In the early 1990’s on a newsgroup:
Me: We are using SCO, you say you are working on a unix variant?
Linus: Yea.
Me: What’s the cost?
Linus: Free.
Me: I’m in.
The rest of the story would take too long to tell. Suffice to say that LeeeeNuxxx (as he said it) has been very very good to me.
Yeah, I’ve been using it almost that long. Back then, the kernel panic messages said “call Linus.” I think it had his phone number, too...