I want to tell you a story. 我想給大家講個故事。 No， not the story of how， in 1991， Linus Torvalds wrote the first version of the Linux kernel. You can read that story in lots of Linux books. Nor am I going to tell you the story of how， some years earlier， Richard Stallman began the GNU Project to create a free Unix-like operating system. That’s an important story too， but most other Linux books have that one， as well. 故事內容不是 Linus Torvalds 在 1991 年怎樣寫了 Linux 內核的第一個版本，因為這些內容你可以在許多 Linux 書籍中讀到。我也不是來告訴你，更早之前，Richard Stallman 是如何開始 GNU 項目，設計了一個免費的類 Unix 的操作系統。那也是一個很有意義的故事，但大多數 Linux 書籍也講到了它。 No， I want to tell you the story of how you can take back control of your computer. 我想告訴大家一個你如何才能奪回計算機管理權的故事。 When I began working with computers as a college student in the late 1970s， there was a revolution going on. The invention of the microprocessor had made it possible for ordinary people like you and me to actually own a computer. It’s hard for many people today to imagine what the world was like when only big business and big government ran all the computers. Let’s just say， you couldn’t get much done. 在 20 世紀 70 年代末，我剛開始和計算機打交道時，正進行著一場革命，那時的我還是一名大學生。微處理器的發明，使普通老百姓（就如你和我）真正擁有一臺計算機成為可能。今天，人們難以想象，只有大企業和強大的政府才能夠擁有計算機的世界，是怎樣的一個世界。簡單說，你做不了多少事情。 Today， the world is very different. Computers are everywhere， from tiny wristwatches to giant data centers to everything in between. In addition to ubiquitous computers， we also have a ubiquitous network connecting them together. This has created a wondrous new age of personal empowerment and creative freedom， but over the last couple of decades something else has been happening. A single giant corporation has been imposing its control over most of the world’s computers and deciding what you can and cannot do with them. Fortunately， people from all over the world are doing something about it. They are fighting to maintain control of their computers by writing their own software. They are building Linux.