Torvalds Linux Quotes & Sayings

The Linux philosophy is 'Laugh in the face of danger'. Oops. Wrong One. 'Do it yourself'. Yes, that's it. — Linus Torvalds

I can mostly laugh at myself and this whole mess called "Linux developers," which means that I get along with most people and most people get along with me. — Linus Torvalds

I don't have any authority over Linux other than this notion that I know what I'm doing. — Linus Torvalds

On a purely technical side, I'm really very happy with how Linux gets used in a very wide set of different areas. It's important for development. — Linus Torvalds

A lot of people want to have market share numbers, lots of users, because that's how they view their self worth. For me, one of the most important things for Linux is having a big community that is actively testing new kernels; it's the only way to support the absolute insane amount of different hardware we deal with. — Linus Torvalds

What I find most interesting is how people really have taken Linux and used it in ways and attributes and motivations that I never felt. — Linus Torvalds

In trying to understand the Linux phenomenon, then, we have to look not at a single innovator but to a sort of bizarre Trinity : Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman, and Bill Gates. Take away any of these three and Linux would not exist. — Neal Stephenson

I've been employed by the University of Helsinki, and they've been perfectly happy to keep me employed and doing Linux. — Linus Torvalds

One of the reasons that I really don't mind that people are selling Linux commercially is exactly because it does make me feel good that people use the product. — Linus Torvalds

I do get my pizzas paid for by Linux indirectly. — Linus Torvalds

There are lots of Linux users who don't care how the kernel works, but only want to use it. That is a tribute to how good Linux is. — Linus Torvalds

Me trying to make a business around Linux would have been a total disaster. — Linus Torvalds

Such a leader knows how to empower groups to self-organize. When it's done right, a governance structure by consensus naturally emerges, as happened both with Linux and Wikipedia. "What astonishes so many people is that the open source model actually works," Torvalds said. "People know who has been active and who they can trust, and it just happens. — Walter Isaacson

I changed the Linux copyright license to be the GPL some time in the first half of 1992. Mostly because I had hated the lack of a cheaply and easily available UNIX when I had looked for one a year before. — Linus Torvalds

I started Linux because I wanted to see it on the desktop ... I do hope that the desktop people would try to work together ... and work more on the technology than trying to make the login screen look really nice. — Linus Torvalds

If Microsoft ever does applications for Linux it means I've won. — Linus Torvalds

I don't expect to go hungry if I decide to leave the University. Resume: Linux looks pretty good in many places. — Linus Torvalds

Before the commercial ventures, Linux tended to be rather hard to set up, because most of the developers were motivated mainly by their own interests. — Linus Torvalds

There were open source projects and free software before Linux was there. Linux in many ways is one of the more visible and one of the bigger technical projects in this area, and it changed how people looked at it because Linux took both the practical and ideological approach. — Linus Torvalds

I'm not worried about the kernel itself or the basic system. All the commercialization is about the distributions and the applications. As such, it only brings value-added things to Linux, and it doesn't take anything away from the Linux scene. — Linus Torvalds

I've felt strongly that the advantage of Linux is that it doesn't have a niche or any special market, but that different individuals and companies end up pushing it in the direction they want, and as such you end up with something that is pretty balanced across the board. — Linus Torvalds

I don't try to be a threat to MicroSoft, mainly because I don't really see MS as competition. Especially not Windows-the goals of Linux and Windows are simply so different. — Linus Torvalds

I get the biggest enjoyment from the random and unexpected places. Linux on cellphones or refrigerators, just because it's so not what I envisioned it. Or on supercomputers. — Linus Torvalds

Linux has more than satisfied any small initial expectations I had. It's simply incredible how successful Linux has been, and how good a time I've had developing it and leading the project. It does take a lot of my time, but it's time I really enjoy spending, and Linux has continued to be challenging both technically and from a managing standpoint. — Linus Torvalds

Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, is an expert of understatement in his leadership of Linux development community. When eager programmers would ask him, '"What part of Linux should I work on?' his answer would usually be, '"Let me know when you find out' (p.286). — Dan Woods

I personally think of Linux development as being pretty non-localized, and I work with all the people entirely over e-mail - even if they happen to be working in the Portland area. — Linus Torvalds

I'm interested in Linux because of the technology, and Linux wasn't started as any kind of rebellion against the 'evil Microsoft empire.' — Linus Torvalds

