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Linus Torvalds

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Linus Torvalds
Born (1969-12-28) December 28, 1969 (age 55)
Helsinki, Finland
NationalityFinnish
OccupationSoftware engineer
EmployerLinux Foundation
Known forLinux kernel, Git
SpouseTove Torvalds
Parent(s)Nils Torvalds (father)
RelativesOle Torvalds (grandfather)
Websitewww.cs.helsinki.fi/u/torvalds/

Linus Benedict Torvalds (pronunciation; ; born December 28, 1969 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish software engineer best known for having initiated the development of the Linux kernel. He later became the chief architect of the Linux kernel, and now acts as the project's coordinator.

Biography

Early years

Linus Torvalds was born in Helsinki, Finland, the son of journalists Anna and Nils Torvalds, and the grandson of poet Ole Torvalds. His family belongs to the Swedish-speaking minority (5.5%) of Finland's population. Torvalds was named after Linus Pauling, the American Nobel Prize-winning chemist, although in the book Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution, Torvalds is quoted as saying, "I think I was named equally for Linus the Peanuts cartoon character," noting that this makes him half "Nobel-prize-winning chemist" and half "blanket-carrying cartoon character." Both of his parents were campus radicals at the University of Helsinki in the 1960s.

Torvalds attended the University of Helsinki from 1988 to 1996, graduating with a master's degree in computer science. His M.Sc. thesis was titled Linux: A Portable Operating System. His academic career was interrupted after completing his first year of study when he joined the Finnish Army, selecting the 11-month officer training program, thus fulfilling the mandatory military service of Finland. In the army he held the rank of second lieutenant, with the role of fire controller, calculating positions of guns, targets, and trajectories, finally telling the guns where to shoot. In 1990, he resumed his university studies, and was exposed to UNIX for the first time, in the form of a DEC MicroVAX running Ultrix. In June 2000 the University of Helsinki issued Torvalds an honorary doctorate.

His interest in computers began with a Commodore VIC-20. After the VIC-20 he purchased a Sinclair QL which he modified extensively, especially its operating system. He programmed an assembly language and a text editor for the QL, as well as a few games. He is known to have written a Pac-Man clone named Cool Man. On January 2, 1991 he purchased an Intel 80386-based IBM PC and spent a month playing the game Prince of Persia before receiving his MINIX copy which in turn enabled him to begin his work on Linux.

Later years

Linus Torvalds is married to Tove Torvalds (née Monni) — a six-time Finnish national Karate champion — whom he first met in the autumn of 1993. Torvalds was running introductory computer laboratory exercises for students and instructed the course attendants to send him an e-mail as a test, to which Tove responded with an e-mail asking for a date. Tove and Linus were later married and have three daughters, Patricia, Daniela, and Celeste.

After a visit to Transmeta in late 1996, he accepted a position at the company in California, where he would work from February 1997 through June 2003. He then moved to the Open Source Development Labs, which has since merged with the Free Standards Group to become the Linux Foundation, under whose auspices he continues to work. In June 2004, Torvalds and his family moved to Portland, Oregon to be closer to the consortium's Beaverton, Oregon-based headquarters.

From 1997 to 1999 he was involved in 86open helping to choose the standard binary format for Linux and Unix.

Red Hat and VA Linux, both leading developers of Linux-based software, presented Torvalds with stock options in gratitude for his creation. In 1999, both companies went public and Torvalds' net worth shot up to roughly $20 million.

His personal mascot is a penguin nicknamed Tux, which has been widely adopted by the Linux community as the mascot of the Linux kernel.

Unlike many open source icons, Torvalds maintains a low profile and generally refuses to comment on competing software products. Torvalds generally stays out of non-kernel-related debates. Although Torvalds believes that "open source is the only right way to do software", he also has said that he uses the "best tool for the job", even if that includes proprietary software. He has been criticized for his use and alleged advocacy of the proprietary BitKeeper software for version control in the Linux kernel. However, Torvalds has since written a free-software replacement for BitKeeper called Git. Torvalds has commented on official GNOME developmental mailing lists that, in terms of desktop environments, he encourages users to switch to KDE.

The Linus/Linux connection

Main article: History of Linux

Initially Torvalds wanted to call the kernel he developed Freax (a combination of "free", "freak", and the letter X to indicate that it is a Unix-like system), but his friend Ari Lemmke, who administered the FTP server where the kernel was first hosted for downloading, named Torvalds' directory linux.

Authority on Linux

About 2% of the current Linux kernel is written by Torvalds himself. Since Linux has had thousands of contributors, such a percentage represents a significant personal contribution to the overall amount of code. Torvalds remains the ultimate authority on what new code is incorporated into the standard Linux kernel.

Linux trademark

Torvalds owns the "Linux" trademark, and monitors use of it chiefly through the non-profit organization Linux International.

Recognition

See also

Notes

  1. TORVALDS, 2001
  2. ^ Moody, Glyn (2002). Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution. Perseus Books Group. p. 336. ISBN 0738206709.
  3. Torvalds, 2001, page 29
  4. Torvalds, 2001, page 53
  5. Torvalds, 2001, page 28
  6. TORVALDS, 2001, pages 6-7
  7. TORVALDS, 2001, pages 41-46
  8. Torvalds, 2001, page 60
  9. TORVALDS, 2001, page 123
  10. Torvalds' bio on nndb.com
  11. Linux Online - Linus Torvalds Bio
  12. Gumbel, Peter (2006). Tovalds%5d "Linus Torvalds: By giving away his software, the Finnish programmer earned a place in history". 60 Years of Heros. TIME. Retrieved 2008-06-14. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  13. Rivlin, Gary. "Leader of the Free World". Wired. Retrieved 2008-06-14.
  14. ^ Linus Torvalds: A Very Brief and Completely Unauthorized Biography
  15. Linus Torvalds at Google, on Git, 9:50-10:00
  16. Printing dialog and GNOME
  17. Linus versus GNOME
  18. Henrik Ingo. Open Life: The Philosophy of Open Source. Ingram, 2005. 42-45. Online version
  19. Linus Explains Linux Trademark Issues
  20. Torvalds, Stallman, Simons Win 1998 Pioneer Awards
  21. Talking to Torvalds, British Computer Society, September 2007.
  22. The Person of the Century Poll Results
  23. The Best & Worst Managers Of The Year
  24. Linux creator Linus Torvalds honored with Reed College's Vollum Award
  25. 10 people who don't matter
  26. Linus Torvalds
  27. "The Computer History Museum Announces the 2008 Fellow Awards Recipients". 2008-06-18. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
  28. "Fellow Awards: Linus Benedict Torvalds". 2008-10-21. Retrieved 2008-10-23.

References

External links

Template:FOSS celeb

Linux
Linux kernel
Controversies
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Organizations
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Media
Professional related certifications

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