Jump to content

Linus Torvalds: Difference between revisions

Edit links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Undid revision 456989272 by 115.241.225.111 (talk)
No edit summary
Line 79: Line 79:


In summer 2004, viewers of [[YLE]] (the Finnish Broadcasting Company) placed Torvalds 16th in the network's [[Suuret Suomalaiset|100 Greatest Finns]]. In 2010, as part of a series called ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.|The Britannica Guide]] to the World's Most Influential People'', Torvalds was listed among ''The 100 Most Influential Inventors of All Time'' (ISBN 9781615300037).<ref>{{Cite web| title=Linus Torvalds named one of the 100 most influential inventors | work=[[The H]] | url=http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Linus-Torvalds-named-one-of-the-100-most-influential-inventors-922622.html | date=4 February 2010 | accessdate=15 February 2010}}</ref>
In summer 2004, viewers of [[YLE]] (the Finnish Broadcasting Company) placed Torvalds 16th in the network's [[Suuret Suomalaiset|100 Greatest Finns]]. In 2010, as part of a series called ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.|The Britannica Guide]] to the World's Most Influential People'', Torvalds was listed among ''The 100 Most Influential Inventors of All Time'' (ISBN 9781615300037).<ref>{{Cite web| title=Linus Torvalds named one of the 100 most influential inventors | work=[[The H]] | url=http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Linus-Torvalds-named-one-of-the-100-most-influential-inventors-922622.html | date=4 February 2010 | accessdate=15 February 2010}}</ref>

;Education
Open Knowledge Campus of World Wide Web acknowledged contribution of Linus Benedict Torvalds to humanity as foremost, while developing its [http://sangkrit.net/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2011/10/freeeducationpolicy.pdf Free Education Policy] and accepted [[Linux Kernel]] as core thing to all educational research and reconfiguration for future of humanity.<ref>{{Cite |url= http://sangkrit.net/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2011/10/freeeducationpolicy.pdf |title=Free Education Policy |publisher=Open Source Council |accessdate=2011-10-23}}</ref>


;Films
;Films

Revision as of 19:40, 23 October 2011

Linus Torvalds
Torvalds in 2002[1]
Born
Linus Benedict Torvalds

(1969-12-28) December 28, 1969 (age 54)
Helsinki, Finland
NationalityFinnish American[2]
OccupationSoftware engineer
EmployerLinux Foundation
Known forLinux kernel, Git
SpouseTove Torvalds née Monni
Children3
Parent(s)Nils Torvalds (father)
Anna Torvalds (mother)[3]
RelativesOle Torvalds (grandfather)
Websitetorvalds-family.blogspot.com
cs.helsinki.fi/u/torvalds (outdated)

Linus Benedict Torvalds (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈliːn.ɵs ˈtuːr.valds] ⓘ; born December 28, 1969 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish[2][5] software engineer and hacker, best known for having initiated the development of the open source Linux kernel. He later became the chief architect of the Linux kernel, and now acts as the project's coordinator. He also created the revision control system Git.

Biography

Early years

Torvalds was born in Helsinki, Finland. He is the son of journalists Anna and Nils Torvalds,[6] and the grandson of poet Ole Torvalds. Both of his parents were campus radicals at the University of Helsinki in the 1960s. 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".[7]

Torvalds attended the University of Helsinki between 1988 and 1996, graduating with a master's degree in computer science from NODES research group.[8] His academic career was interrupted after his first year of study when he joined the Finnish Army, selecting the 11-month officer training program to fulfill the mandatory military service of Finland. In the army he holds the rank of second lieutenant, with the role of a ballistic calculation officer.[9] 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.[10] His M.Sc. thesis was titled Linux: A Portable Operating System.

