Top 100 Quotes About Linux
#1. I'd rather use Windows and Internet Explorer in Hell than I'd use Linux and Mozilla Firefox in Heaven!
Steve Ballmer
#2. Don't forget that Linux became only possible because 20 years of OS research was carefully studied, analyzed, discussed and thrown away.
Ingo Molnar
#3. IBM has taken our valuable trade secrets and given them away to Linux.
Darl McBride
#4. Mostly I use the O2 as an X terminal, however, running my apps on Linux and displaying remotely.
Jamie Zawinski
#5. Open source production has shown us that world-class software, like Linux and Mozilla, can be created with neither the bureaucratic structure of the firm nor the incentives of the marketplace as we've known them.
Howard Rheingold
#6. Linux has never been about quality. There are so many parts of the system that are just these cheap little hacks, and it happens to run.
Theo De Raadt
#7. In trying to understand the Linux phenomenon, then, we have to look not at a single innovator but to a sort of bizarre Trinity : Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman, and Bill Gates. Take away any of these three and Linux would not exist.
Neal Stephenson
#8. We counted over a million lines of code that we allege are infringed in the Linux kernel today.
Darl McBride
#9. Unix has retarded OS research by 10 years and linux has retarded it by 20.
Dennis Ritchie
#10. I'll be damned if we don't find the time to get Linux builds done.
Timothee Besset
#11. Android is very different from the GNU/Linux operating system because it contains very little of GNU. Indeed, just about the only component in common between Android and GNU/Linux is Linux, the kernel.
Richard Stallman
#12. Linux is a leprosy; ... This statement is not grammatically or factually correct.
Andrew S. Tanenbaum
#13. Making Linux GPL'd was definitely the best thing I ever did.
Linus Torvalds
#14. We have a lot of existing customers which are also considering Linux desktop migrations and rolling out some of these programs, so we're learning from them.
Miguel De Icaza
#15. There were open source projects and free software before Linux was there. Linux in many ways is one of the more visible and one of the bigger technical projects in this area, and it changed how people looked at it because Linux took both the practical and ideological approach.
Linus Torvalds
#16. The big problem that is holding back Linux is games. People don't realize how critical games are in driving consumer purchasing behavior. We want to make it as easy as possible for the 2,500 games on Steam to run on Linux as well.
Gabe Newell
#17. Cosmoe works on any of the standard filesystems available for Linux.
Bill Hayden
#18. Releasing Linux versions has always been a matter of higher code quality, good software architecture, and technical interest for the platform.
Timothee Besset
#19. The thing with Linux is that the developers themselves are actually customers too: that has always been an important part of Linux.
Linus Torvalds
#20. I can mostly laugh at myself and this whole mess called "Linux developers," which means that I get along with most people and most people get along with me.
Linus Torvalds
#21. I've never regretted not making Linux shareware: I really don't like the pay for use binary shareware programs.
Linus Torvalds
#22. I very seldom worry about other systems. I concentrate pretty fully on just making Linux the best I can.
Linus Torvalds
#23. I think that by October the whole company has to migrate to OpenOffice, and then I think it's by June next year we all migrate to Linux - you don't want to migrate 6,000 people both operating system and office suite in a single jump.
Miguel De Icaza
#24. Linux has definitely made a lot of sense even in a purely materialistic sense.
Linus Torvalds
#26. I don't try to be a threat to MicroSoft, mainly because I don't really see MS as competition. Especially not Windows-the goals of Linux and Windows are simply so different.
Linus Torvalds
#27. Many users of the GNU/Linux system will not have heard the ideas of free software. They will not be aware that we have ideas, that a system exists because of ethical ideals, which were omitted from ideas associated with the term 'open source.'
Richard Stallman
#28. Most hackers graduate from Unix and Linux platforms. They know them intimately. They don't try to exploit them
Dean Stockwell
#29. Linux provides programmers with everything they need: libraries, compilers, and debugging/development tools. These features are included in all standard Linux versions.
Andrew Johansen
#30. See, you not only have to be a good coder to create a system like Linux, you have to be a sneaky bastard too.
Linus Torvalds
#31. But you weren't born," I tell him. "I wrote an algorithm based on the Linux operating kernel. You're an open-source search engine married to a dialog bot and a video compiler. The program scrubs the Web and archives a person's images and videos and data - everything you say, you've said before." For
Adam Johnson
#32. Today I am one of the senior technical cadre that makes the Internet work, and a core Linux and open-source developer.
Eric S. Raymond
#33. found on other Unix-like systems. The design is actually specified in a published standard called the Linux Filesystem Hierarchy Standard.
William E. Shotts Jr.
#34. We can build a better product than Linux,
Jim Allchin
#35. I made very sure that I did not get involved with any of the commercial Linux companies, exactly so that I would be neutral and not ever seen as "working for the competition".
Linus Torvalds
#36. I do believe that in a race, it is naive to think Linux has a hope of making a dent against Microsoft starting from way behind with a fraction of the resources and amateur labor. (I feel the same about Unix.
