Linus Torvalds
Linus Torvalds
Linus Benedict Torvalds; born December 28, 1969) is a Finnish-American software engineer who is the creator and, for a long time, principal developer, of the Linux kernel, which became the kernel for operating systemssuch as GNU and years later Android and Chrome OS. He also created the distributed revision control system git and the diving logging and planning software Subsurface. He was honored, along with Shinya Yamanaka, with the 2012 Millennium Technology Prize by the Technology Academy Finland "in recognition...
NationalityFinnish
ProfessionEngineer
Date of Birth28 December 1969
CityHelsinki, Finland
CountryFinland
I don't have any authority over Linux other than this notion that I know what I'm doing.
I don't think I'm unusual in preferring my laptop to be thin and light.
I like to think that I've been a good manager. That fact has been very instrumental in making Linux a successful product.
Whoever came up with "hold the shift key for eight seconds to turn on 'your keyboard is buggered' mode" should be shot.
There are "extremists" in the free software world, but that's one major reason why I don't call what I do "free software" any more. I don't want to be associated with the people for whom it's about exclusion and hatred.
In many cases, the user interface to a program is the most important part for a commercial company: whether the programs works correctly or not seems to be secondary.
That's what makes Linux so good: you put in something, and that effort multiplies. It's a positive feedback cycle.
I try to avoid long-range plans and visions - that way I can more easily deal with anything new that comes up.
I'm generally a very pragmatic person: that which works, works.
Making Linux GPL'd was definitely the best thing I ever did.
You won't get sued for anticompetitive behavior.
A consumer doesn't take anything away: he doesn't actually consume anything. Giving the same thing to a thousand consumers is not really any more expensive than giving it to just one.
The memory management on the PowerPC can be used to frighten small children.
Finnish companies tend to be very traditional, not taking many risks. Silicon Valley is completely different: people here really live on the edge.