IRC Started in Finland, GNU/Linux Did Not
Next month it is Rianne's birthday and IRC turns 38. We have run the same Internet Relay Chat daemon for 5 years now (since summer of 2021) and it has been over 30 years since I became an IRC user (probably 1995, maybe 1994). Back then Google did not even exist and the creator of IRC, Jarkko Oikarinen, did not work for Google. Wikipedia says he was born on August 16th, 1967. This means he turns 58 in a few weeks and he started IRC the same month he turned 20. He was a student at the University of Oulu, based near the centre/north of Finland.
Next month Linux (the kernel) turns 35. It began in Finland, but it would be nothing without GNU, which began in the US. What most people refer to as "Linux" is an American project and it is still US-centric; it's controlled by people who don't use Linux (the so-called 'Linux' Foundation) and are fronting for - sometimes even salaried by - American monopolies. Unlike GNU.
History is like that. Perturbed by victors (or billionaires). Facts are like that. Suppressed, for someone's gain. █
Image source: Location of Oulu in Finland
