Top 100 Torvalds Quotes
#1. 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
#2. Giving the Linus Torvalds Award to the Free Software Foundation is a bit like giving the Han Solo Award to the Rebel Alliance.
Richard Stallman
#3. 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
#4. No-one has ever called me a cool dude. I'm somewhere between geek and normal.
Linus Torvalds
#5. An infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never make a good program.
Linus Torvalds
#7. The thing I love about diving is the flowing feeling. I like a sport where the whole point is to move as little as humanly possible so your air supply will last longer. That's my kind of sport. Where the amount of effort spent is absolutely minimal.
Linus Torvalds
#8. Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it.
Linus Torvalds
#9. I used to be interested in Windows NT, but the more I see it, the more it looks like traditional Windows with a stabler kernel. I don't find anything technically interesting there.
Linus Torvalds
#11. Only wimps use tape backup. REAL men just upload their important stuff on ftp and let the rest of the world mirror it.
Linus Torvalds
#13. Often your 'fixes' are actually removing capabilities that you had, because they were 'too confusing to the user'. GNOME seems to be developed by interface Nazis, where consistently the excuse for not doing something is not 'it's too complicated to do', but 'it would confuse users'.
Linus Torvalds
#14. I actually think that I'm a rather optimistic and happy person; it's just that I'm not a very positive person, if you see the difference.
Linus Torvalds
#15. Intelligence is the ability to avoid doing work, yet getting the work done.
Linus Torvalds
#16. People who are doing things for fun do things the right way by themselves.
Linus Torvalds
#17. Only religious fanatics and totalitarian states equate morality with legality.
Linus Torvalds
#18. With software, you really can replicate and do a lot of very real and active development in parallel, and actually try it out and see what works.
Linus Torvalds
#19. Software patents, in particular, are very ripe for abuse. The whole system encourages big corporations getting thousands and thousands of patents. Individuals almost never get them.
Linus Torvalds
#20. I think of myself as an engineer, not as a visionary or 'big thinker.' I don't have any lofty goals.
Linus Torvalds
#21. I am pragmatic. That which works, works, and theory can go screw itself. However, my pragmatism also extends to maintainability, which is why I also want it done well.
Linus Torvalds
#23. Quite frankly, even if the choice of C were to do *nothing* but keep the C++ programmers out, that in itself would be a huge reason to use C.
Linus Torvalds
#24. If you think penguins are fat and waddle, you have never been attacked by one running at you in excess of 100 miles per hour.
Linus Torvalds
#25. Being open source meant that I could work on the technical side (along with lots of other people), and others who had the interest and inclination could start up companies around it.
Linus Torvalds
#26. If you start doing things because you hate others and want to screw them over, the end result is bad.
Linus Torvalds
#27. I obviously think that freely available software can not only keep up with the evolution of commercial software, but often exceed what you can do commercially.
Linus Torvalds
#28. I think, fundamentally, open source does tend to be more stable software. It's the right way to do things.
Linus Torvalds
#29. Making Linux GPL'd was definitely the best thing I ever did.
Linus Torvalds
#30. I want my office to be quiet. The loudest thing in the room - by far - should be the occasional purring of the cat.
Linus Torvalds
#31. Hey, I'm a good software engineer, but I'm not exactly known for my fashion sense. White socks and sandals don't translate to 'good design sense'.
Linus Torvalds
#32. Right now some people are just running around in circles and claiming that moving things to the kernel automatically makes it more stable. I'm telling you that the kernel is stable not because it's a kernel, but because I refuse to listen to arguments like this.
Linus Torvalds
#33. 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
#34. The thing with Linux is that the developers themselves are actually customers too: that has always been an important part of Linux.
Linus Torvalds
#35. Developers have the attention spans of slightly moronic woodland creatures.
Linus Torvalds
#36. Hmmm, completely a-religious - atheist. I find that people seem to think religion brings morals and appreciation of nature. I actually think it detracts from both.
Linus Torvalds
#37. Eventually the revolutionaries become the established culture, and then what will they do
Linus Torvalds
#38. 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
#39. I lose sleep if I end up feeling bad about something I've said. Usually that happens when I send something out without having read it over a few times, or when I call somebody names.
Linus Torvalds
#40. I've never regretted not making Linux shareware: I really don't like the pay for use binary shareware programs.
Linus Torvalds
#41. Finnish companies tend to be very traditional, not taking many risks. Silicon Valley is completely different: people here really live on the edge.
Linus Torvalds
#42. I very seldom worry about other systems. I concentrate pretty fully on just making Linux the best I can.
Linus Torvalds
#43. Most good programmers do programming not because they expect to get paid or get adulation by the public, but because it is fun to program.
Linus Torvalds
#45. Linux has definitely made a lot of sense even in a purely materialistic sense.
Linus Torvalds
#46. Other people have other goals, and sometimes the BSD style licenses are better for those goals. I personally tend to prefer the GPL, but that really doesn't mean that the GPL is any way inherently superior - it depends on what you want the license to do.
Linus Torvalds
#48. 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
#49. So I would not be surprised if the globbing libraries, for example, will do NFD-mangling in order to glob "correctly", so even programs ported from real Unix might end up getting pathnames subtly changed into NFD as part of some hot library-on-library action with UTF hackery inside.
Linus Torvalds
#50. I think one thing I do pretty well is not taking myself too seriously.
