Linus Torvalds

From ArticleWorld

Linus Benedict Torvalds is the initiator and first developer of the Linux kernel, and its current project coordinator. A talented programmer, Linus Torvalds started Linux as a student's activity, inspired by the Minix operating system.

Linus has been interested in computers from a very small age. He wrote some successful software packages for Sinclair QL, including an assembler, a text editor and Cool Man, a Pacman clone.

Linus and Linux

Linus initially used Minix on his new 386 computer in the early 1990s, but started working on Linux, mainly as a pet project. At first, he intended to give Linux another name (Freax), but this didn't happen. His friend, Ari Lemmke, encouraged Linus to upload his operating system on a ftp server. Lemmke was not happy with the name Freax, so he gave Linus a directory called linux on the ftp server he owned.

In August 1991, Linus Torvalds published the sources on the Internet an announced it on comp.os.minix. Many developers started working on Linux as well, having an already stable base of development.

The amount of code in the Linux kernel which was written by Linus is quite small, about 2% if we are to believe the statistics. However, he handles most project management tasks, although he has often stayed out of advocacy tasks. His position in the GNU/Linux name controversy is quite influential though, stating that the name GNU/Linux, which Richard Stallman promotes, is only correct if the Linux distribution is GNU-based.

Linus Torvalds has received many awards and much appreciation for his work on Linux. In 1996, a newly discovered asteroid was named after him, the 9793 Torvalds. He was ranked #17 in Time Magazine's Person of the century poll, and was named one of the most influential people in the world by TIME. BusinessWeek named him one of the best managers.