Editing Timeline of computing 1990–1999 (section)

==1991==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Date
! class="unsortable" | Event
|- valign="top"
| 1991
| Borland acquires Ashton-Tate Corporation and the [[Dbase]] program.
|- valign="top"
| 1991
| Phil Zimmermann releases the [[public key]] [[encryption]] program [[Pretty Good Privacy|PGP]] along with its source code, which quickly appears on the Internet.
|- valign="top"
| March
| [[Commodore International|Commodore]] release the [[Commodore CDTV|CDTV]], an [[Amiga]] multimedia appliance with CD-ROM drive but no floppy drive.
|- valign="top"
| April 22
| The Intel 80486 SX is released as a cheaper alternative to 80486 DX, with the key difference being the lack of an integrated [[floating-point unit|FPU]].
|- valign="top"
| May
| [[Creative Labs]] introduces the [[Sound Blaster#Sound Blaster Pro, CT1330|Sound Blaster Pro]] [[sound card]].
|- valign="top"
| June
| To promote [[OS/2]], [[Bill Gates]] took every opportunity after its release to say 'DOS is dead'; however, the development of DOS 5.0 led to the permanent dropping of OS/2 development.

Unlike version 4, this version was properly tested through the distribution of [[Beta (software testing)|beta]] versions to over 7,500 users.{{Citation needed paragraph|date=June 2021|reason=The previous two claims need references to reliable sources.}} This version included the ability to load device drivers and TSR programs above the 640 [[KiB]] boundary (into UMBs and the HMA), freeing more RAM for programs. This version marked the end of collaboration between Microsoft and IBM on DOS.
|- valign="top"
| August
| The [[Linux kernel]] is born with the following post to the Usenet Newsgroup comp.os.minix by [[Linus Torvalds]], a Finnish college student:<br />''"Hello everybody out there using minix- I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones."''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/comp.os.minix/dlNtH7RRrGA/SwRavCzVE7gJ|title = Redirecting to Google Groups}}</ref>

Linux has become one of the most widely used [[Unix-like]] operating system kernels in the world today. It originally only ran on Intel 386 processors, but years later added many different types of computers (now includes complete range from small to [[supercomputer]]s and IBM mainframes), including Sun [[SPARC]], [[DEC Alpha|DEC/Compaq Alpha]], and many [[ARM architecture|ARM]], [[MIPS architecture|MIPS]], [[PowerPC]], and [[Motorola 68000]] based computers.

In 1992, the [[GNU project]] adopted the Linux kernel for use with GNU systems while they waited for the development of their own kernel, [[GNU Hurd]], to be completed. The GNU project's aim is to provide a complete and [[Free software|free]] Unix-like operating system, combining the Hurd or Linux kernel with a complete suite of free software to run on it. Torvalds changed the licence of the Linux kernel from one prohibiting commercial use to the [[GNU General Public License]] on February 1, 1992.
|}