Linus Torvalds fortune. How Linus Torvalds made development more free

Linus Benedict Torvalds, or Turvalds (Swedish: Linus Benedict Torvalds (inf.); December 28, 1969, Helsinki, Finland) - Finnish-American programmer, hacker.

Inspired by reading Andrew Tanenbaum's book on the Minix operating system, Linus created Linux - the kernel of the GNU/Linux operating system, which is based on at the moment the most widely used free operating system.

From 1997 to 2003, Linus worked at Transmeta. After that, he organized Open Source Development Labs. Currently works at the Linux Foundation (since 2007), where he develops the Linux kernel.

Biography

Linus's parents, Finnish Swedes Nils and Anna Torvalds, were student radicals in the 1960s and later became journalists. Linus was named after the American chemist Linus Pauling. At school he excelled in physics and mathematics. He was an unsociable, modest boy. He was often teased because political views his father.

In 1988, Linus entered the University of Helsinki, from which he graduated in 1996 with a master's degree in cybernetics.

Linus Torvalds lives in Portland (USA, Oregon) with his wife Tove (Finnish: Tove Torvalds, née Tove Monni), six-time Finnish karate champion and former student of Linus, three daughters: Patricia Miranda (born December 5, 1996), Daniela Yolanda (born April 16, 1998) and Celeste Amanda (born November 20, 2000).

From February 1997 to June 2003, he worked at Transmeta Corporation, after which he moved to Open Source Development Labs (now The Linux Foundation). Although the Linux Foundation is based in Beaverton, Torvalds works from home.

Linus Torvalds' personal mascot is the penguin Tux, which also became the emblem of Linux. In his book Just for Fun, Torvalds writes that he chose the penguin as an emblem because he was once pecked by a penguin at the zoo.

One of the “Linus Laws”, finally formulated by the American hacker Eric Raymond, states: “With enough eyes, all mistakes lie on the surface.” A deep error is one that is difficult to find. However, if enough people look for errors, they will all come to the surface. Both programmers share an open source ideology, based in part on a belief in this law.

However, their views differ on what is more important: open source or “free” programs and their distribution (Raymond is a supporter of the latter).

Linux

In 1981, Leo, Linus's grandfather, a mathematician, introduced his grandson to the Commodore VIC-20 computer, which he used for mathematical calculations. Linus became interested in programming and read the manuals for the machine. He then began reading computer magazines and writing his own programs, first in BASIC and then in assembly language.

Since his school years, Linus received scholarships for his success in mathematics. The first computer he bought was a Sinclair QL, which then cost almost $2,000.

After graduating from school, Linus entered the University of Helsinki to study computer science. The training was interrupted by a year of military service.

A significant event in Torvalds’ life was his reading of Andrew Tanenbaum’s book Operating Systems: Design and Implementation, ISBN 0-13-638677-6. The book, using the Minix OS written by Tanenbaum as an example, presents the structure of UNIX family systems. Linus was very interested in what he read. Later he bought a new computer based on a 386 processor and installed Minix.

Having discovered flaws in the system, he began writing his own terminal emulator, in which he implemented task switching. Then Linus added more and more functions to the program, thanks to which it soon began to acquire the features of a full-fledged operating system. He then sent the now famous ad to the Minix newsgroup asking, “What would you most like to see in Minix?”

On September 17, 1991, Linus released the source code of the program (version 0.01) for public download. The system immediately aroused great interest. Hundreds, then thousands of programmers became interested in the system (the directory with the program, in the absence best options, called “Linux”) and work on its improvement and addition. It was and is still distributed under the terms of the GNU Public License - GPL.

Linus Torvalds believes that ARM has very little chance of completely defeating x86. An entire hardware and software ecosystem has been built around the x86 architecture, while ARM is simply creating large quantity devices.

Torvalds expressed his opinion at the Linaro Connect conference, which took place at last week. This happened in a conversation with David Rusling, technical director Linaro, a non-profit organization that optimizes software for ARM processors.

