I don’t recall the date that I installed Linux for the first time, but it was some months before the 1.0 kernel was released in March 1994, so the 20 year anniversary is approaching or already past. I believe that Linux is the most influential technology in all of my life. My kids grew up using KDE and GNOME instead of Windows. I was doing NAT in a critical business environment years before it was available in consumer-grade WiFi routers (or even called NAT, then it was IP Masquerading). I solved real problems with Linux over and over again, and I flourished as a hacker with all of the knowledge freely available about Linux on the internet.
Back then, I could not have imagined the extent of Linux’s domination as an operating system. It was joked about on mailing lists, but I never thought it would come true. I’m happy that it did, I feel vindicated in my early adoption and continuous advocacy of Linux in the business world. Now my voice is no longer even needed as the general IT population has picked up the chorus.
You’d think after 20 years I would know it all, but that’s far from the case and I’m still learning about this fantastic OS and it’s capabilities. It’s fun and exciting to know there are always additional things to master. I moved my career over to Oracle database administration 16 years ago, and find much of the same utility there, with the addition of a lot more complexity, but I still love to use the bash shell and vi will always be my editor of choice. The foundation of Unix, enhanced dramatically by my experience with Linux, has made me a far better DBA than I would have been otherwise.
Thank you Linus, for putting your work out there and accidentally starting something great.