110+ Linus Torvalds Quotes On Linux, Technology And Ai

Linus Torvalds is a Finnish software engineer and computer programmer best known for creating the Linux kernel, which is the basis for the open source operating system of the same name. He is also the principal developer of the version control system Git. Torvalds is an advocate of open source software development and supports the idea of distributed development and version control. He has received the Millennium Technology Prize and the IEEE Computer Society's Computer Pioneer Award. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Linus Torvalds on linux, technology, ai.

Top 10 Linus Torvalds Quotes

1. A computer is like air conditioning - it becomes useless when you open Windows
2. Most of the good programmers do programming not because they expect to get paid or get adulation by the public, but because it is fun to program.
3. Talk is cheap. Show me the code.
4. Finnish companies tend to be very traditional, not taking many risks. Silicon Valley is completely different: people here really live on the edge.
5. Microsoft isn't evil, they just make really crappy operating systems.
6. Bad programmers worry about the code. Good programmers worry about data structures and their relationships.
7. Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it.
8. Intelligence is the ability to avoid doing work, yet getting the work done.
9. What commercialism has brought to Linux has been the incentive to make a good distribution that is easy to use and that has all the packaging issues worked out.
10. Only wimps use tape backup. Real men just upload their important stuff on ftp and let the rest of the world mirror it.

Linus Torvalds Image Quotes

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

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

All operating systems sucks, but Linux just sucks less — Linus Torvalds

Linus Torvalds Short Quotes

• In short: just say NO TO DRUGS, and maybe you won't end up like the Hurd people.
• In real open source, you have the right to control your own destiny.
• Those that can, do. Those that can't, complain.
• Avoiding complexity reduces bugs.
• Theory and practice sometimes clash. And when that happens, theory loses. Every single time.
• An infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never make a good program.
• Helsinki isn't all that bad. It's a very nice city, and it's cold really only in wintertime.
• No problem is too big it can't be run away from
• If you think your users are idiots, only idiots will use it.
• I do get my pizzas paid for by Linux indirectly.

Linus Torvalds Quotes About Linux

All operating systems sucks, but Linux just sucks less — Linus Torvalds

Some people have told me they don't think a fat penguin really embodies the grace of Linux, which just tells me they have never seen an angry penguin charging at them in excess of 100mph. They'd be a lot more careful about what they say if they had. — Linus Torvalds

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

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

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. — Linus Torvalds

We all know Linux is great...it does infinite loops in 5 seconds. — Linus Torvalds

There are lots of Linux users who don't care how the kernel works but only want to use it is not only a tribute to how good Linux is, but it also brings up issues that I would never have thought of otherwise. — Linus Torvalds

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. — Linus Torvalds

One of the questions I've always hated answering is how do people make money in open source. And I think that Caldera and Red Hat - and there are a number of other Linux companies going public - basically show that yes, you can actually make money in the open-source area. — Linus Torvalds

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

Linus Torvalds Quotes About Technology

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. — Linus Torvalds

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

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. — Linus Torvalds

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

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

I started Linux because I wanted to see it on the desktop... I do hope that the desktop people would try to work together ... and work more on the technology than trying to make the login screen look really nice. — Linus Torvalds

Linus Torvalds Quotes About C

Quite frankly, even if the choice of C were to do *nothing* but keep the C++ programmers out, that in itself would be a huge reason to use C. — Linus Torvalds

C++ is in that inconvenient spot where it doesn't help make things simple enough to be truly usable for prototyping or simple GUI programming, and yet isn't the lean system programming language that C is that actively encourages you to use simple and direct constructs. — Linus Torvalds

C++ is a horrible language. It's made more horrible by the fact that a lot of substandard programmers use it, to the point where it's much much easier to generate total and utter crap with it. — Linus Torvalds

Linus Torvalds Quotes About System

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

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. — Linus Torvalds

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

If you want to travel around the world and be invited to speak at a lot of different places, just write a Unix operating system. — Linus Torvalds

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

I don't actually follow other operating systems much. I don't compete - I just worry about making Linux better than itself, not others. — Linus Torvalds

I'm not worried about the kernel itself or the basic system. All the commercialization is about the distributions and the applications. As such, it only brings value-added things to Linux, and it doesn't take anything away from the Linux scene. — Linus Torvalds

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. — Linus Torvalds

I can't say that I like MicroSoft: I think they make rather bad operating systems - Windows NT is just more of the same - but while I dislike their operating systems and abhor their tactics in the marketplace I at the same time don't really care all that much about them. — Linus Torvalds

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." — Linus Torvalds

Linus Torvalds Quotes About Free

Software is like sex: it's better when it's free. — Linus Torvalds

While we ended up having several core maintainers use BitKeeper - it was free to use for open source projects - it never got ubiquitous. So it helped kernel development, but there were still pain points. — Linus Torvalds