Why Linus Torvalds prefers x86

When Rusling asked Torvalds if he had a favorite processor architecture, he answered without batting an eyelid that his favorite architecture was still x86. No other architecture provides such a large and open infrastructure. CPU instructions are not that important. It's some people who obsess over things that don't really matter. What's really important is the infrastructure around the x86 instruction set.

Linus Torvalds said that ARM is strong in mobile phones, but he was disappointed in ARM because as a hardware platform it was still not very pleasant to deal with. This is mainly because it doesn't have a unified command set like x86 does, but it's getting better now.

The task of being as compatible as possible was not as pressing for ARM developers as it was for x86. And in an ecosystem where interoperability isn't a top priority, Linus Torvalds says there's little incentive for manufacturers to make their platforms more useful.

This can be proven by the fact that development for ARM is carried out on regular x86 computers. Torvalds really likes the Raspberry Pi, but he considers it just a toy. ARM can't win unless platform developers want to use it as their main machines.

Linus Torvalds said that he had been trying to buy an ARM computer for 30 years. And from his early experience with the 6502, he gave ARM high marks for instruction processing speed. But the difficulties of shipping the Acorn Archimedes machine to Finland led him to buy a Sinclair QL, a mistake that made him realize the importance of compatibility and widespread support for the platform.

Linus said similar things about the Internet of Things (IoT). When asked about making Linux easier to run on devices with low computing resources, he said that the Linux developer community will not do this because most of these devices are too limited.

There are many open IoT devices that the community will care about, but if their specifications are closed, only their manufacturers will support them and the core will not include code to make them work properly.

In any case, making Linux lighter cannot be the way to promote IoT devices, even if cheap hardware is better. People will always want more computing power and hardware resources will continue to grow.

Torvalds also touched on the viability of Linux. He said that the operating system is evolving, not just adding new features, a lot of changes were made at a low level but no one really noticed it. In response to the observation that the age of key kernel developers is an issue, Linus Torvalds said that there is continuity in the team, and the number of kernel developers is commendably high, and much higher than other open source projects.

Rusling also reprimanded Torvalds regarding his behavior. To which Linus said that he is a direct person, and through the Internet no one can hear your tone. The argumentative language on the Linux kernel mailing list is sometimes harsh, Linus uses harsh language, but in the end you can't always be nice and calm. He went on to say that sometimes his grumpiness makes more news than his ability to be good. Linus says he feels completely happy. They had a great development process and it all actually works.

And here is the recording of the conversation between Linus Torvalds and David Rusling:

Linus, September 17, 1991

2010 - C&C Prize

2018 Ibuka Award: IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award, awarded by IEEE for outstanding contribution in Consumer Electronics Technology awarded to Linus Torvalds "for his leadership in the development and distribution of Linux."

Linus Torvalds family

Grandfather - Leo, mathematician.

Father - Nils Torvalds, journalist.
Mother - Anna Torvalds, journalist.

His wife is Tove, a six-time Finnish karate champion and a former student of Linus.
Three daughters: Patricia Miranda, Daniela Yolanda and Celeste Amanda.

26.12.2019

Linus Torvalds
Linus Benedict Torvalds

Creator of the Linux system

Finnish-American Programmer

Finnish-American programmer. Creator of the Linux operating system, which is the most widespread of free operating systems and the most popular server OS.

Linus Torvalds was born on December 28, 1969 in Helsinki, Finland. The boy grew up in the family of journalists Nils and Anna Torvalds. They named their son after the American chemist Linus Pauling. At school, the guy excelled in physics and mathematics, but was unsociable.

In 1981, Leo, Linus's grandfather, a mathematician, introduced his grandson to the Commodore VIC-20 computer, which he used for mathematical calculations. Torvalds became interested in programming and read the manuals for the machine. Then, I started reading computer magazines and writing my own programs, first in BASIC and then in assembly language.

Since his school years, Linus received scholarships for his success in mathematics. The first computer he bought was the Sinclair QL, which then cost almost $2,000. After graduating from school, I entered the University of Helsinki to study computer science. Training was interrupted by a year of military service. In 1988, Linus entered the University of Helsinki, from which he graduated only eight years later, receiving a master's degree in cybernetics. He also worked at Transmeta Corporation, after which he moved to The Linux Foundation.

