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Firefox
Firefox didn’t dethrone IE—but it rewrote the rules every browser had to follow.
Open source
The most valuable software in the world, given away.
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Git
Linus Torvalds · 2005
Git is a distributed version control system invented by Linus Torvalds in April 2005 to replace BitKeeper for Linux kernel development. It was built from scratch because no existing free system met Torvalds’s strict criteria: sub-three-second patch application, distributed BitKeeper-like workflow, strong corruption safeguards, and rejection of CVS-style design. Git maintains a full local repository copy, uses SHA-1 hashing for object identification, and is grounded in a content-addressable filesystem model.
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GitHub
GitHub did not invent collaboration — it productised the friction out of Git-based teamwork.
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Linux
Linus Torvalds · 1991
Linux is a Unix-like kernel, not an operating system. It filled GNU’s missing-kernel gap. It works by reimplementing Unix system calls from documentation—not AT&T code. It succeeded because GPLv2 enforced openness, and because it ran on cheap x86 hardware. It failed to be a standalone OS or POSIX-compliant out of the box. It changed how software projects scale: through licence-driven collaboration, not top-down design. It is worth your time if you need control, transparency, and the ability to rebuild every layer.
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Raspberry Pi
A $35 board built to fix Cambridge’s admissions crisis became the world’s most widely deployed open-hardware computer—not because it was perfect, but because it was just enough.