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
When you hear voices in your head that tell you to shoot the pope, do you do what they say? Same thing goes for customers and managers. They are the crazy voices in your head, and you need to set them right, not just blindly do what they ask for.
When it comes to software, I much prefer free software, because I have very seldom seen a program that has worked well enough for my needs, and having sources available can be a life-saver.
Let's put it this way: if you need to ask a lawyer whether what you do is right or not, you are morally corrupt. Let's not go there. We don't base our morality on law.
I'm simply too content doing what I want to do to really have a very negative attitude towards MicroSoft. They make bad products - so what? I don't need to care, because I happily don't have to use them, and writing my own alternative has been a very gratifying experience in many ways.
Conversion isn't going to happen. I don't think the GPL v3 conversion is going to happen for the kernel, since I personally don't want to convert any of my code.
didn't really think there was that much tension between the commercial side and the technical side of Linux.
I don't use GNOME, because in striving to be simple, it has long since reached the point where it simply doesn't do what I need it to do. I personally just encourage people to switch to KDE.
I don't expect the desktop to come quickly. It will take time,
I was going to start with a lawyer joke, but I'm told it was already done yesterday,
Software patents are a huge potential threat to the ability of people to work together on open source. Making it easier for companies and communities that have patents to make those patents available in a common pool for people to use is one way to try to help developers deal with the threat.
It probably was just a mistake on the part of some headhunter who just didn't know who (Raymond) was. It just makes it even harder for people to even approach the other side, when they then end up having to worry about public humiliation.
It's not really about Linux vs. Microsoft, it's about something you really, really have fun with and lets others have fun as well.
Do I see fragmentation for the Linux kernel? There is certainly going to be some of that.
I started Linux as a desktop operating system. And it's the only area where Linux hasn't completely taken over. That just annoys the hell out of me.