A significant event in Torvalds’ life was his reading of Andrew Tanenbaum’s book “Operating Systems: Design and Implementation.” The book, using the Minix OS written by Tanenbaum as an example, presents the structure of UNIX family systems. Linus was very interested in what he read. Later I bought a new computer based on a 386 processor and installed “Minix”.

Having discovered shortcomings in the system, I began writing my own terminal emulator, in which I implemented task switching. Then Linus added more and more functions to the program, thanks to which it soon began to acquire the features of a full-fledged operating system.

Linus, September 17, 1991 posted the source code of the program for public download. The system immediately aroused great interest. Hundreds, then thousands of programmers began to take an interest in the system, the directory with the program, for lack of better options, was called “Linux”, and worked on improving and adding to it. It was and is still distributed under the terms of the GNU Public License - GPL.

The openness of the kernel written by Linus made it possible to use it in conjunction with developments: GCC compilers, basic utilities of the GNU operating system, and a project for a free version of the UNIX system. The popularity of the system grew, and later journalists all over the world started talking about it.

Currently, only about two percent of the Linux system kernel is written by Torvalds himself, but it remains up to him to decide whether to make changes to the official kernel branch. Linus owns the Linux trademark and monitors its use through the non-profit organization Linux International with the help of Linux users around the world.

Linus's personal mascot is the penguin Tux, which also became the emblem of Linux. In his book Just for Fun, Torvalds writes that he chose the penguin as an emblem because he was once pecked by a penguin at the zoo.

In 2018, Linus Torvalds was awarded the Prize in the field computer technology Ibuki: IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award - for outstanding contributions to consumer electronics technology "For his leadership in the development and dissemination of Linux."

Awards and Recognition for Linus Torvalds

In 1996, asteroid No. 9793 was named after Torvalds.

In 1998 he received the EFF Pioneer Award.

In 1999 he received doctorate status from Stockholm University.

In 2000 he received his doctorate from the University of Helsinki.

Awarded a medal for the development of information systems.

In Time magazine's "Man of the Century" poll, Torvalds was ranked 17th.

In 2001, he shared the Takeda Prize for Socio-Economic Prosperity with Richard Stallman and Ken Sakamura.

In 2004, he was named one of Time magazine's most influential people in the article "Linus Torvalds: Free Software Champion."

In the "100 Famous Finns of All Time" poll, Torvalds was ranked 16th.

In 2005, he proved himself to be the “best manager” in a BusinessWeek survey.

In August 2005, Torvalds received an award from Reed College.

In 2006, Time named him one of the revolutionary heroes of the past 60 years.

Business 2.0 magazine named him one of the "10 People Who Are Not Materialists" because the development of Linux has Torvalds' personality.

In 2008, it was officially presented by the Computer History Museum in California.

In October 2008, Linus Torvalds won the annual Fellow Awards of the Computer History Museum (California, USA), receiving the award “for creating the Linux kernel and managing the open development of the widely used Linux operating system.”

2010 - C&C Prize

In April 2012, Linus Torvalds (together with Japanese physician Shinya Yamanaka) won the Millennium Technology Prize (Finland). Presented on June 13, 2012 by the President of Finland Sauli Niiniste.

Elected to the Internet Hall of Fame in 2012.

In April 2014, Torvalds received the Pioneer Award computer equipment, presented by IEEE.

"I make free software because I think it's the only the right way development"

Some people consider Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux operating system and the Git repository, to be simply lucky. To some, on the contrary, he seems to be a purposeful enthusiast of his business. However, no one will argue that thanks to the exceptional talent of Torvalds, an operating system appeared that spread throughout the world.

Moreover, free use and free editing of the OS source code was fundamentally important for its creator. A huge opensource community has formed around Linux, thanks to which the system continues to develop to this day: new builds and new operating systems based on the Linux kernel are constantly appearing.