His interest in computers began with a Commodore VIC-20.[11] 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.[12] He is known to have written a Pac-Man clone named Cool Man. On January 5, 1991[13] he purchased an Intel 80386-based IBM PC[14] and spent a month playing the game Prince of Persia before receiving his MINIX copy, which in turn enabled him to begin work on Linux.[7][15]

Later years

After a visit to Transmeta in late 1996,[3] Torvalds accepted a position at the company in California, where he would work from February 1997 to 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 OSDL'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. In 1999, he was named to the MIT Technology Review TR100 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.[16]

Red Hat and VA Linux, both leading developers of Linux-based software, presented Torvalds with stock options in gratitude for his creation.[17] In 1999, both companies went public and Torvalds' share value temporarily shot up to roughly $20 million.[18][19]

His personal mascot is a penguin nicknamed Tux,[20] which has been widely adopted by the Linux community as the mascot of the Linux kernel.[21]

Although Torvalds believes "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.[22] He was criticized for his use and alleged advocacy of the proprietary BitKeeper software for version control in the Linux kernel. However, Torvalds subsequently wrote 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.[23][24] However, Torvalds thought KDE 4.0 was a "disaster" because of its lack of maturity, so he switched to GNOME.[25] Dissatisfied with the loss of productivity, he switched to XFCE after the GNOME3 release, with another harsh post against GNOME.[26]

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 and trademark

As of 2006, approximately two percent of the Linux kernel was written by Torvalds himself.[19] As thousands have contributed code to the Linux kernel, such a percentage represents one of the largest personal contributions to the overall amount of code. Torvalds remains the ultimate authority on what new code is incorporated into the standard Linux kernel.[27]

Torvalds owns the "Linux" trademark, and monitors[28] use of it chiefly through the Linux Mark Institute.

Personal life

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.[29] 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.[7] Tove and Linus were later married and have three daughters, Patricia Miranda (*5.12.1996), Daniela Yolanda (*16.4.1998), and Celeste Amanda (*20.11.2000),[30] two of whom were born in the United States.[5] Linux kernel's reboot system call accepts their dates of birth (written in hexadecimal) as magic values.[31]

Torvalds describes himself as "completely a-religious — atheist", adding that "I find that people seem to think religion brings morals and appreciation of nature. I actually think it detracts from both. It gives people the excuse to say, 'Oh, nature was just created,' and so the act of creation is seen to be something miraculous. I appreciate the fact that, 'Wow, it's incredible that something like this could have happened in the first place.'" He later added that while in Europe religion is mostly a personal issue, in America it has become very politicized.[32] When discussing the issue of church and state separation, Linus also said, "Yeah, it's kind of ironic that in many European countries, there is actually a kind of legal binding between the state and the state religion."[33]

In 2010, Torvalds became a United States citizen and registered to vote in the United States; he is unaffiliated with any U.S. political party, saying, "I have way too much personal pride to want to be associated with any of them, quite frankly."[5]

Recognition

Academics

In 1997, Torvalds received his Master degree (Laudatur Grade) from Department of Computer Science, University of Helsinki. Two years later he received honorary doctor status at Stockholm University, and in 2000 he received the same honor from his alma mater.[34]

In August 2005, Torvalds received the Vollum Award from Reed College.[35]

Industry

In 1998 Torvalds received an EFF Pioneer Award.[36] In 2000 he was awarded the Lovelace Medal from the British Computer Society.[37] In 2001, he shared the Takeda Award for Social/Economic Well-Being with Richard Stallman and Ken Sakamura. In 2008, he was inducted into the Hall of Fellows of the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.[38][39] He was awarded the C&C Prize by the NEC Corporation in 2010 for "contributions to the advancement of the information technology industry, education, research, and the improvement of our lives".[40]

Media

Time magazine has recognized Torvalds multiple times:

InfoWorld presented him with the 2000 Award for Industry Achievement.[44] In 2005 Torvalds appeared as one of "the best managers" in a survey by BusinessWeek.[45] In 2006, Business 2.0 magazine named him one of "10 people who don't matter" because the growth of Linux has shrunk Torvalds' individual impact.[46]

