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From comp.os.minix, January 29, 1992
Andrew Tanenbaum argues that Linux’s monolithic kernel design is outdated. Torvalds responds, and an extraordinary debate about operating-system architecture follows.
Other sources:


As I understand it Minix was quite popular among the scholars it was designed for.
But Tannenbaum wouldn’t make it “free”, although it did come for free with the book and you could get the source code for free. It was not licensed to enable further developments by users.
I stand by my claim that the problem was 100% the license. If Minix had used the GNU license, chances are pretty good that Minix could have become what Linux is today.
But of courser there are other factors, like how Linux worked with GNU, which was already a nearly finished OS that just lacked a kernel. So adding the 2 together and voila you had a complete OS.