Free from the past

Linux was born on the Internet, grew on the Internet, and today supports the Net's infrastructure and growth to a degree that is beyond measure. Today all of us, including the entire Linux community, take the Net for granted. We may not regard it as a Fixed Thing; but we do regard its nature as a sure and steady thing.

Yet it isn't. And herein lies the problem. When Linus introduced Linux to the comp.os.minix newsgroup in 1991, the Internet we know today was something the phone companies "carried" reluctantly, if at all. The cable companies were nowhere near the Internet's emerging conversation.