Torvalds leads the Linux project, not so much by writing code, but by arbitrating disputes and making the technical decisions that keep the project moving in the right direction. Torvalds may have been a foil to Gates, but Linux's creator probably has more in common with Steve Jobs. That was the name of his surprisingly readable autobiography, written in 2002 with journalist David Diamond - a book that Torvalds says he never thinks about today. He was low key, unassuming, a regular guy who was into computers just for fun. Torvalds became the perfect foil to the monopolistic, unlikable, Bill Gates. He worked for an interestingly secretive chip startup called Transmeta - it fizzled out in the post-dot com implosion - but as long as reporters didn't ask about Transmeta itself, Torvalds was the kind of guy who would speak his mind, apparently unconcerned with who he might happen to piss off. And Linux's creator was a particularly effective spokesman for the open-source revolution. in the late 1990s, the Linux hype was at its peak. That's kept the project from splitting apart, and it ensured that any really good software gets used by everybody.īut the third factor was Torvalds himself, who has put his personal stamp on the Linux in a way that is rare in the open-source world. But Linux's license dictated that anybody who made changes had to share them. By 1991, there were many incompatible versions of Unix. This had been good for business, but in the long run it was bad for Unix. In the 1980s, the Unix makers had done well, but they'd kept a lot of their best technology to themselves. The second force was the GNU General Public License. Long before company employees were sneaking iPads and smartphones into the office, there were Linux freaks sneaking Intel machines into corporations to build prototype new programs and build cheap websites and file and print servers. First, Linux started just as Intel's processors were getting ready for prime time. Linux worked because three powerful forces just happened to converge. I concentrated on the technical side because that's what I wanted to do."Īnd that's good news for just about every big internet company, along with the startups that aspire to displace them, because they love to use Linux. I'm very happy with feeling that I've done the right thing." He adds: "I mean, if I'd started a company, that wouldn’t have been because I wanted to start a company. Last year, Intel invited Torvalds and Tove to a pre-Oscar party in Hollywood, where he rubbed elbows with the likes of Robert Downey Jr., who didn't know who he was, and Mad Men star Jon Hamm, who did.ĭoes he have any regrets? "Not at all," he says. Last week, Torvalds and his friend Dirk Hohndel spent a few days in the 40 degree waters of the Hood Canal, helping to dive-certify six native American geoduck hunters, and Torvalds has even started writing open-source dive-log software. He has the freedom to pursue his other passion: diving. He gets paid by the non-profit Linux Foundation to manage the open source software that he loves and - when he wants to - can fly around the world to talk about it. Still, Torvalds' life is pretty darned good by geek standards. Stock that he was awarded from Transmeta and another Linux startup, VA Systems, wasn't worth very much by the time he was allowed to sell it. But Torvalds says that it was his only big Linux payout. Prior to its initial public offering in 1999, Red Hat gave Torvalds what turned out to be about $1 million in stock. And Linus can thank Red Hat for his yellow house in Portland. Red Hat can thank Linus for reaching $1 billion in annual revenue.
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