After completing a successful solid release in Linux 1.0, Linux felt directed to port his operating system to other architectures. Part of this inspiration came from Jon Hall of DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation). Jon convinced leaders at DEC to lend Linus a PC so that Linux could be ported to their Alpha processor. Linux willfully accepted the challenge which called for major coding changes, so major in fact that Linus didn't want to repeat the effort every time Linux was ported to a different architecture. This meant re-writing and re-organizing much of the Linux kernel. Because of the code effected by the re-write, stable parts of the code would once again have to be debugged. This was fine for the hacker community, but Linux had expanded its user base to non-hackers who were not willing to put up with unstable versions of Linux. This led Linux to a new number convention for version releases. From this point on, versions ending in even numbers were considered stable and versions ending in odd numbers were untested beta releases or, not yet stable.
On December 5th, 1995, Linus' world changed as his common law wife, Tove Minni, had their first child, Patricia Miranda Torvalds. Not long after this, Linux finished his port for the Alpha chip and was looking for something new. On October 16th, 1996, Linus told the Linux that he had plans to move to California where he had accepted a job with Transmeta. He reassured everyone that he would remain active in Linux. The motivation for this drastic change in life was duet to having a wife and child to support. Interestingly enough, part of the job requirements for Linux was that he would continue to support Linux part-time.
At the end of this chapter, the author's research estimates around 3 to 5 million people were using Linux by 1996.