cook told this year's All Things Digital conference, an annual gathering of A-list technology and media executives in the upscale California coastal resort town of Rancho Palos Verdes.

Industry insiders and executives say Apple may unveil a TV-based device in late 2012 or 2013 that has the potential to shake up the cozy television content and distribution industry the way the iPod and iPhone disrupted music and mobile content, but Cook has steered clear of commenting on that issue directly.

"This is an area of intense interest for us," Cook said, referring to Apple's existing television set-top box product. "We're going to keep pulling this string and see where it takes us."

When asked specifically if Apple was making a television set, Cook said he was not going to answer that question.

Apple already sells a $99 set top box called Apple TV that streams Netflix and other content. Cook, who has previously said the Apple TV product had a hobby status inside the company, noted the company was sticking with it despite not being known as a "hobby kind of company."

"Here's the way we would look at that, not just at this area but other areas, and ask can we control the key technology?" he said in response to a question about how Apple thinks about improving the television experience for consumers. "Can we make a significant contribution, far beyond what others have done in this area? Can we make a product that we would want?"

Apple has been in negotiations with content companies for its devices. It began talks earlier this year to stream films owned by EPIX, which is backed by three major movie studios.

The company has a good relationship with content owners and doesn't see the need to own a content business, Cook said, adding he has met with several people in that business recently.

MADE IN USA?

In wide-ranging remarks, Cook said he would like to see more of the company's products assembled at home than in China and contain more U.S. components such as semiconductors.

Apple has been criticized for relying on low-cost Asian manufacturers to assemble its products and for contributing to the decline of the U.S. manufacturing sector.

Cook, who took the helm of the world's most valuable technology company in August shortly before founder Steve Jobs died, said manufacturing in the United States was difficult because of declining tool-and-die manufacturing expertise, among other things, but he was working on it.

"There are things that can be done in the U.S., not just for the U.S. market but that can be exported for the world," Cook said. "On the assembly piece, could that be done in the U.S.? I hope so, again, one day," he added.

Apple's final assembly is done through Asian contract manufacturers, particularly Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group and its listed entity Hon Hai Precision. Cook noted that Apple does some component manufacturing in the United States, including the main microchip that runs the iPhone and iPad.

Apple makes the A5 processor in a 1.6 million square-foot factory in Austin, Texas, owned by Korean electronic giant Samsung Electronics (005930.KS).

Cook also said some of the glass for the iPhone and iPad is made in a plant in Kentucky.

The CEO talked about how the iPad was just in the "first innings," but declined to say what was in store for it next.

He reiterated his belief that many consumers will use the iPad more than computers. In response to a question about PC software-maker Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) efforts to enter the tablet market, Cook brushed off the threat.

"The more you look at the tablet as a PC, the more the baggage from the past affects the product," he said.

Apple released the iPad in 2010 and it has quickly defined the tablet computer market, selling more than 67 million units so far.

DOUBLING DOWN ON SECRECY

The 51-year old Cook said he spends less time focused on marketing and design as CEO than his predecessor, who Cook said spent "virtually all of his time on those two things."

At a company the size of Apple, Cook said, having a strong team is critical.

"You could have an S on your chest and a cape on your back and not be able to do everything," said Cook, who later cited Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr as well as Walt Disney Co Chief Executive Bob Iger as figures that he looks up to.

Cook also discussed efforts to make the company more transparent on certain issues, such as supplier responsibility and environmental matters, but stressed he was committed to preserving Apple's culture.

One Jobs legacy that Cook flagged is Apple's well-known penchant for going to great lengths to keep details of new products under tight wraps, noting that he planned to "double down on secrecy" on products.

But he suggested Apple would not be constrained by its past.

"I love museums, but I don't want to live in one," he said.

15 Most Interesting Linux Facts

Linux is one of the world’s most powerful and popular operating system. Linux operating system was developed by Linus Benedict Torvalds at the age of 21. At present there are more than 300 flavors of Linux available and one can choose between any of them depending on the kind of applications they want. If you are new to Linux read, Top 5 Advantages of Using Linux Os

Linux is a freeware and generally speaking its free from Virus and other malware infections.  In this post I will share few Linux facts which may or may not be know for many of us.

15 Most Interesting Linux Facts

1. Only 2% of the current Linux kernel written by Linus Torvalds.


2. The Linux kernel version is written in the programming language C.


3. The first commercial distribution GNU / Linux was Yggdrasil was launched Lice-CD format in 1992. Red Hat was one of the first distributions to settle within companies and data centers in 1999.


4. A guy named William Della Croce Jr. registered the name Linux and demanded royalties for use of the mark. Later, he agreed to assign the trademark to the true owner, who is Torvalds.


5. Countries such as Russia, Brazil and Venezuela have put their focus on Linux as a basis for interoperable management , cost efficient and technologically independent.


6. U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Navy Submarine Fleet, Federal Aviation Administration uses Linux in government offices. Indian state of Tamil Nadu uses Linux for education purpose.


7. 90% of the world’s most powerful supercomputers using an operating system GNU / Linux, in fact, the top ten of supercomputers use Linux. In fact, the penetration of Linux in data centers is very high, 33.8% of the world runs on Linux servers compared to 7.3% does so in a Microsoft operating system.


8. The name of the penguin, Tux , is not entirely clear. On the one hand, it is said that the origin of the name comes from the fact that penguins appear to be wearing a tuxedo, which in English is said max tuxedo tux and is abbreviated. In contrast, another source comes from the letters of the logo of Tux are Unix Torvalds.


9. Torvalds wanted to call the kernel Freax (a combination of “free”, “freak”, and the letter X to indicate that it is a Unix-like), but his friend Ari Lemmke, who administered the FTP server where the kernel was hosted for download, the download directory called kernel of Linux Torvalds.


10. Debian was one of the first GNU / Linux that was constituted and organized as a community of developers.


11. Linux is present in highly critical applications such as Japan’s bullet trains, traffic control, San Francisco, the New York Stock Exchange, CERN, many air traffic control systems or control of nuclear reactors of submarines and ships many nuclear war.


12. Linux programmers are often associated with living “isolated” in the world, however, over 75% of the code developed for the Linux kernel came from private sector developers. In fact, large technology companies like Intel, Google, IBM, AMD, Sun Microsystems, Dell, Asus, HP, Analog Devices, Oracle, Novell or Red Hat help developing applications, contributing to the core or pre-installing any GNU / Linux their machines. In fact, during the 2003 Super Bowl (which paralyzes the United States and remains glued to the TV for many Americans), IBM delivered a beautiful ad talking about Linux and open source options.


13. The GNU project in 1991, had no drivers and kernel, that’s what led to Linus Torvalds to address the Linux kernel development. If GNU had had, perhaps, Torvalds had not been put to work on that.


14. The Linux kernel is now the most widely ported operating system, running on a great variety of operating systems.


15. World known companies such as Google, Cisco, Facebook, Twitter, Linked in etc use Linux as their main operating system.