Linus Torvalds
#51. So I've decided to be a very rich and famous person who doesn't really care about money, and who is very humble but who still makes a lot of money and is very famous, but is very humble and rich and famous ...
Linus Torvalds
#52. I spend a lot more time than any person should have to talking with lawyers and thinking about intellectual property issues.
Linus Torvalds
#53. The correct form factor for a laptop is obviously 12 and 2 lbs, and I don't understand why everybody gets that wrong.
Linus Torvalds
#54. Non-technical questions sometimes don't have an answer at all.
Linus Torvalds
#55. Whoever came up with "hold the shift key for eight seconds to turn on 'your keyboard is buggered' mode" should be shot.
Linus Torvalds
#56. 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
#57. I think people can generally trust me, but they can trust me exactly because they know they don't have to.
Linus Torvalds
#58. One of the reasons I like open source is that it allows people to work on the parts they are good at, and I don't mean just on a technical level; some people are into the whole selling and support, and that's just not me.
Linus Torvalds
#59. I'd argue that everybody wants to do something that matters
Linus Torvalds
#60. Every once in a while an issue comes up where I have to make a statement. I can't totally avoid all political issues, but I try my best to minimize them. When I do make a statement, I try to be fairly neutral.
Linus Torvalds
#61. People enjoy the interaction on the Internet, and the feeling of belonging to a group that does something interesting: that's how some software projects are born.
Linus Torvalds
#62. If it is relevant there is always somebody else out there.
Linus Torvalds
#63. The fact that ACPI was designed by a group of monkeys high on LSD, and is some of the worst designs in the industry obviously makes running it at any point pretty damn ugly.
Linus Torvalds
#64. Bad programmers worry about the code. Good programmers worry about data structures and their relationships.
Linus Torvalds
#65. Let's put it this way: if you need to ask a lawyer whether what you do is right or not, you are morally corrupt. Let's not go there. We don't base our morality on law.
Linus Torvalds
#66. 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
#67. I'm perfectly happy complaining, because it's cathartic, and I'm perfectly happy arguing with people on the Internet because arguing is my favourite pastime - not programming.
Linus Torvalds
#68. I don't actually go to that many conferences. I do that a couple of times a year. Normally, I am not recognized; people don't throw their panties at me. I'm a perfectly normal person sitting in my den just doing my job.
Linus Torvalds
#69. I think Leopard is a much better system [than Windows Vista] ... but OS X in some ways is actually worse than Windows to program for. Their file system is complete and utter crap, which is scary.
Linus Torvalds
#70. An individual developer like me cares about writing the new code and making it as interesting and efficient as possible. But very few people want to do the testing.
Linus Torvalds
#71. Theory and practice sometimes clash. And when that happens, theory loses. Every single time.
Linus Torvalds
#72. The fame and reputation part came later, and never was much of a motivator, although it did enable me to work without feeling guilty about neglecting my studies.
Linus Torvalds
#73. 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
#75. I don't think I'm unusual in preferring my laptop to be thin and light.
Linus Torvalds
#76. Nobody actually creates perfect code the first time around, except me. But there's only one of me.
Linus Torvalds
#77. When I do programming in my free time and for my own enjoyment, I really want to have a kind of protection: knowing that when I improve a program those improvements will continue to be available to me and others in future versions of the program.
Linus Torvalds
#78. The memory management on the PowerPC can be used to frighten small children.
Linus Torvalds
#79. I actually don't believe that everybody should necessarily try to learn to code. I think it's reasonably specialized, and nobody really expects most people to have to do it. It's not like knowing how to read and write and do basic math.
Linus Torvalds
#80. The NIH syndrome (Not Invented Here) is a disease.
Linus Torvalds
#82. It was such a relief to program in user mode for a change. Not having to care about the small stuff is wonderful.
Linus Torvalds
#83. Once you start thinking more about where you want to be than about making the best product, you're screwed.
Linus Torvalds
#84. In my opinion MS is a lot better at making money than it is at making good operating systems.
Linus Torvalds
#85. Real quality means making sure that people are proud of the code they write, that they're involved and taking it personally.
Linus Torvalds
#86. If you like using CVS, you should be in some kind of mental institution or somewhere else.
Linus Torvalds
#87. Fairly cheap home computing was what changed my life.
Linus Torvalds
#88. People will realize that software is not a product; you use it to build a product,
Linus Torvalds
#89. That's what makes Linux so good: you put in something, and that effort multiplies. It's a positive feedback cycle.
Linus Torvalds
#90. To be honest, the fact that people trust you gives you a lot of power over people. Having another person's trust is more powerful than all other management techniques put together.
Linus Torvalds
#91. 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
#92. I am not out to destroy Microsoft, that would be a completely unintended side effect.
Linus Torvalds
#93. The economics of the security world are all horribly, horribly nasty and are largely based on fear, intimidation and blackmail.
Linus Torvalds
#94. I'm basically a very lazy person who likes to get credit for things other people actually do.
Linus Torvalds
#95. 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
#96. Programmers are in the enviable position of not only getting to do what they want to, but because the end result is so important they get paid to do it. There are other professions like that, but not that many.
Linus Torvalds
#97. 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
#98. C++ is a horrible language. It's made more horrible by the fact that a lot of substandard programmers use it, to the point where it's much much easier to generate total and utter crap with it.
Linus Torvalds
#99. 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
#100. 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
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