Background
Who is Linus Torvalds?
He claims to have been named for Linus from the Peanuts (in fact, he was named for the Nobelist Linus Pauling).
He was ranked #17 in Time’s Most Influential Person of the Century.
His mascot is a penguin.
An asteroid is named after him.
His wife has won the Karate Finnish nationals six times over.
They have a cat named Randi, which Wikipedia says is short for Mithrandir, the Sindarin name for Gandalf, a wizard in The Lord of the Rings. Which might be the nerdiest thing we’ve ever seen on Wikipedia. Which says a lot.
But seriously, folks… here’s how Time explains why we are so interested in Torvalds:
Torvalds was just 21 when he changed the world. Working out of his family's apartment in Helsinki in 1991, he wrote the kernel of a new computer operating system called Linux that he posted for free on the internet—and invited anyone interested to help improve it.
Today, 15 years later, Linux powers everything from supercomputers to mobile phones around the world, and Torvalds has achieved fame as the godfather of the open-source movement, in which software code is shared and developed in a collaborative effort rather than being kept locked up by a single owner.
Some of Torvalds' supporters portray him as a sort of anti-Bill Gates, but the significance of Linux is much bigger than merely a slap at Microsoft. Collaborating on core technologies could lead to a huge reduction in business costs, freeing up money for more innovative investments elsewhere. Torvalds continues to keep a close eye on Linux's development and has made some money from stock options given to him as a courtesy by two companies that sell commercial applications for it.