Kenneth P. Thompson
#37. I was Computer Shopper's linux columnist for more than half a decade, from the late 90s onwards. Yes, I know about Linux. (My first review of a Linux distro in the press was published in late 1996.)
Charles Stross
#38. There are a lot of people who've been able to ditch their Windows machines and switch over to Linux because they can now use their Exchange server for calendaring and collaboration from their Linux desktop.
Nat Friedman
#39. What we're really after is simply that people acquire a legal license for Windows for each computer they own before they move on to Linux or Sun Solaris or BSD or OS/2 or whatever.
Bill Gates
#40. Before the commercial ventures, Linux tended to be rather hard to set up, because most of the developers were motivated mainly by their own interests.
Linus Torvalds
#41. You can pipe anything to anything else, and usually it'll do something. With most of the standard Linux tools, it'll even do what you expect.
Scott Simpson
#42. I currently use Ubuntu Linux, on a standalone laptop - it has no Internet connection. I occasionally carry flash memory drives between this machine and the Macs that I use for network surfing and graphics; but I trust my family jewels only to Linux.
Donald Knuth
#43. Everyone has a religion, whether they admit it or not. For some it's Catholicism; for others, Vegetarianism or Elvis or Linux/Macintosh/Windows.
Guy Consolmagno
#44. The business model of Linux distribution is broken; it's like the business model of the dotcoms. Running your company on Linux is like running your company on Napster.
Darl McBride
#45. Big Linux deployments have reached the point where it's become a real problem for administrators that they don't have nice tools to manage their servers and desktops.
Nat Friedman
#46. Linux is its own worst enemy: it's splintered, it has different distributions, it's too complex to run for most people.
Nicholas Negroponte
#47. A lot of that momentum comes from the fact that Linux is free.
Nat Friedman
#48. That's what makes Linux so good: you put in something, and that effort multiplies. It's a positive feedback cycle.
Linus Torvalds
#49. While I may not get any money from Linux, I get a huge personal satisfaction from having written something that people really enjoy using, and that people find to be the best alternative for their needs.
Linus Torvalds
#50. I don't go to conferences quite as much as I used to: having a child and movin away from the university leaves me with less time, but I've tried to balance things out - not just spending time with Linux all the time, but having a real job and a real life at the same time.
Linus Torvalds
#51. Linux is a superbly polished copy of an antique - shinier than the original, perhaps, but still defined by it.
Jaron Lanier
#52. I never felt that the naming issue was all that important, but I was obviously wrong, judging by how many people felt. I tell people to call it just plain Linux and nothing more.
Linus Torvalds
#53. The situation is so much better for programmers today - a cheap used PC, a linux CD, and an internet account, and you have all the tools necessary to work your way to any level of programming skill you want to shoot for.
John Carmack
#54. There are lots of Linux users who don't care how the kernel works, but only want to use it. That is a tribute to how good Linux is.
Linus Torvalds
#55. On a purely technical side, I'm really very happy with how Linux gets used in a very wide set of different areas. It's important for development.
Linus Torvalds
#56. Linux people do what they do because they hate Microsoft.
Theo De Raadt
#57. So I decided that if the architecture is fundamentally sane enough, say it follows some basic rules like it supported paging , then I would be able to say, yes, Linux fundamentally supports that model.
Linus Torvalds
#58. I can find lots of examples where a game won't make you rich, but I can't find a reasonable case where a Linux port doesn't have at least a small, positive return on investment.
Ryan C. Gordon
#59. Obviously Linux owes its heritage to UNIX, but not its code. We would not, nor will not, make such a claim.
Darl McBride
#60. Linux is a complex example of the wisdom of crowds. It's a good example in the sense that it shows you can set people to work in a decentralized way - that is, without anyone really directing their efforts in a particular direction - and still trust that they're going to come up with good answers.
James Surowiecki
#61. It's been a bit sad to see that out of Linux distributions, it was Android - the most successful mobile Linux distribution - that has really introduced the malware problem to the Linux world.
Mikko Hypponen
#62. One of the reasons that I really don't mind that people are selling Linux commercially is exactly because it does make me feel good that people use the product.
Linus Torvalds
#63. We all know Linux is great ... it does infinite loops in 5 seconds.
Linus Torvalds
#64. We've announced an Oracle Virtual Compute Appliance, a bunch of low-cost commodity servers running Linux, integrated in our case, with InfiniBand - connected with InfiniBand vs. the traditional Ethernet.
Larry Ellison
#65. What I find most interesting is how people really have taken Linux and used it in ways and attributes and motivations that I never felt.
Linus Torvalds
#66. Linux evolved in a completely different way. From nearly the beginning, it was rather casually hacked on by huge numbers of volunteers coordinating only through the Internet.
Eric S. Raymond
#67. I've been employed by the University of Helsinki, and they've been perfectly happy to keep me employed and doing Linux.
Linus Torvalds
#68. In essence, Chrome OS is the GNU/Linux operating system. However, it is delivered without the usual applications, and rigged up to impede and discourage installing applications.
Richard Stallman
#69. Of course, all of the software I write runs on Linux; that's the beauty of standards, and of cross-platform code. I don't have to run your OS, and you don't have to run mine, and we can use the same applications anyway!
