Top 10 most inspiring moments in IT

1. Linux
Iain Thomson: Linux has become one of the flagships of the free software movement and is, for me, the most inspirational of technological achievements.

Linux is the result of the Masters project Linus Torvalds chose at the University of Helsinki. Torvalds updated Mimex, an open source version of Unix used in the education field, for 32-bit computer architecture, and offered his creation free to the world.

The result was like a blast of nitrous oxide in the engine of the open source movement. Linux may have been more complicated to set up than Windows, but it was a valid alternative and it became more and more common.

Enthusiasts worked night and day to make it better and solve software problems in a way that companies couldn't compete with. Pay someone a day's wage and they'll do a day's work. Get someone enthused with something and they'll work day and night until they drop, then drag themselves up by the eyelids and work some more, just for the love of it.

Linux is still not the easiest operating system to set up, but more and more people are getting into it. It's also noticeable that it's a tool for getting unsociable geeks to communicate. Linux user groups can be found in most cities, and I know of two or three relationships that would not otherwise have come about because of some fine coding work and a shared love of the operating system.

Besides all this, it also has a place in my heart because it comes from Finland, one of my favourite places in the world. While its cuisine isn't up to much, the Finns are admirable in so many ways: plain speaking, community minded and libertarian. Much of that national character is reflected in Linux.

Shaun Nichols: Even though its fans often challenge Apple's in terms of arrogance and annoyance, you have to love Linux.

The Unix kernel first written by Linus Torvalds nearly two decades ago has become the little operating system that could take over the world. Developers and tinkerers love the freedom of the open architecture, while admins love the stability, and executives love the cheap operating costs.

Beyond culture, there's also the significant financial impact. The rise of Linux and its vendors proved that you could do open source and still make a huge profit. Companies like Novell and Red Hat rode Linux into the upper ranks of the tech world and made it among the most robust and respected enterprise operating systems around.

Honorable Mention: SETI@Home and the rise of distributed computing
Shaun Nichols: As the internet began to boom in the late 1990s, a new sense of connection and co-operation began to take shape. Nowhere was that more apparent than in the SETI at Home project.

The idea was simple enough: take a lot of data normally meant for a supercomputer and break it into smaller chunks that home computers could crunch in their spare time. When researchers at UC Berkeley released the project, it spread like wildfire throughout the geek world.

Since then, the distributed model has moved on to other fields. Users can now participate in distributed projects that do everything from model DNA and proteins, to predict global climate change.

Iain Thomson: The SETI project was a fascinating idea and, like many, I signed up almost immediately. The simplicity was great. It used your computer's downtime to do something useful that would have cost a lot of money on a mainframe system.

As an added bonus there was a chance that you could discover a message from outer space, hopefully not one that read: 'Surrender at once and welcome to your new job in our sugar mines.'

The idea has since been used again and again, and has helped inspire distributed computing projects in business as well as research.