Linus Torvalds | Linux Creator
If you are a tech nerd like me who loves Linux and wondering who made it then you are at the right place.
Linus Torvalds
Linus Torvalds was born in Helsinki, Finland in 1969. His parents were campus radicals at the University of Helsinki in the 1960s. Linus Torvalds hails from the Swedish-speaking minority community in Finland. His parents named him after Linus Pauling, the Nobel Prize-winning American chemist. However, in the book “Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution,” he is quoted as saying that he believes he was also named after the “Peanuts” cartoon character Linus, making him “half Nobel Prize-winning chemist and half blanket-carrying cartoon character.”
The Linux
Back in 1991, Linus was a student at the University of Helsinki in Finland. He was frustrated with the operating system he was using and decided to create his own. He started working on a small kernel (the core of an operating system) as a hobby project, but soon it grew into something much bigger.
While Linus Torvalds strongly believes in the open-source philosophy and considers it the best approach to software development, he has also stated that he uses the “best tool for the job,” even if it happens to be proprietary software. However, he faced criticism for using and allegedly promoting the proprietary software BitKeeper for version control in the Linux kernel. In response, he developed a free-software alternative called Git.
About Torvalds
Linus Torvalds has a reputation for openly disagreeing with other developers on the Linux kernel mailing list. He has referred to himself as a “really unpleasant person” and has acknowledged that he would like to be more encouraging and less confrontational in his communication style. However, he has also stated that his direct approach is necessary to get his points across. This attitude has drawn criticism from some developers, including Sage Sharp from Intel and Lennart Poettering, a developer of the systemd system management software, among others.
On September 16, 2018, the Linux kernel Code of Conflict was replaced by a new Code of Conduct based on the Contributor Covenant. This sudden change occurred shortly after Linus Torvalds issued an apology in the release notes for Linux 4.19-rc4, in which he acknowledged that his past behavior, including personal attacks, was unprofessional and uncalled for. He announced that he would be taking some time off to seek assistance in understanding people’s emotions and responding appropriately. Following the release of Linux 4.19 on October 22, 2018, Torvalds returned to his role as the maintainer of the kernel.
My Feelings
As the creator of the Linux operating system, Linus Torvalds has had a profound impact on the world of technology. His work has revolutionized the way we think about operating systems, and his contributions to the open source community have been nothing short of remarkable. What he did for us will never be forgotten.
You can his office here.
