===== LinkExchange =====

LinkExchange was one of the Late-1990s and early 2000s largest %%FreeBSD%% users in the world, only surpassed by Yahoo and Hotmail.

One of several early Ad Networks, LinkExchange served billions of ads per day using 5 %%FreeBSD%% Boxes running 2.2.5 and eventually 3.x prior to being [[https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB910216110299783500|acquired by Microsoft]].

Several internet luminaries emerged from it - Alfred Lin (Sequoia), Scott Bannister (Ironport/Paypal), Max Levchin (Paypal) and Tony Hseih (Zappos/Venture Frogs).

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{{tag>Historical}}