Linus Torvalds Quotations

See, you not only have to be a good coder to create a system like Linux, you have to be a sneaky bastard too.

When you say 'I wrote a program that crashed Windows,' people just stare at you blankly and say 'Hey, I got those with the system, for free.'

I like to think that I've been a good manager. That fact has been very instrumental in making Linux a successful product.

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.

I'm sitting in my home office wearing a bathrobe. The same way I'm not going to start wearing ties, I'm also not going to buy into the fake politeness, the lying, the office politics and backstabbing, the passive aggressiveness, and the buzzwords.

If Microsoft ever does applications for Linux it means I've won.

I'd much rather have 15 people arguing about something than 15 people splitting into two camps, each side convinced it's right and not talking to the other.

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.

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.

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.

Shareware tends to combine the worst of commercial software with the worst of free software.

No-one has ever called me a cool dude. I'm somewhere between geek and normal.

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'.

To be a nemesis, you have to actively try to destroy something, don't you? Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect.

I often compare open source to science. To where science took this whole notion of developing ideas in the open and improving on other peoples' ideas and making it into what science is today and the incredible advances that we have had. And I compare that to witchcraft and alchemy, where openness was something you didn't do.

The Linux philosophy is 'Laugh in the face of danger'. Oops. Wrong One. 'Do it yourself'. Yes, that's it.

I think, fundamentally, open source does tend to be more stable software. It's the right way to do things.

My name is Linus, and I am your God.

Once you start thinking more about where you want to be than about making the best product, you're screwed.

I spend a lot more time than any person should have to talking with lawyers and thinking about intellectual property issues.

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.

Software is like sex: It's better when it's free.

I'm generally a very pragmatic person: that which works, works.

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.

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.

Artists usually don't make all that much money, and they often keep their artistic hobby despite the money rather than due to it.

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.

I'm interested in Linux because of the technology, and Linux wasn't started as any kind of rebellion against the 'evil Microsoft empire.'

Non-technical questions sometimes don't have an answer at all.

Part of doing Linux was that I had to communicate a lot more instead of just being a geek in front of a computer.

Any program is only as good as it is useful.

I do get my pizzas paid for by Linux indirectly.

I don't think I'm unusual in preferring my laptop to be thin and light.

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.

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.

Microsoft isn't evil, they just make really crappy operating systems.

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.

In open source, we feel strongly that to really do something well, you have to get a lot of people involved.

In many cases, the user interface to a program is the most important part for a commercial company: whether the programs works correctly or not seems to be secondary.

Intelligence is the ability to avoid doing work, yet getting the work done.

In real open source, you have the right to control your own destiny.

The economics of the security world are all horribly, horribly nasty and are largely based on fear, intimidation and blackmail.

By staying neutral, I end up being somebody that everybody can trust. Even if they don't always agree with my decisions, they know I'm not working against them.

I've never regretted not making Linux shareware: I really don't like the pay for use binary shareware programs.

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.

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.

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.

When it comes to software, I much prefer free software, because I have very seldom seen a program that has worked well enough for my needs, and having sources available can be a life-saver.

I want my office to be quiet. The loudest thing in the room - by far - should be the occasional purring of the cat.

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.

In my opinion MS is a lot better at making money than it is at making good operating systems.

I think of myself as an engineer, not as a visionary or 'big thinker.' I don't have any lofty goals.

Finnish companies tend to be very traditional, not taking many risks. Silicon Valley is completely different: people here really live on the edge.

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.

I've been very happy with the commercial Linux CD-ROM vendors linux Red Hat.

Linux has definitely made a lot of sense even in a purely materialistic sense.

Turtles are very stable and have been around forever. But they have problems adapting. When humans came along, turtles came under serious threat. Biodiversity is good, and I think it is good in technology as well.

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.

I've been employed by the University of Helsinki, and they've been perfectly happy to keep me employed and doing Linux.

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.

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.

I've actually found the image of Silicon Valley as a hotbed of money-grubbing tech people to be pretty false, but maybe that's because the people I hang out with are all really engineers.

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.

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.

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.

In many ways, I am very happy about the whole Linux commercial market because the commercial market is doing all these things that I have absolutely zero interest in doing myself.

I'm a technical manager, but I don't have to take care of people. I only have to worry about technology itself.

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.

If you start doing things because you hate others and want to screw them over, the end result is bad.

Making Linux GPL'd was definitely the best thing I ever did.

I try to avoid long-range plans and visions - that way I can more easily deal with anything new that comes up.

The memory management on the PowerPC can be used to frighten small children.

That's what makes Linux so good: you put in something, and that effort multiplies. It's a positive feedback cycle.

A consumer doesn't take anything away: he doesn't actually consume anything. Giving the same thing to a thousand consumers is not really any more expensive than giving it to just one.

I very seldom worry about other systems. I concentrate pretty fully on just making Linux the best I can.

Helsinki isn't all that bad. It's a very nice city, and it's cold really only in wintertime.

I don't have any authority over Linux other than this notion that I know what I'm doing.

I don't see myself as a visionary at all.

I don't expect to go hungry if I decide to leave the University. Resume: Linux looks pretty good in many places.

I see myself as a technical person who chose a great project and a great way of doing that project.

The thing with Linux is that the developers themselves are actually customers too: that has always been an important part of Linux.

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.

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.

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.

It's a personality trait: from the very beginning, I knew what I was concentrating on. I'm only doing the kernel - I always found everything around it to be completely boring.

Fairly cheap home computing was what changed my life.

Helsinki may not be as cold as you make it out to be, but California is still a lot nicer. I don't remember the last time I couldn't walk around in shorts all day.

I started Linux as a desktop operating system. And it's the only area where Linux hasn't completely taken over. That just annoys the hell out of me.

People who are doing things for fun do things the right way by themselves.

The primary issue is just to make people comfortable with Linux.

Software patents are a huge potential threat to the ability of people to work together on open source. Making it easier for companies and communities that have patents to make those patents available in a common pool for people to use is one way to try to help developers deal with the threat.

I was going to start with a lawyer joke, but I'm told it was already done yesterday,

I don't expect the desktop to come quickly. It will take time,

I don't use GNOME, because in striving to be simple, it has long since reached the point where it simply doesn't do what I need it to do. I personally just encourage people to switch to KDE.

I think a lot of people may find that the GPLv3 'anti-DRM' measures aren't all that wonderful after all. Digital signatures and cryptography aren't just 'bad DRM.' They very much are 'good security' too.

didn't really think there was that much tension between the commercial side and the technical side of Linux.

Conversion isn't going to happen. I don't think the GPL v3 conversion is going to happen for the kernel, since I personally don't want to convert any of my code.

Some people have been seen as freeloaders, selling Linux CDs and hardware and making money that way, ... But they're doing Linux a big favor by making it easier to install and approachable to normal people. It makes it a more viable OS.

Now, most of you are probably going to be totally bored out of your minds on Christmas day, and here's the perfect distraction. Test 2.6.15-rc7. All the stores will be closed, and there's really nothing better to do in between meals.

It probably was just a mistake on the part of some headhunter who just didn't know who (Raymond) was. It just makes it even harder for people to even approach the other side, when they then end up having to worry about public humiliation.