Linus Torvalds

(born 1969)

Verified

• "I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu)"
  • Source: [1]
  • Notes: This was the launch of Linux.

• "Dijkstra probably hates me." ()
  • Source: kernel/sched.c.

• "My name is Linus, and I am your God." ()
  • Source: at the Linux Expo, .

• "Only wimps use tape backup: real men just upload their important stuff on ftp, and let the rest of the world mirror it." ()
  • Source: LKML.

• "Portability is for people who cannot write new programs." ()
  • Source: comp.os.minix.

• "The memory management on the PowerPC can be used to frighten small children." ()
  • Source: comp.os.linux.development.system.

• "Your job is being a professor and researcher: That's one hell of a good excuse for some of the brain-damages of Minix." ()
  • Source: comp.os.minix.
  • Notes: to (author of ).

• "Note that nobody reads every post in linux-kernel. In fact, nobody who expects to have time left over to actually do any real kernel work will read even half. Except Alan Cox, but he's actually not human, but about a thousand gnomes working in under-ground caves in Swansea. None of the individual gnomes read all the postings either, they just work together really well." ()
  • Source: LKML.

• "In short: just say NO TO DRUGS, and maybe you won't end up like the Hurd people." ()
  • Source: LKML.

• "If you still don't like it, that's ok: that's why I'm boss. I simply know better than you do." ()
  • Source: comp.os.linux.advocacy.

• "Talk is cheap. Show me the code." ()
  • Source: LKML.

• "They are smoking crack." ()
  • Source: eWeek interview.
  • Notes: said about .

• "I allege that SCO is full of it." ()
  • Source: eWeek interview.

• "Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect." ()
  • Source: The New York Times interview.

• "I was an ugly child."
  • Source: Opening sentence in Just for Fun by Torvalds and

• "If you need more than 3 levels of indentation, you're screwed anyway, and should fix your program." ()
  • Source: Documentation/CodingStyle

• "You know you're brilliant, but maybe you'd like to understand what you did 2 weeks from now." ()
  • Source: Documentation/CodingStyle

• "An infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never make a good program." ()
  • Source: Documentation/CodingStyle

• "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 a angry penguin charging at them in excess of 100mph. They'd be a lot more careful about what they say if they had." ()
  • Source: comp.os.linux.announce
  • Notes: Comment made about people who did not like the Tux mascot.

• "Ok, I admit it. I was just a front-man for the real fathers of Linux, the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus." ()
  • Source: LinuxWorldExclusive: Linus Torvalds Makes Startling Admission, Discloses *Real* Fathers of Linux
  • Notes: In response to Alexis de Tocqueville Institute's claim that Linus Torvalds is not the real father of Linux.

• "Software is like sex; it's better when it's free."
  • Source: this usenet post is the first reference I could find.

• "I'm basically a very lazy person who likes to get credit for things other people actually do."
  • Source: Supposedly one of his favorite phrases; Referenced in The Cathedral and the Bazaar.