Linux distribution conditions were developed at an early stage. Linux is freely distributed and cannot be offered for sale. If the user made any changes or improvements to the system, he had to make them available to the public in the form of source codes.

Linus wrote his OS based on many tools freely distributed on the Internet. The most important of these was the GCC compiler, which was copyrighted under the General Public License. Subsequently, the entire Linux operating system was registered under the GPL license.

"Game" in Linux

Linus Torvalds did not think about fame, and did not even imagine that the story with Linux would go so far. He has been interested in computers and programming since his school years and continued to do what he loves while studying at the University of Helsinki. He himself often notes that programming should be enjoyed. Therefore, just like in childhood, he simply “played” with Linux development. Driven first by excitement and later by positive reviews, Torvalds suddenly discovered that he had created operating system.

Linux 0.01

“Nobody actually produces great code the first time except me, but I’m the only one.”

Gradually, other developers began to “play” Linux along with its creator. Having revealed all the cards and posted the source code of your brainchild in open access, Torvalds to some extent risked losing his status as the lead developer on the project. However, he apparently guessed that his professional level was significantly higher than most developers. In addition, not everyone knows how to work hard, efficiently and for free. And Linus Torvalds had just such a “unique” ability.

And the following quote illustrates the term “entertainment” as Torvalds conceived it:

So, most of you are likely to be incredibly bored this Christmas, and here's the perfect entertainment for you. Test 2.6.15-rc7. All the shops will be closed and there won't really be anything better to do in between eating.

In general, before Linus married his student, programming was almost the only activity he did between “eating food.” After his marriage in 1996, Torvalds took a job at Transmeta, a California startup that developed energy-efficient CPUs. Still, he remained a leading Linux developer and continued to have fun doing it.

And in 2003, he left the company to focus entirely on developing his OS. Care became possible thanks to the newly formed public organization The Linux Foundation (at that time it was called Open Source Development Labs), which provided Torvalds with health insurance and a salary.

Unexpected success

The Linux community became a kind of self-regulating organism that was not centrally controlled by anyone. Accordingly, there was no point in organizing a power struggle in the project. However, Torvalds is still credited with informal leadership. According to a famous quote, managing programmers is like herding a herd of cats. Perhaps Linus was able to find a balance between the general direction of the project's development and at the same time did not prevent the developers from walking on their own. Moreover, within this project, any participant can conduct their own development based on the Linux kernel without interfering with anyone.

One can also remember that like attracts like: being an adequate and self-critical professional without an inflated PSI, Torvalds naturally“attracted” to himself those who had similar qualities. At some point, Linux became the most successful opensource project. And as you know, a team most often achieves serious success when its members look in approximately the same direction.

Such results could not leave commercial operating system manufacturers indifferent... and simply envious people left on the sidelines. However, Linus Torvalds did not seek to cross their path or make anyone jealous. Linux OS began to spread outside the community because it was a truly high-quality product. Particularly broad opportunities opened up for her when, in the spring of 1992, hacker Orest Zbrowski successfully adapted X Window for Linux. Thus, Linux had a graphical interface.

Git

Apart from developing operating systems, Torvalds was not interested in much else. Although this topic includes many aspects that you can study throughout your life. Linus considered the development of version control systems and working with databases to be the most boring areas. However, ironically, in 2005 he was forced to create his own source code control system.

In 2005, Torvalds released Linux 2.6.12-rc2 and stated that he would not continue development of the operating system until there was a replacement for the BitKeeper repository that the Linux community had used until 2005. BitKeeper had to be abandoned due to disagreements with its developers regarding its free use in open source development. Toralds categorically did not like other source code control systems.

“As a result, I decided that I could write something better myself in two weeks, and I was not mistaken.”

Torvalds created the distributed source code control system Git in two weeks. He has said more than once that he hates centralized repositories like SVN. When creating Git, Linus had a clear idea of ​​what he needed: decentralization, the possibility of independent offline development, convenience and reliability when branching and merging. Moreover, he created a source code control system specifically for the needs of Linux kernel developers.

But Git was destined for a “great” destiny, which Torvalds, again, did not expect. The repository has become popular outside the Linux community. Git was used by developers of such products as KVM, Qt, Drupal, Puppet, Wine.

