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Portrait of Linus Torvalds

Linus Torvalds

(1969) Programmer

233 quotes in 924 categories

Linus Torvalds speaks with the straightforward bluntness of a seasoned coder, sharing truths about software development and community. His reflections cut through jargon, delivering practical wisdom with a dash of humor. In this sizable collection, his candid voice remains unmistakably authentic.

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Linus Torvalds is a programmer, best known for Just for fun.

Quick Facts About Linus Torvalds

Born: December 28, 1969
Profession: Programmer
Notable works: Just for fun

About Linus Torvalds

Linus Benedict Torvalds is a Finnish and American software engineer who is the creator and lead developer of the Linux kernel since 1991. He also created the distributed version control system Git.

Biography source: Wikipedia

Quotes by Linus Torvalds

“Do no harm”

Harm

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Any program is only as good as it is useful.

Good

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No problem is too big it can't be run away from

Away

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I have an ego the size of a small planet

Ego

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Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.

Bugs

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Avoiding complexity reduces bugs.

Avoiding

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

Myself

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And what's the Internet without the rick-roll?

Internet

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Those that can, do. Those that can't, complain.

Can do

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I'm basically a very lazy person who likes to get credit for things other people actually do.

Credit

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

Linux

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On the internet nobody can hear you being subtle.

Hear

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I am not out to destroy Microsoft, that would be a completely unintended side effect.

Computer

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I'm a big non-believer in manual driver and kernel configuration, be it visual or not.

Believer

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

Children

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Developers have the attention spans of slightly moronic woodland creatures.

Animals

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Excusing bad programming is a shooting offence, no matter what the circumstances.

Circumstances

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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…

Design

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

Intellectual

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An individual developer like me cares about writing the new code and making it as interesting and efficient as possible. But very…

Care

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

Great

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

Good man

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This 'users are idiots, and are confused by functionality' mentality of Gnome is a disease. If you think your users are idiots,…

Confused

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The bulk of all patents are crap. Spending time reading them is stupid. It's up to the patent owner to do so,…

Computer

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The fame and reputation part came later, and never was much of a motivator, although it did enable me to work without…

Fame

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So I've decided to be a very rich and famous person who doesn't really care about money, and who is very humble…

Care

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I often compare open source to science. To where science took this whole notion of developing ideas in the open and improving…

Alchemy

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I'd like to point out that I don't think that there is anything fundamentally superior in the GPL as compared to the…

Community

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So I would not be surprised if the globbing libraries, for example, will do NFD-mangling in order to glob "correctly", so even…

Action

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While I may not get any money from Linux, I get a huge personal satisfaction from having written something that people really…

Alternatives

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When I do programming in my free time and for my own enjoyment, I really want to have a kind of protection:…

Available

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So I decided that if the architecture is fundamentally sane enough, say it follows some basic rules like it supported paging ,…

Able

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I will, in fact, claim that the difference between a bad programmer and a good one is whether he considers his code…

Claims

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My name is Linus, and I am your God.

God

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Talk is cheap. Show me the code.

Cheap

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Github is an excellent hosting service; I have nothing against it at all.

Excellent

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If it is relevant there is always somebody else out there.

Funny

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

Generally

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I think one thing I do pretty well is not taking myself too seriously.

One thing

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In short: just say NO TO DRUGS, and maybe you won't end up like the Hurd people.

Drug

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Linus Torvalds by topic

Technology (109) Linux (59) People (52) Programming (37) Thinking (32) Want (22) Way (21) Use (17) Software (17) Ifs (16) Program (14) Kernel (14) Time (12) Source (12) Trying (11) Should (10) Operating systems (10) Open source (10) Microsoft (10) Bigs (10) Users (9) Real (9) Programmers (9) Operating system (9) Money (9)