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Linus Torvalds Quotes
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Linus Benedict Torvalds is a Finnish-American software engineer who is the creator, and for a long time, principal developer of the Linux kernel, which became the kernel for operating systems such as the Linux operating system, Android, and Chrome OS. He also created the distributed revision control system Git and the diving logging and planning software Subsurface. He was honored, along with Shinya Yamanaka, with the 2012 Millennium Technology Prize by the Technology Academy Finland "in recognition of his creation of a new open source operating system for computers leading to the widely used Linux kernel". He is also the recipient of the 2014 IEEE Computer Society Computer Pioneer Award.

✵ 28. December 1969   •   Other names Линус торвалдс, लाइनस टोर्भाल्ड्स्
Linus Torvalds photo
Linus Torvalds: 150   quotes 27   likes

Linus Torvalds Quotes

“Sometimes "pi = 3.14" is (a) infinitely faster than the "correct" answer and (b) the difference between the "correct" and the "wrong" answer is meaningless. And this is why I get upset when somebody dismisses performance issues based on "correctness". The thing is, some specious value of "correctness" is often irrelevant because it doesn't matter. While performance almost always matters. And I absolutely detest the fact that people so often dismiss performance concerns so readily.”

Linus Torvalds

Git mailing list, Fri, 8 Aug 2008
2000s, 2008

People

“I chose 1000 originally partly as a way to make sure that people that assumed HZ was 100 would get a swift kick in the pants.”

Linus Torvalds

Message to linux-kernel mailing list, 2005-07-08, Torvalds, Linus, 2007-05-28 http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/7/8/263,
2000s, 2005

People , Way

“That's the spirit. Greg has taught you well. You have controlled your fear. Now, release your anger. Only your hatred can destroy me. Come to the dark side, Sarah. We have cookies.”

Linus Torvalds

<nowiki>Re: [ 00/19 http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=137390810310498&w=2, 3.10.1-stable review</nowiki>, Torvalds, Linus, 2013-07-15, 2013-07-17]
2010s, 2013

Fear , Anger

“I realize that lawyers are brought up (probably from small children) to think that "technically true" is what matters, but when you make public PR statements, they should be more than "technically" true. They should be honest. There's a big f*cking difference.”

Linus Torvalds

Linus Torvalds - Google+, Torvalds, Linus, 2013-01-17, 2013-01-20 https://plus.google.com/u/0/102150693225130002912/posts/ggzfzKyrcRQ,
2010s, 2013

Children , Thinking

“So the whole "We have a list and we're not telling you" should tell you something. Don't you think that if Microsoft actually had some really foolproof patent, they'd just tell us and go, "nyaah, nyaah, nyaah!"”

Linus Torvalds

Torvalds tells Microsoft to put up or shut up, 2007-05-16, Thomson, Iain, 2016-01-18 https://web.archive.org/web/20070520054734/http://www.pcw.co.uk/vnunet/news/2189971/torvalds-tells-microsoft-put, Said about Microsoft's claim that the Linux kernel infringes upon 42 of their patents.
2000s, 2007

Thinking

“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

[linux.conf.au conference, http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/torvalds-pans-apples-os-x/2008/02/05/1202090393959.html, 2008-02-05]
2000s, 2008

Way , Thinking

“[…] I really hate big laptops. I can't understand people who lug around 15" (or 17"!) monsters. The right weight for a laptop is 1kg, no more.”

Linus Torvalds

2010s, 2012

Hate , People , Understanding

“Personally, I'm not interested in making device drivers look like user-level. They aren't, they shouldn't be, and microkernels are just stupid.”

Linus Torvalds

Post, mlist.linux.kernel newsgroup, 2002-05-25, Google Groups, Torvalds, Linus, 2006-08-28 http://groups.google.com/group/mlist.linux.kernel/msg/938ffa86ae60dc7a,
2000s, 2000-04

Stupidity , Personality

“Christ, people. Learn C, instead of just stringing random characters together until it compiles”

Linus Torvalds

with warnings
Torvalds, Linus, 2015-09-03, <nowiki>Linus Torvalds on the LKM mailing list</nowiki>, 2015-09-30 https://lkml.org/lkml/2015/9/3/428,
2010s, 2015

People , Learning , Christ

“BULLSHIT. Have you _looked_ at the patches you are talking about? You should have - several of them bear your name. […] As it is, the patches are COMPLETE AND UTTER GARBAGE. […] WHAT THE F*CK IS GOING ON?”