Geek with character

In the wake of Git's popularity, Linus even gave a talk at Google in 2007. After reading the report, we can conclude that Torvalds treated himself and the current situation with a sufficient amount of irony and self-criticism:

I should caution you slightly that I'm not a very good speaker, partly because I don't like speaking, and partly because over the past few years everyone has wanted me to give talks on the dim future of Linux in the next century, and I don't really care. I'm a geek and prefer to talk about technology.

Even as a child, Linus Torvalds was a shy and unsociable person. At school he was considered a typical “nerd,” which was quite consistent with his appearance (skinny and short) and hobbies. He considered himself “ugly” - partly because of big nose.

In his youth, he continued to suffer from all sorts of complexes associated with socialization. True, he suffered exclusively in his free time from programming - that is, quite rarely.

His failures in society were more than compensated by his successes in computer science, where Torvalds enjoyed his own “omnipotence.” But such contradictions are typical for outstanding people and compensate with age. In this case, you can trace the imprint this left on his manner of communication.

You can disagree with me all you want, but for the duration of this report, everyone who disagrees with me is, by definition, stupid assholes. Remember this! You will be free to do and think whatever you want when I finish my report. Now I'm telling you my only true opinion, so CVS users, if you really love it that much, get out of my sight. You need to go to a mental hospital or somewhere else.

The topic in which Torvalds feels confident becomes a field for improvisation, self-irony, coquetry and other forms of flirting with the public.

I started the project, developed the architecture and the initial code, and for the last year and a half it has been supported by a much nicer guy, the Japanese Junio ​​Hamano, and he is the one who made Git more accessible to mere mortals. Early versions of Git did require a certain amount of "mental points" of brainpower. Since then it has become much simpler.

In general, this is my usual approach - everyone else does their best, and I myself can just sit and sip a Pina Colada.

Linus Torvalds is no stranger to such qualities as frank frankness, bordering on demonstrative indecency. This is illustrated by the history of cooperation with NVidia in 2012.

One of the university students asked the creator of Linux to comment on the opensource community’s relationship with one of the world’s largest developers of graphics accelerators and processors, NVidia.

Linus Torvalds said that NVidia is one of the worst companies he has ever dealt with. According to him, NVidia representatives have absolutely no desire to cooperate with the Linux developer community and continue to keep the code of their graphics drivers for Linux closed.

Concluding his answer, Linus Torvalds summed up the above regarding NVidia, made an obscene hand gesture at the camera and declared: “NVidia, fuck you!”

The values ​​that Linus Torvalds espoused (maybe a little too ostentatiously at times) redefined what an open source community could be. His example inspired, and still continues to inspire, other developers to “deeds.”

On April 20, 2012, Linus Torvalds (together with Japanese physician Shinya Yamanaka) won the Millennium Technology Prize (Finland).

In 2014, Linus Torvalds received the Computer Pioneer Award from the IEEE Computer Society.

Finnish programmer and hacker Linus Benedict Torvalds (according to other sources - Torvalds) was born in Helsinki in 1969 on December 28.

He was inspired to create Linux (the most popular independent operating system today) by Andrew Tanenbaum's book on the capabilities of the Minix operating system.

Linus Torvalds: biography of the “mighty Finn”

Torvalds' father and mother are Finnish Swedes. In the 60s they were called students who sympathized with radicals. They named their only son in honor of Linus Pauling, an American physicist and chemist, laureate Nobel Prize 1954.

Linus's father's political preferences (he was a member communist party) were often a reason for ridicule from the boy’s classmates. Despite this, Linus, who was considered an introverted child, studied excellently. He was especially good at the exact sciences - mathematics and physics.

In 1988, Torvalds joined the ranks of students at the University of Helsinki, successfully completed his studies and graduated (1996), receiving the title of Master of Cybernetics.

Today, Linus Torvalds and his wife Tove, a six-time Finnish karate champion and a former student of Linus, live in the American city of Portland. They have three daughters: Patricia Miranda (1996), Daniela Yolanda (1998) and Celeste Amanda (2000) along with their cat Randy.

