Computer Software: Linux serves up a system for peanuts

Microsoft be warned.

It makes geeks smile and NT admins dread their jobs. Engineers want it, but their IT managers don’t always get it. An operating system whose time-tested, track-proven existence has just this year taken the world by — a refreshing breeze?

Its success lies not in high-level corporate scheming nor elaborate, multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns, but instead, in its grass-roots origins and subsequent weed-like spread to global recognition and unprecedented acceptance.

In 1991, Linus Torvalds, a student of the University of Helsinki in Finland, began a project to explore the 386 chip on his computer. Through a university class, he became interested…