The “Hobby” Project That Quietly Runs The Internet

In 1991, a computer science student in Finland set out to solve a very practical problem.

He wanted (needed) a Unix-like operating system that could run on affordable hardware.

Commercial Unix licenses were expensive and out of reach, so he started building his own and described it as a small, personal experiment. On an early mailing list, he even warned that it probably wouldn’t become anything big or professional.

History however had other ideas.

That hobby became the Linux kernel, now running everything from phones and servers to spacecraft and supercomputers. Along the way, Linus Torvalds also created Git, which fundamentally changed how software is built and maintained by teams around the world.

Today, Honeytree’s businesses—and very likely yours—depend on Linux every single monent of every single day. It powers the servers behind your websites, the cloud platforms running your applications, the networks moving your data, and many of the tools you rely on to operate and grow.

Most business owners never interact with Linux directly. And that’s the point. The best infrastructure is quiet, stable, and dependable. It just works, day after day, without demanding attention.

A huge portion of the modern digital economy runs on systems most people never see, built by people who weren’t trying to disrupt an industry or chase headlines. They were just solving real problems in a practical way.

Linus Torvalds turns 56 this year. His work is a reminder that thoughtful, well-built systems compound over time—and that the right foundation matters more than flashy features.

At Honeytree, that’s exactly how we think about business technology. Build it right. Keep it simple. Let it run reliably in the background so you can focus on the work that actually matters.