Bitcoin v0.2 was released on SourceForge on December 16, 2009, nearly a year after the initial v0.1 release. This was a major update that significantly broadened Bitcoin’s reach with Linux support and several important new features.
New features contributed by Martti Malmi (sirius-m):
- Minimize to system tray option and autostart on boot, for running in the background automatically
- New options dialog layout for future expansion
- Setup program for Windows
- Linux version (tested on Ubuntu) — the Linux packages Eugen Leitl had asked about on the bitcoin-list seven weeks earlier
New features contributed by Satoshi Nakamoto:
- Multi-processor support for coin generation
- Proxy support for use with TOR, the line where the Tor half of today’s reachable nodes begins
- Fixed some slowdowns in the initial block download
The release also coincided with the launch of the new Bitcoin forum at bitcoin.org/smf/, which would later become the BitcoinTalk forum.
Satoshi acknowledged Martti Malmi’s development contributions and NewLibertyStandard’s help testing the Linux version. The release notes put the Linux version under Malmi’s name, beside the Windows setup program — the first time core parts of Bitcoin shipped credited to someone other than Satoshi. The emails and the SVN log show how the Linux version was made: Malmi started the port in a branch at the end of October, and Satoshi finished the build and merged it into the trunk on November 5 (the development-environment analysis lays out the commits).