From an early age, Linus did everything himself. Once, without waiting for his father’s help, he independently assembled a model of a complex model of a sea vessel, and a few years later, as a twenty-year-old student, he “went crazy” and independently created a complex computer program.

When starting to build his own system, the student at the University of Helsinki did not plan to compete in any way with companies like Microsoft; programming was just a hobby for him, which in just eight years quietly transformed into one of the most promising operating systems.

Penguin Tux - the Linux emblem - was first a personal mascot that Torvalds chose for himself. Linus explains his choice this way: when he was at the zoo, he was bitten by a penguin.

Among the “laws of Linus” there is one that was fully formulated by the US programmer Eric Raymond. It goes like this: “When observation is at the proper level, all mistakes lie on the surface.” When many people look for a deep mistake, it becomes superficial. Both software developers share the same views on things.

There's just one question. Raymond considers him a serious problem, and Torvalds does not want to notice him. Linus believes that the most important thing is the openness of the software code, and Eric is sure that much more important issue is the cost of the programs is too high.

Today, Torvalds, without undue modesty, can call himself the creator of approximately two percent of the system kernel. He also owns the trademark of the same name and has the right to make decisions regarding changes to the official kernel branch. Torvalds helps monitor the operation of the Linux system non-profit organization Linux International, as well as users of the Linux operating system.

Today, leading computer companies such as Microsoft hire programmers who understand Linux, and in the Middle Kingdom, the Linux operating system has been declared the official state OS. The first Slavic company to refuse Windows updates, became the Russian Aquarius.

Every year on August 25th, the community called "Open Source" celebrates the birthday of Linux, the operating system created by Torvalds. Linus, in turn, cares about the general availability of his invention, thereby attracting the attention of thousands of progressive programmers to it.

First own house

Buying a house in the USA was a necessary measure: renting an apartment costs Americans much more than buying their own home. Torvalds himself admitted to reporters that the appearance of his own home and sudden fame did not in any way affect his lifestyle, which cannot be said about the birth of his daughters.

He talks about all this and many more things in his autobiography (Linus Torvalds, Just for Fun).

The career of Linus Torvalds

Programmer Linus Torvalds short biography which can fit in just a few lines, from February 1997 to June 2003 I did not imagine my labor activity outside of Transmeta Corporation. Next place The work was carried out by the English company Open Source Development Lab (current name - The Linux Foundation).

Today Torvalds is a remote employee, working from home.

Linus Torvalds, computer science and the first hardware. How it all started

A significant role in the life of Linus Torvalds (as he himself believes) was played by a work written by Andrew Tanenbaum, called “Operating Systems: Creation and Sales,” where the author reproduces the designs of systems such as Minix.

The boy was first introduced to computers by his mathematician grandfather Leo Torvalds. Linus then for the first time (this happened in 1981) touched the first computer in his life - the Commodore VIC-20. Leo managed to interest his grandson - Linus became interested in programming and began by studying the manual for his grandfather's computer. Soon, after reading specialized magazines, he began to write his own programs and one fine day purchased a new computer based on a 386 processor, where he installed Minix.

He quickly identified the disadvantages of this system and began to write his own version of the device. Constantly adding new functions to his project, Linus discovered that as a result of the transformation, an independent “operating system” appeared. So, unexpectedly for himself, Linus Torvalds created his own operating system. It was then that he sent his history-making message to the Minix news team.

Legendary correspondence

“Greetings to Minix users!

I am creating an operating system for free (this is my hobby, so the system will be amateur) for 386(486) AT clones...

I'd like to get feedback on what qualities people like (or don't like) about Minix, because my concept is similar to this...

I would like to know about the preferences of most users. I agree to listen to any advice, but I don’t promise to implement it.”

One day in September 1991, Linus Torvalds created the source code for the very first version of his program, making it publicly available. His work attracted the attention of first hundreds, and then thousands of programmers, who, by the way, gave the name to his invention. Linux quickly spread across the Internet, and everyone tried to supplement and improve it. Currently, Linus's invention continues to be distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License - GPL.

