Finux

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Finux is the name used by Neal Stephenson in Cryptonomicon denoting an operating system written by Finnish people. The name is a thinly-veiled reference to Linux, a kernel originally written by Helsinki native Linus Torvalds.

Mr. Stephenson explains on his web page the reason for the name change:

Since Finux was the principal operating system used by the characters in the book, I needed some creative leeway to have the fictitious operating system as used by the characters be different in minor ways from the real operating system called Linux. Otherwise I would receive many complaints from Linux users pointing out errors in my depiction of Linux. This is why Batman works in Gotham City, instead of New York—by putting him in Gotham City, the creators afforded themselves the creative license to put buildings in different places, etc.

[edit] See also

• Neal Stephenson
• Cryptonomicon