In summer 2004, viewers of YLE (the Finnish Broadcasting Company) placed Torvalds 16th in the network's 100 Greatest Finns. In 2010, as part of a series called The Britannica Guide to the World's Most Influential People, Torvalds was listed among The 100 Most Influential Inventors of All Time (ISBN 9781615300037).[47]

Education

Open Knowledge Campus of World Wide Web acknowledged contribution of Linus Benedict Torvalds to humanity as foremost, while developing its Free Education Policy and accepted Linux Kernel as core thing to all educational research and reconfiguration for future of humanity.[48]

Films

In the 2001 film Swordfish, the hacker Axl Torvalds was a reference to Linus because of his contributions to Linux which is the primary operating system of hackers.[citation needed][49] In 2011 Keith Curtis started a film Software Wars featuring Linus Torvalds leading emerging world order. [50]

Space

In 1996, an asteroid (9793 Torvalds) was named after him.

Literature

The 1999 novel Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson features several characters who use "Finux", a Unix-like operating system developed in Finland.[51]

Patents

As of March 2011, Linus has been granted 35 patents worldwide (application and granted patents).[52]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ McMillan, Robert (2002). "The Great Dictator · Linus Torvalds: The Benevolent, Brilliant Keeper of the Kernel". FEATURES. Linux Magazine. Archived from the original on 2003-03-04. Retrieved 2009-06-09. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  2. ^ a b Citizen Linus, a September 13, 2010 post from LWN.net
  3. ^ a b "Linux Online - Linus Torvalds Bio". Linux.org. Retrieved 2010-03-13.
  4. ^ John R. Levine, Margaret Levine Young (2004). Unix for Dummies. Wiley Publishing. p. 36. ISBN 0764541471.
  5. ^ a b c Mike Rogoway (September 14, 2010). "Linus Torvalds, already an Oregonian, now a U.S. citizen". The Oregonian. Retrieved 2010-09-16.
  6. ^ TORVALDS, 2001
  7. ^ a b c Moody, Glyn (2002). Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution. Perseus Books Group. p. 336. ISBN 0738206709.
  8. ^ "NODES research group". Cs.helsinki.fi. 2008-10-16. Retrieved 2010-03-13.
  9. ^ Torvalds, 2001, page 29
  10. ^ Torvalds, 2001, page 53
  11. ^ TORVALDS, 2001, pages 6-7
  12. ^ TORVALDS, 2001, pages 41-46
  13. ^ "L i n u x N e w s". Abc.se. 1991-01-05. Retrieved 2010-03-13.
  14. ^ Torvalds, 2001, page 60
  15. ^ Linus Benedict Torvalds (25 August 91 20:57:08 GMT). "What would you like to see most in minix?". Newsgroup: comp.os.minix. 1991Aug25.205708.9541@klaava.Helsinki.FI. Retrieved 2024-08-29. I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. {{cite newsgroup}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ "1999 Young Innovators Under 35: Linus Torvalds, 29". Technology Review. 1999. Retrieved August 14, 2011.
  17. ^ Gumbel, Peter (2006-11-13). "Linus Torvalds: By giving away his software, the Finnish programmer earned a place in history". 60 Years of Heros. TIME. Retrieved 2008-06-14.
  18. ^ Rivlin, Gary. "Leader of the Free World". Wired. Retrieved 2008-06-14.
  19. ^ a b "Linus Torvalds: A Very Brief and Completely Unauthorized Biography". The Linux Information Project. Bellevue Linux Users Group. 24 January 2006. Retrieved 22 October 2010.