I don't go to conferences quite as much as I used to: having a child and movin away from the university leaves me with less time, but I've tried to balance things out - not just spending time with Linux all the time, but having a real job and a real life at the same time. — Linus Torvalds

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. — Linus Torvalds

See, you not only have to be a good coder to create a system like Linux, you have to be a sneaky bastard too. — Linus Torvalds

I've been very happy with the commercial Linux CD-ROM vendors linux Red Hat. — Linus Torvalds

The thing with Linux is that the developers themselves are actually customers too: that has always been an important part of Linux. — Linus Torvalds

Torvalds decided to use the GNU General Public License, not because he fully embraced the free-sharing ideology of Stallman (or for that matter his own parents) but because he thought that letting hackers around the world get their hands on the source code would lead to an open collaborative effort that would make it a truly awesome piece of software. "My reasons for putting Linux out there were pretty selfish," he said. "I didn't want the headache of trying to deal with parts of the operating system that I saw as the crap work. I wanted help."136 — Walter Isaacson

I made very sure that I did not get involved with any of the commercial Linux companies, exactly so that I would be neutral and not ever seen as "working for the competition". — Linus Torvalds

I never felt that the naming issue was all that important, but I was obviously wrong, judging by how many people felt. I tell people to call it just plain Linux and nothing more. — Linus Torvalds

One of the questions I've always hated answering is how do people make money in open source. And I think that Caldera and Red Hat - and there are a number of other Linux companies going public - basically show that yes, you can actually make money in the open-source area. — Linus Torvalds

Making Linux GPL'd was definitely the best thing I ever did. — Linus Torvalds

Linux has definitely made a lot of sense even in a purely materialistic sense. — Linus Torvalds

I've never regretted not making Linux shareware: I really don't like the pay for use binary shareware programs. — Linus Torvalds

The cyberspace earnings I get from Linux come in the format of having a Network of people that know me and trust me, and that I can depend on in return. — Linus Torvalds

The Linux kernel is under the GPL version 2. Not anything else. Some individual files are licensable under v3, but not the kernel in general. And quite frankly, I don't see that changing. I think it's insane to require people to make their private signing keys available, for example. I wouldn't do it. So 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. You think v2 or later is the default. It's not. The _default_ is to not allow conversion. Conversion isn't going to happen. — Linus Torvalds

That's what makes Linux so good: you put in something, and that effort multiplies. It's a positive feedback cycle. — Linus Torvalds

Some people have told me they don't think a fat penguin really embodies the grace of Linux, which just tells me they have never seen an angry penguin charging at them in excess of 100mph. They'd be a lot more careful about what they say if they had. — Linus Torvalds

I like to think that I've been a good manager. That fact has been very instrumental in making Linux a successful product. — Linus Torvalds

In many ways, I am very happy about the whole Linux commercial market because the commercial market is doing all these things that I have absolutely zero interest in doing myself. — Linus Torvalds

I don't think commercialization is the answer to anything. It's just one more facet of Linux, and not the deciding one by any means. — Linus Torvalds

So I decided that if the architecture is fundamentally sane enough, say it follows some basic rules like it supported paging , then I would be able to say, yes, Linux fundamentally supports that model. — Linus Torvalds

What commercialism has brought into Linux has been the incentive to make a good distribution that is easy to use and that has all the packaging issues worked out. — Linus Torvalds

There's innovation in Linux. There are some really good technical features that I'm proud of. There are capabilities in Linux that aren't in other operating systems. — Linus Torvalds

We all know Linux is great ... it does infinite loops in 5 seconds. — Linus Torvalds

I very seldom worry about other systems. I concentrate pretty fully on just making Linux the best I can. — Linus Torvalds

Part of doing Linux was that I had to communicate a lot more instead of just being a geek in front of a computer. — Linus Torvalds

Talk is cheap. Show me the code. — Linus Torvalds

OK, I admit it. I was just a front-man for the real fathers of Linux, the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus. — Linus Torvalds

Bill Gates really seems to be much more of a business man than a technologist, while I prefer to think of Linux in technical terms rather than as a means to money. As such, I'm not very likely to make the same kind of money that Bill made. — Linus Torvalds

While I may not get any money from Linux, I get a huge personal satisfaction from having written something that people really enjoy using, and that people find to be the best alternative for their needs. — Linus Torvalds