Linus Torvalds

Torvalds, Linus, 2018-01-21, <nowiki>Linus Torvalds on the LKML</nowiki>, 2018-01-22 http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/1801.2/04628.html,
2010s, 2018

“… even if the Hurd didn't depend on Linux code (and as far as I know, it does, but since I think they have their design heads firmly up their *sses anyway with that whole microkernel thing, I've never felt it was worth my time even looking at their code), I don't believe a religiously motivated development community can ever generate as good code except by pure chance.”

Linus Torvalds

LKML, September 27, 2006 http://groups.google.com/group/fa.linux.kernel/msg/e4617294bbd1d0f1
2000s, 2006

Communication , Motivation , Thinking , Chance

“OK, I admit it. I was just a front-man for the real fathers of Linux, the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus.”

Linus Torvalds

Attributed to Torvalds in LinuxWorld interview.
Responding to the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution's claim that Linus Torvalds is not the real father of Linux.
Attributed

“Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect.”

Linus Torvalds

New York Times, 2003-09-28, The Way We Live Now: Questions for Linus Torvalds http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/28/magazine/the-way-we-live-now-9-28-03-questions-for-linus-torvalds-the-sharer.html,
2000s, 2000-04

“The NIH syndrome (Not Invented Here) is a disease.”

Linus Torvalds

Newsmaker: Torvalds: A Solaris skeptic, CNet, 2004-12-21, Shankland, Stephen, 2006-08-28, http://archive.is/EfHH, 2012-07-12 http://news.com.com/Torvalds+A+Solaris+skeptic/2008-1082_3-5498799.html,
2000s, 2000-04

Disease

“There aren't enough swear-words in the English language, so now I'll have to call you perkeleen vittupää just to express my disgust and frustration with this crap.”

Linus Torvalds

<nowiki>Re: [GIT pull https://www.mail-archive.com/linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org/msg467322.html, x86 updates for 3.11</nowiki>, Torvalds, Linus, 2013-07-13, 2013-07-15]
2010s, 2013

“I'm not sentimental. Good riddance.”

Linus Torvalds

Linux Nukes 386 Support - Slashdot, Torvalds, Linus, 2012-12-12, 2013-08-10 http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/12/12/1414238/linux-nukes-386-support,
2010s, 2012

“Hey, that's not a bug, that's a feature! You know what the most complex piece of engineering known to man in the whole solar system is? Guess what – it's not Linux, it's not Solaris, and it's not your car. It's you. And me. And think about how you and me actually came about – not through any complex design. Right. "Sheer luck". Well, sheer luck, and:
• Free availability and crosspollination through sharing of "source code", although biologists call it DNA.
• A rather unforgiving user environment, that happily replaces bad versions of us with better working versions and thus culls the herd (biologists often call this "survival of the fittest").
• Massive undirected parallel development ("trial and error").
I'm deadly serious: we humans have never been able to replicate something more complicated than what we ourselves are, yet natural selection did it without even thinking. Don't underestimate the power of survival of the fittest. And don't ever make the mistake that you can design something better than what you get from ruthless massively parallel trial-and-error with a feedback cycle. That's giving your intelligence much too much credit. Quite frankly, Sun is doomed. And it has nothing to do with their engineering practices or their coding style.”

Linus Torvalds

2000s, 2000-04

Cars , Error , Intelligence , Nature

“" the most important part of open source is that people are allowed to do what they are good at" and " all that [diversity] stuff is just details and not really important."”

