Linus Torvalds

The Finnish student whose hobby operating system now runs most of the internet, most of the cloud, and every Android phone.

Specifications & Metrics

era

born 1969

Core Principles & Analysis

• He announced Linux 0.01 in 1991 as 'just a hobby, won't be big and professional'.
• He wrote Git in weeks in 2005 to replace a proprietary tool for kernel development.
• Time named him one of the century's most influential people; the kernel he started powers the rest.