There were open source projects and free software before Linux was there. Linux in many ways is one of the more visible and one of the bigger technical projects in this area, and it changed how people looked at it because Linux took both the practical and ideological approach.
Linus TorvaldsI think that freely available software can not only keep up with the evolution of commercial software, but often exceed what you can do commercially.
Linus TorvaldsPeople enjoy the interaction on the Internet, and the feeling of belonging to a group that does something interesting: that's how some software projects are born.
Linus Torvalds