Jamie Zawinski
#70. Success for open source is when the term 'open source' becomes a non-factor in the decision making process, when people hear about Linux and compare it to Windows NT, and they compare it on the feature set and don't have much of an excuse not to use it.
Brian Behlendorf
#71. I view Linux as something that's not Microsoft-a backlash against Microsoft, no more and no less.
Ken Thompson
#72. I'm interested in Linux because of the technology, and Linux wasn't started as any kind of rebellion against the 'evil Microsoft empire.'
Linus Torvalds
#73. I think Linux is a great thing, because Linux is an alternative to Windows, and because, of all the operating systems that are at all relevant today, Unix is the best of a bad lot.
Jamie Zawinski
#74. Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, is an expert of understatement in his leadership of Linux development community. When eager programmers would ask him, '"What part of Linux should I work on?' his answer would usually be, '"Let me know when you find out' (p.286).
Dan Woods
#75. One of the questions I've always hated answering is how do people make money in open source. And I think that Caldera and Red Hat - and there are a number of other Linux companies going public - basically show that yes, you can actually make money in the open-source area.
Linus Torvalds
#76. The real threat to Linux adoption is Apple, not Microsoft. If you didn't know, now you know.
Ryan C. Gordon
#77. There is no system but GNU and Linux is one of it's kernels
Richard Stallman
#78. If Microsoft ever does applications for Linux it means I've won.
Linus Torvalds
#79. Today, I use Linux as my primary OS (on an x86 PC, and on a Thinkpad), and I also use Irix (on an SGI O2). Linux has improved a great deal since I wrote this, specifically with respect to its ease of installation.
Jamie Zawinski
#80. There's innovation in Linux. There are some really good technical features that I'm proud of. There are capabilities in Linux that aren't in other operating systems.
Linus Torvalds
#81. I get the biggest enjoyment from the random and unexpected places. Linux on cellphones or refrigerators, just because it's so not what I envisioned it. Or on supercomputers.
Linus Torvalds
#82. I'm not worried about the kernel itself or the basic system. All the commercialization is about the distributions and the applications. As such, it only brings value-added things to Linux, and it doesn't take anything away from the Linux scene.
Linus Torvalds
#83. I must say the Linux community is a lot nicer than the Unix community. A negative comment on Unix would warrent death threats. With Linux, it is like stirring up a nest of butterflies.
Kenneth P. Thompson
#84. I think the open software movement (and Linux in particular) is laudable.
Kenneth P. Thompson
#85. I find if you're targeting Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X right from the start, your code will probably work anywhere else that you might try it later ... Writing code that is cross-platform from the start requires more discipline, but I find it is worth the effort.
Ryan C. Gordon
#86. We all love Linux, but it's also a fact that some people might not be able to migrate.
Miguel De Icaza
#87. I don't think commercialization is the answer to anything. It's just one more facet of Linux, and not the deciding one by any means.
Linus Torvalds
#88. The cyberspace earnings I get from Linux come in the format of having a Network of people that know me and trust me, and that I can depend on in return.
Linus Torvalds
#90. I've felt strongly that the advantage of Linux is that it doesn't have a niche or any special market, but that different individuals and companies end up pushing it in the direction they want, and as such you end up with something that is pretty balanced across the board.
Linus Torvalds
#91. Programming in the abstract sense is what I really enjoy. I enjoy lots of different areas of it ... I'm taking a great deal of enjoyment writing device drivers for Linux. I could also be having a good time writing a database manager or something because there are always interesting problems.
John Carmack
#92. And when the time comes to replace the O2 I have today, maybe my next machine will run Linux.
Jamie Zawinski
#93. I don't expect to go hungry if I decide to leave the University. Resume: Linux looks pretty good in many places.
Linus Torvalds
#94. Android's user-space is so different from stock Linux, you can easily say that Android is not in any way a Linux system, except for the kernel.
Robert Love
#95. I never got into Linux. I swear to God, it's only lack of time. I'm past the years of my life where I can really dig into something like running a Linux system. I'm very sympathetic to the whole idea; Linux people always think the way I want to think.
Steve Wozniak
#96. What commercialism has brought into Linux has been the incentive to make a good distribution that is easy to use and that has all the packaging issues worked out.
Linus Torvalds
#97. I personally think of Linux development as being pretty non-localized, and I work with all the people entirely over e-mail - even if they happen to be working in the Portland area.
Linus Torvalds
#98. The interesting thing is when we design and architect a server, we don't design it for Windows or Linux, we design it for both. We don't really care, as long as we're selling the one the customer wants.
Michael Dell
#99. The simple fact is that code quality tends to improve as you move between platforms ... non-obvious bugs on Windows become VERY obvious in the Linux port and vice versa, and thus get fixed. So even the Windows gamers will win in all of this.
Ryan C. Gordon
#100. It feels a little bit funny coming here and telling you guys that Linux and open source are the future of gaming. It's sort of like going to Rome and teaching Catholicism to the pope.
Gabe Newell
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