  20. ^ Re: Linux Logo prototype., a Thu, 9 May 1996 message from Linus Torvalds (torvalds@cs.helsinki.fi)
  21. ^ Why a Penguin? from Linux Online
  22. ^ Linus Torvalds at Google, on Git, 9:50-10:00
  23. ^ "Printing dialog and GNOME". Mail.gnome.org. Retrieved 2010-03-13.
  24. ^ "Linus versus GNOME". Desktoplinux.com. 2007-02-23. Retrieved 2010-03-13.
  25. ^ "it was a half-baked release (...) I'll revisit it when I reinstall the next machine"Q&A: Linux founder Linus Torvalds talks about open-source identity
  26. ^ "Linus and GNOME3". 2011-08-03. Retrieved 2011-08-04.
  27. ^ Henrik Ingo. Open Life: The Philosophy of Open Source. Ingram, 2005. 42-45. Online version
  28. ^ "Linus Explains Linux Trademark Issues". Slashdot.org. Retrieved 2010-03-13.
  29. ^ TORVALDS, 2001, page 123
  30. ^ "Torvalds' bio on". Nndb.com. Retrieved 2010-03-13.
  31. ^ "Debian's reboot(2) man page". Retrieved 2011-08-16.
  32. ^ Richardson, Marjorie (November 1, 1999). "Interview: Linus Torvalds". Linux Journal. Retrieved 2 April 2011.
  33. ^ Richardson, Marjorie (November 1, 1999). "Interview: Linus Torvalds". Linux Journal. Retrieved 2 April 2011.
  34. ^ Torvalds, 2001, page 28
  35. ^ "Linux creator Linus Torvalds honored with Reed College's Vollum Award". Web.reed.edu. 2005-08-24. Retrieved 2010-03-13.
  36. ^ "Torvalds, Stallman, Simons Win 1998 Pioneer Awards". W2.eff.org. Retrieved 2010-03-13.
  37. ^ Talking to Torvalds, British Computer Society, September 2007.
  38. ^ "The Computer History Museum Announces the 2008 Fellow Awards Recipients" (Press release). Computer History Museum. 18 June 2008. Retrieved 22 October 2010.
  39. ^ "Fellow Awards: Linus Torvalds". Computer History Museum. 21 October 2008. Retrieved 22 October 2010.
  40. ^ Chris von Eitzen (21 October 2010). "Linus Torvalds awarded 2010 C&C Prize". The H. Heinz Heise. Retrieved 22 October 2010.
  41. ^ "The 2010 Time 100". Time. Retrieved 2010-05-07.
  42. ^ Lawrence Lessig (April 26, 2004). "Linus Torvalds: The Free-Software Champion". Time magazine. Retrieved October 3, 2006. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  43. ^ Gumbel, Peter (2006-11-13). "Linus Torvalds". Time.com. Retrieved 2010-03-13.
  44. ^ Nicholas Petreley. This year's Award for Industry Achievement goes to the creator of Linux, Linus Torvalds. InfoWorld. Jan 17, 2000. Page 82.
  45. ^ "The Best & Worst Managers Of The Year". Businessweek.com. 2005-01-10. Retrieved 2010-03-13.
  46. ^ By Business 2.0 Magazine staff (2006-06-22). "10 people who don't matter". Money.cnn.com. Retrieved 2010-03-13. {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  47. ^ "Linus Torvalds named one of the 100 most influential inventors". The H. 4 February 2010. Retrieved 15 February 2010.
  48. ^ Free Education Policy (PDF), Open Source Council, retrieved 2011-10-23
  49. ^ "IMDB: Axl Torvalds - Swordfish". Retrieved 2010-12-05.
  50. ^ Open Knowledge Campus, sangkrit.net, retrieved 2011-12-16
  51. ^ Stephenson, Neal (1999). "Old site". Retrieved 2010-09-17.
  52. ^ "Linus Torvald's Patent Portfolio". Retrieved 2011-03-25.

References

Wikiquote has quotations related to Linus Torvalds.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Linus Torvalds.

Template:FOSS celeb

Template:Persondata

Template:Link GA

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Linus_Torvalds&oldid=457028949"