Why did Linux, the Unix-like operating system kernel started by Linus Torvalds in 1991 that became central to the open source world, succeed where so many similar projects, including GNU HURD and the BSDs, fail?
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One of the most puzzling questions about the history of free and open source is this: Why did Linux succeed so spectacularly, whereas similar attempts to build a free or open source, Unix-like operating system kernel met with considerably less success? I don’t know the answer to that question. But I have rounded up some theories, which I’d like to lay out here.