How Steve Jobs tried to end development on Linux by offering Linus Torvalds a job

Originally written as part of a personal project, Torvalds acknowledges that Linux's growth came from opening it up to a community of users who could each work on different components, including those that were not his strength, such as the user interface. He also admits to being an engineer, rather than a visionary, relating more to Thomas Edison than Nikola Tesla.

Apple nearly went bankrupt in 1997, when the tech company had only three months of operational cash left. Apple's board ousted cofounder Steve Jobs in 1985, but he was brought back as interim CEO to revive the company when Apple purchased Jobs' company, NeXT.

While Steve Jobs was on a hiatus from working at Apple, he founded a company called NeXT and helped lead the release of its operating system NeXTSTEP. The operating system was used to create the first app store of sorts, as well as the first web browser.

Amid conflicts over standardizing and controlling various versions of UNIX—an operating system developed at Bell Labs and owned by AT&T—the GNU Project was announced to create a free, open-source OS. Originally designed for Intel's 386 CPU under the name "Freax," Linus Torvalds Linux kernel would be combined with GNU Project software and customized by growing numbers of developers into many OSes, each tailored to specific computing needs.

Apple's board fired cofounder Steve Jobs after he clashed with then-CEO John Sculley about Apple's goals and vision, as well as how to run the company. Apple later rehired Steve Jobs as interim CEO, a role he held until he died in 2011.

Wanting Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak to focus on developing Apple computers, Mike Markkula brought in his colleague from Fairchild Semiconductor, Michael Scott. As employee number five, Scott helped professionalize the fledgling computer company and getting manufacturing off the ground.

When Linus Torvalds developed the Linux kernel—the foundational layer of an operating system—developers incorporated it into other readily available components of the GNU Project to create complete systems. Although these OSes have been colloquially referred to as "Linux" for simplicity for decades, the GNU Project has long argued that they should be called "GNU/Linux" to honor the project's contributions.

On August 1, 1991, he posted a request on what would be the first version of Linux, writing, "I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. [...] I'd like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat."

From predicting our screen-filled future in 1983 to slashing Apple's product line in 1997, Steve Jobs believed in focus, simplicity, and the fusion of technology and art. His philosophies still influence how products are built and marketed today.

During a trip to an Australian zoo, Linus Torvalds, the developer of the Linux kernel, was bitten by a penguin, which inspired the animal to be selected as the software's logo. The first design was drafted by Larry Ewing while a student at Texas A&M University, and the Tux name—short for tuxedo—aligned with the animal's appearance.

Rather than write MS-DOS from scratch, Bill Gates purchased the full rights to QDOS—Quick and Dirty Operating System—from Seattle Computer Products only weeks before IBM's PC hit the market. The IBM deal allowed Microsoft to license its OS to other manufacturers, ensuring it was not dependent on IBM's long-term success.

Steve Jobs led Apple for almost a quarter century, first from 1976 through 1985 and then from 1997 through just before his death in 2011. A brief synopsis of his career underscores the impact he made during that timespan, across everything from technology to smartphones, moviemaking, retail and much more.

The devices Jobs introduced during his time at Apple, including the iPad and iPhone, were imitated by competitors, ultimately helping to create the numerous options consumers have today. In addition to leading Apple, Jobs also helped turn Pixar and the software startup NeXT into success stories.

In the early 2000s, Apple recruited multiple engineers onto rival teams tasked with combining phone, internet, and iPod capabilities. Despite significant technical hurdles, Steve Jobs favored a prototype with multitouch technology and a modified Mac operating system over a competing in-house model based on the iPod's click wheel.

The last major event outside of Apple that Steve Jobs spoke at, prior to his death in 2011, was the 2010 All Things Digital conference. In spite of his declining health, he is voluble and combative throughout.

In 2005, after enduring several challenges with BitKeeper—the system then used to manage the Linux source code—Linus Torvalds spent about 10 days writing code for Git, a new system to organize and track versions throughout kernel development. Git provides distributed version control for GitHub, which, as of 2023, is the world's largest host of software development projects.

Authored 34 years after the software was coded by Linus Torvalds, the plan dictates that if the maintainers of the code's repository are unable to facilitate a transition to Torvalds' successor, an Organizer will chair a meeting with the invitees of the most recently concluded Maintainers Summit, which will consider options for the ongoing management of the repository.

Steve Jobs apparently liked to email himself to save his thoughts. This archival email, written the year before he died, shows Jobs expressing gratitude and wonder for the world and its creative people.

In 2022, the White House posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Steve Jobs, recognizing Jobs’s work as the cofounder and longtime CEO of Apple, as well as a longtime leader at Pixar.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is a tough interview subject. He doesn't give many of them, and when he does it's often difficult to move him off of his talking points. In this interview for Dua Lipa's podcast, however, he opens up for a wide-ranging discussion about everything from artificial intelligence to the impact of technology on climate change—in addition to his own personal journey and his philanthropic endeavors.