Linus Torvalds

Torvalds, Linus, 2015-01-15, <nowiki>Linus Torvalds on why he isn’t nice: &quot;I don’t care about you&quot;</nowiki>, 2015-01-20 http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/01/linus-torvalds-on-why-he-isnt-nice-i-dont-care-about-you/,
2010s, 2015

People , Quotes , Parting

“I may be a huge computer nerd, but even so I don't think education should be about computers. Not as a subject, and not as a classroom resource either.”

Linus Torvalds

Sam Varghese, iTWire interview, 2014-09-15, 2018-07-20 https://www.itwire.com/business-it-news/open-source/65402-torvalds-says-he-has-no-strong-opinions-on-systemd,
2010s, 2014

Education , Thinking

“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

Message to Git mailing list, 2005-04-14, Torvalds, Linus, 2006-08-28 http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/87,
2000s, 2005

Change

“We don't merge kernel code just because user space was written by a retarded monkey on crack.”

Linus Torvalds

Torvalds, Linus, 2015-06-23, <nowiki>Linus Torvalds on the LKM mailing list</nowiki>, 2015-02-07 https://lkml.org/lkml/2015/6/23/657,
2010s, 2015

“They are smoking crack.”

Linus Torvalds

Torvalds Slams SCO, 2003-08-20, Galli, Peter, 2008-03-01, eWeek http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Past-News/Torvalds-Slams-SCO/,
Notes: said about SCO.
2000s, 2000-04

“First we had two earthquakes - fine, this week God not only hates republicans, but apparently us kernel developers too. But we kernel developers laugh in the face of danger, and a 5.5 earthquake just makes us whimper and hide in the closet for a while.”

Linus Torvalds

2010s, 2012

God , Hate , Making love

“Your code is shit.. your argument is shit.”

Linus Torvalds

In reply to: Ingo Molnar: ""Re: announce new tree: fix all build warnings, on all configs"", 2008-10-20, Torvalds, Linus, 2017-04-25 http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0810.2/1735.html,
In reply to: Andrew Morton: "Re: upcoming kerneloops.org item: get_page_from_freelist", 2009-6-24, Torvalds, Linus, 2017-04-25 http://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0906.3/00429.html,
2000s, 2009

“Which mindset is right? Mine, of course. People who disagree with me are by definition crazy.”

Linus Torvalds

Until I change my mind, when they can suddenly become upstanding citizens. I'm flexible, and not black-and-white.
Linus compares Linux and BSDs, NewsForge, 2005-06-13, Barr, Joe, 2006-08-28 http://www.linux.com/articles/45571,
2000s, 2005

People

“Bad programmers worry about the code. Good programmers worry about data structures and their relationships.”

Linus Torvalds

https://lwn.net/Articles/193245/

Bad luck

“Can I just once again state my love for it and hope it gets merged soon? Maybe the code isn't perfect, but I've skimmed it, and compared to the horrors that are OpenVPN and IPSec, it's a work of art.”

Linus Torvalds

Torvalds, Linus, 2018-08-02, <nowiki>Linus Torvalds on the netdev mailing list about wireguard</nowiki>, 2020-04-25 https://lists.openwall.net/netdev/2018/08/02/124,
2010s, 2018

Hope , Art , Perfection , Love

“Please, as you emerge from your holiday-induced food coma, do give it a quick test so that we can all be happy about the final release next weekend.”

Linus Torvalds

Torvalds, Linus, 2022-01-02, <nowiki>Linux 5.16-rc8</nowiki>, 2022-01-06 https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CAHk-=wg=3dEpPGhz8YvJUDWhFW_GUeASBGmqyw3aPQRfB3ki9w@mail.gmail.com/,
2010s, 2022

Food , Holiday , Happiness

“I know most of us are preparing for Christmas, but give it a whirl, ok? How important are those presents (and that family) anyway?”

Linus Torvalds

Torvalds, Linus, 2021-12-19, <nowiki>Linux 5.16-rc6</nowiki>, 2022-01-06 https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CAHk-=wgWuZPhK6dgXsS42iMz4o610Uw4QXeUsTSOQheNo1tf5A@mail.gmail.com/T/#u,
2010s, 2021

Family , Christmas