"What would you like to see most in minix?"

Linus Benedict Torvalds, posted to the comp.os.minix Usenet newsgroup, 25 August 1991 (20:57:08 UTC). The announcement now widely regarded as the birth of Linux. Original archived on Google Groups.

From:     Linus Benedict Torvalds <torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI>
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject:  What would you like to see most in minix?
Date:     25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMT

Hello everybody out there using minix -

I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and
professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones.  This has been brewing
since april, and is starting to get ready.  I'd like any feedback on
things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat
(same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons)
among other things).

I've currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work.
This implies that I'll get something practical within a few months, and
I'd like to know what features most people would want.  Any suggestions
are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)

                Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi)

PS.  Yes - it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs.
It is NOT portable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never
will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I have :-(.