The Apple CEO's refusal to comply with the government's request was viewed as controversial, despite support from privacy advocates. The FBI would later back down, claiming to have gained access to the device without disclosing additional details.

Steve Jobs is well-known for his signature outfit: a black mock turtleneck and denim jeans. The outfit originated in Japan, where Jobs observed Sony employees all wearing matching uniforms. He proposed Apple employees do the same, but that idea was rejected. However, he still decided to create his own uniform.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak are well-known for cofounding Apple, but the company had a third founder who acted as an angel investor: Mike Markkula, who invested $250K in 1977.

In 1974, Steve Jobs traveled to India after reading a book by the famous American psychologist Ram Dass. Jobs visited the temple of one of Dass’s influences, Neem Karoli Baba. He stayed in India for seven months before returning to the US to found Apple. Jobs’s trip to India helped shape the tech leader’s vision for Apple.

Steve Wozniak's Apple I and Apple II computers launched the personal computer industry, influencing the future of consumer electronics. He was also awarded the National Medal of Technology and the Heinz Award in Technology, the Economy, and Employment because of his invention.

In honor of Apple's 50-year anniversary, Sequoia Capital recently posted a tweet on X (the social media platform formerly known as Twitter) with a photo of the original 1977 memo for Sequoia's investment in Apple.

Steve Jobs is survived by his wife Laurene Powell Jobs, who has spent her career supporting social causes. Powell Jobs said she’s working to distribute the billions of dollars she received from her late husband.

After Steve Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he reportedly restricted his diet to just fruits or just fruits and vegetables, tried out hydrotherapy, and consulted psychics. There’s compelling evidence about the impact of alternative medicine on cancer patients.

In 2011, then-President Obama asked Steve Jobs, “What would it take to make iPhones in the United States?” Steve Jobs said it wasn’t a viable option, explaining that overseas factories had far outpaced the US’s in terms of skill and speed.

Version 0.01 of the program authored by Linus Torvalds in 1991 spanned approximately 10,000 lines of code and has progressively grown to accommodate the management of an increasing number of hardware and software components. The kernel grows by an estimated 400,000 lines of code every two months.

Steve Jobs left his mark beyond Apple with Pixar, the animated studio he acquired in 1986. In addition to pushing Pixar to focus on storytelling, Jobs led the studio to revolutionize animation via computer-generated imagery.

-Apple co-founder Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

The two bonded over a teletype terminal at their school, which required a $40 hourly fee for computing time. They were banned from using the device after exploiting a bug that allowed them to bypass the fee, only to be later offered free computing time for finding more bugs.

In discussions with teams responsible for MITS's Altair 8800 and IBM's PC, Bill Gates and Paul Allen claimed to have created ready-to-use software. Code for the former was not completed until Paul Allen's flight to MITS' headquarters, where the software was successfully tested for the first time.

The Linux kernel, which bridges hardware and software, serves as the basis for many fully customizable operating systems, whose components can be modified or removed to optimize performance or reduce bloat on devices with limited resources. This has made these OSes useful for low-power devices like smart thermostats, as well as for powerful supercomputers that require computational efficiency.

The valuation was made possible by Steve Jobs' return to the company in 1997, who implemented a simplification strategy by cutting the majority of Apple's existing product line. His promotion of Jony Ive to SVP of industrial design would help popularize Apple through colorful products and marketing.

The nonprofit, founded in 2000 by IBM, HP, Intel, and others as the Open Source Development Labs, was established to build the infrastructure needed to scale with the growing development of Linux. Upon merging with the Free Standards Group in 2007, it rebranded as the Linux Foundation and, as of 2024, provides a "neutral home for code and collaboration" to almost 1,000 projects.

Silicon Valley wasn't supposed to happen. A stretch of California orchard land somehow became the place that built the modern world: chips, PCs, the internet, the smartphone, and now AI. But the real story isn't the garage myth. It's a series of contradictions hiding in plain sight.

- Apple CEO Tim Cook (1960 - present)

Jobs introduced the now-iconic “Think Different” marketing campaign. It won numerous awards, symbolized Apple’s new era under Jobs, and showed off his understanding of branding.

An operational Apple I, the first model of personal computer made by Apple, sold for $375K at an auction. The machine was first sold in 1976 and has a handwritten serial number by Steve Jobs himself. The auction, provided rare insight into the beginnings of the influential tech company.

Directed by Ridley Scott and a winner at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, the clip features a heroine flinging a sledgehammer at a Big Brother-style figure delivering a speech. As the screen shatters, a voiceover proclaims that Apple's release of the Macintosh will ensure, "1984 won't be like '1984.'"

This has been driven by kernel-level customizations available with Linux-based operating systems that improve computational performance and reduce latency. As of 2025, Linux's desktop market share is 3.7%, but 87.8% of machine learning workloads run on Linux infrastructure. The Linux OS market is expected to grow 105.8% through 2029.

Before the Macintosh, computers were primarily used in offices and required users to type complex commands to perform tasks. Apple followed the device with the LaserWriter printer, bringing graphic production to at-home artists and designers.