Wrath of the “system gods”

The public's keen interest in Linux angered the author of the Minix system. Andrew Tanenbaum harshly criticized his student Torvalds for the design new system, calling the creation of a monolithic kernel (1991) a fundamental mistake. Heading his post on the Internet with the succinct phrase: “Linux is outdated,” Professor Tanenbaum tried to explain to users that Linux is short-lived, since it cannot be ported to another processor other than the currently standard (80x86).

The criticism hit Linus Torvalds hard. It was dangerous to argue with the famous and influential Tanenbaum, but Torvalds continued to defend his case.

The publicity of the kernel written by Linus made it available for use along with the developments of the public version of the Unix system. Soon journalists began to talk and write about Linux and its creator.

Timeline of fame

In 1996, astronomers who discovered a new asteroid named their discovery after Torvalds' Linux.

In 1998 he was awarded the EFF Pioneer Award.

1999 - award from Stockholm University. Torvalds was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science.

And already the next year, 2000, the “mighty Finn” was awarded a similar title by scientists from the University of Helsinki. In the same year, the Finnish programmer was awarded the medal “For the Improvement of Information Systems”, and also took 17th position in the list compiled by Time reporters based on the results of the “Person of the Century” survey.

In 2001, Richard Stallman and Ken Sakamura shared the Takeda Prize with Linus Torvalds (given to people who contribute to the social and financial well-being of the nation).

In 2004, Time magazine included Linus on its list of the most famous people, and after the journalistic investigation “100 Famous Finns” he found himself in an honorable 16th place.

In 2005, according to BusinessWeek, Linus Torvalds was awarded the title of “Best Executive”, and also earned a reward from Reed College.

2006: Time hailed Torvalds as an innovative hero and one of those who have achieved success over the past 60 years. In the same year, Business 2.0 magazine, appreciating Torvalds’ personal qualities, included him in the “ten non-materialists.”

And in 2008, Linus became an official “exhibit” of the California Computer History Museum.

Linux era

The time of Linux is usually counted from the day when Finnish student Linus Torvalds began corresponding with the team maintaining the Minix operating system (a prototype of Linux).

An interesting detail: in his message, Torvalds said that Linux can only be installed on 80386 platforms. Now Linux is installed on many platforms, including many embedded and portable ones. Hundreds of copies of the Linux distribution have been distributed to millions of users and developers.

Projects like Gnome, MySQL, Apache, OpenOffice.org, Mozilla and other open source applications have become active popularizers of Linux. software, and among the investors who believed in the need for further development of this system are Sun, IBM and Hewlett-Packard.

Hermit Programmer

Weekly periodical“Orthodox Computer Security” greatly pleased fans of Linus Torvalds in March 2015, reporting that their idol and creator of the Linux operating system was being prepared for tonsure.

From one of the pages of “Orthodox computer security“Hieromonk Lucian (this is what, the source indicates, Torvalds will now be called) reports that he is tired of being in the company of Satan’s minions - the Apple and Microsoft companies.

The creator of the innovative operating system also said that when creating Linux, he did not think about self-interest, but only wanted to make the world a better place... Now he is taking monasticism, since his views on life are most in tune with way of life minister of the Orthodox Church.

“The solitude, meekness and innocence of the monks and the fans of my operating system are identical,” said Lucian, known to the world as the programmer Linus Torvalds, as he said goodbye.

Selflessness as a springboard

After moving from Finland to the USA, Linus was “snatched up” by the processor corporation Transmeta, assigning an excellent salary to the man, whose very name now brings in a good income. While working for a corporation, Linus also finds time to improve his operating system.

Transmeta is not the only source of income for the “mighty Finn”. His compatriots, the owners of Finnish communications companies, consider it an honor to include Linus on the Board of Directors.

Linus Torvalds, whose fortune depends on the sale of shares in companies developing programs created on the basis of Linux, does not forget to keep an eye on the activities of his colleagues, preventing the slightest attempts by competitors to make his creation less compact and practical.