ibiblio.org, the public's library and digital archive, announces the designation of September as "Linux Month,” in celebration of the 12th anniversary of the birth of the Linux software created by developer Linus Torvalds.

ibiblio, a collaboration of the Center for the Public Domain and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, is one of the major distribution hubs for Linux software. It has been a significant supporter of Linux development efforts since the organization was founded in 1992.

Linux, a broad term that has evolved to represent both the core programming development code and the rapidly proliferating variety of operating system software and software programs, has achieved remarkable success in both educational and corporate environments, and has grown tremendously in popularity since the release of version 0.01 in September 1991. Linux software has garnered tremendous international interest (and controversy) due to its revolutionary development model (the open source software development model), which removes the proprietary constraints from the software code, and allows users to freely download, copy and make changes to the software. Many users then return this altered code back to the user community, creating software that is often considered more stable than some commercially available programs.

The variety of available Linux software is breathtaking, and recent developments in the open source community have made the software easier-than-ever to install and use. Linux is now in its second major version and powers some of the largest Internet servers in the world.

ibiblio invites you to celebrate Linux Month this September. Download one of the many distributions and software packages from the ibiblio Linux Archive (http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/). Learn how to use Linux by visiting the Linux Documentation Project (http://www.tldp.org), hosted by ibiblio. Discover the many Linux-related collections developed by ibiblio contributors, and see how the technology behind Linux has helped ibiblio contributors build some of the most creative information sharing sites on the web.

Every month is Linux month at ibiblio, but this September, Linux belongs to the world. (http://www.ibiblio.org).