Linus Torvalds

Posted by jadah on March 17, 2010 · Leave a Comment

What is the relation between Servers, the OLPC initiative, and films (like Titanic) ? The answer is Linux: an operative system based, like all operating systems, in a kernel. Yes! Even Microsoft admitted that 60% of their web servers run over Linux, instead of Windows Server. And over 95% desktop and server computers in the film industry run over Linux, too.

It’s worth noting, however, than even though the Linux (GNU/Linux) operating system is largely based on community-contributed software, the most important and central part of the system was an idea developed by one single person. His name: Linus Torvalds. He’s an interesting guy, and a single article wouldn’t be able to describe him. However, I’ll try to give you a context for further research and maybe even inspiration.

Linus was born in Helsinki, Finland, on December 28 1969. He attended the University of Helsinki graduating in 1996, with a master’s degree in computer science. As a cultural note, he’s also a 2^nd lieutenant (ballistic calculation officer) in the Finnish Army.

After being exposed to UNIX, he wrote his M. Sc. Thesis “Linux: A Portable Operative System”. The Linux project began in 1991 as a terminal emulator, developed in MINIX (an academic UNIX written by Andrew Tanenbaum, a teacher and developer I also recommend you make a research about) by using the GNU CC as compiler.

Later, when Linus realized he had wrote a kernel, he announced the result on Usenet and the project development continued. Nowadays, Linus’ code is only about 2% of the Linux code.

In what it comes to personal life, Linus is the grandson of a noted Finnish poet, Ole Torvalds. He’s married to Tove Torvalds (a kindergarten teacher and karate champions (I also think it’s a funny combination )), and has 3 daughters. He calls himself an atheist and thinks organized religions lead to misuses of power.

After working for the US-based company “Transmeta”, from 1996 to 2003, on 2003 he began focusing exclusively on the Open Source Development Labs, a consortium formed by big companies like IBM, RedHat, Novell and HP. He used it to focus mainly on the Linux Kernel. The OSDL merged with the Free Standars Group in early 2007 and became the Linux Foundation.

However in financial terms, Linux seems to be worth almost as much as in technical issues. On June 2004 he moved to Portland and, since RedHat and VALinux (now VA Software) became public, he suddenly became a millionaire. He had received stocks as gratitude, and his net worth shop up roughly USD $20 million.

These days, Linus keeps on taking care of his 3 daughters and the Linux Kernel development, more as a spiritual leader coordinating efforts via the Linux Foundation, and keeping away misuse of the Linux trademark through the Linux Mark Institute.