# Linux

Standing (still-up). Founded 1991-08-25.
Site: [kernel.org](https://kernel.org)

Linus emailed the announcement on 25 Aug 1991. The desktop never quite won. Everything else did.

## Why it lasted
- It became the default computer, then hid inside phones, TVs, cars, and the cloud.
- No vendor can kill a kernel that every vendor depends on.
- The hobby project absorbed IBM, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon as contributors.

## Near deaths
- Microsoft spent a decade calling it a cancer, then shipped it inside Windows.
- Unix vendors had the brand and the lawsuits. Linux had the laptop on Linus's desk.

## What would finish it
- A successor kernel that the hyperscalers actually move to. None has shown up.

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