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. — Linus Torvalds

When I do programming in my free time and for my own enjoyment, I really want to have a kind of protection: knowing that when I improve a program those improvements will continue to be available to me and others in future versions of the program. — Linus Torvalds

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

There are "extremists" in the free software world, but that's one major reason why I don't call what I do "free software" any more. I don't want to be associated with the people for whom it's about exclusion and hatred. — Linus Torvalds

Software is like sex. It's only good when it's for free. — Linus Torvalds

Today, I will offer free web hosting and developpement helps for projects under Sourceforge — Linus Torvalds

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. — Linus Torvalds

Linus Torvalds Quotes About Microsoft

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

I'm simply too content doing what I want to do to really have a very negative attitude towards MicroSoft. They make bad products - so what? I don't need to care, because I happily don't have to use them, and writing my own alternative has been a very gratifying experience in many ways. — Linus Torvalds

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. — Linus Torvalds

I may make jokes about Microsoft at times, but at the same time, I think the Microsoft hatred is a disease. — Linus Torvalds

Linus Torvalds Famous Quotes And Sayings

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

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

All operating systems sucks, but Linux just sucks less — Linus Torvalds

Often your 'fixes' are actually removing capabilities that you had, because they were 'too confusing to the user'. GNOME seems to be developed by interface Nazis, where consistently the excuse for not doing something is not 'it's too complicated to do', but 'it would confuse users'. — Linus Torvalds

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. — Linus Torvalds

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. — Linus Torvalds

The fact that ACPI was designed by a group of monkeys high on LSD, and is some of the worst designs in the industry obviously makes running it at any point pretty damn ugly. — Linus Torvalds

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

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'. — Linus Torvalds

Once you realize that documentation should be laughed at, peed upon, put on fire, and just ridiculed in general, then, and only then, have you reached the level where you can safely read it and try to use it to actually implement a driver. — Linus Torvalds

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. — Linus Torvalds

I am pragmatic. That which works, works, and theory can go screw itself. However, my pragmatism also extends to maintainability, which is why I also want it done well. — Linus Torvalds

Every time I see some piece of medical research saying that caffeine is good for you, I high-five myself. Because I'm going to live forever. — Linus Torvalds

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. — Linus Torvalds

I will, in fact, claim that the difference between a bad programmer and a good one is whether he considers his code or his data structures more important. Bad programmers worry about the code. Good programmers worry about data structures and their relationships. — Linus Torvalds

The complaints I've had is that GitHub as a development platform - making commits, pull requests, keeping track of issues etc - doesn't work very well at all. It's not even close, not for something like the kernel. It's much too limited. — Linus Torvalds

I'm a huge believer in evolution (not in the sense that "it happened" - anybody who doesn't believe that is either uninformed or crazy, but in the sense "the processes of evolution are really fundamental, and should probably be at least thought about in pretty much any context"). — Linus Torvalds

So I've decided to be a very rich and famous person who doesn't really care about money, and who is very humble but who still makes a lot of money and is very famous, but is very humble and rich and famous. — Linus Torvalds

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

One of the reasons I like open source is that it allows people to work on the parts they are good at, and I don't mean just on a technical level; some people are into the whole selling and support, and that's just not me. — Linus Torvalds

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

I don't think commercialization is the answer to anything. It's just one more facet of Linux, and not the deciding one by any means. — Linus Torvalds

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. — Linus Torvalds

Bill Gates really seems to be much more of a business man than a technologist, while I prefer to think of Linux in technical terms rather than as a means to money. — Linus Torvalds

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

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. — Linus Torvalds

Don't ever make the mistake [of thinking] 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. — Linus Torvalds

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

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

It just makes it even harder for people to even approach the (open source) side, when they then end up having to worry about public humiliation. — Linus Torvalds

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. — Linus Torvalds

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

It's what I call "mental masturbation", when you engage is some pointless intellectual exercise that has no possible meaning. — Linus Torvalds

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. — Linus Torvalds

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. — Linus Torvalds

I'd like to point out that I don't think that there is anything fundamentally superior in the GPL as compared to the BSD license, for example. But the GPL is what I want to program with, because unlike the BSD license it guarantees that anybody who works on the project in the future will also contribute their changes back to the community. — Linus Torvalds

Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow. — Linus Torvalds

When you hear voices in your head that tell you to shoot the pope, do you do what they say? Same thing goes for customers and managers. They are the crazy voices in your head, and you need to set them right, not just blindly do what they ask for. — Linus Torvalds

The idea of abstracting away the one thing that must be blindingly fast, the kernel, is inherently counter productive. — Linus Torvalds

Portability is for people who cannot write new programs. — Linus Torvalds

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

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

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

Bill Gates really seems to be much more of a business man than a technologist, while I prefer to think of Linux in technical terms rather than as a means to money. As such, I'm not very likely to make the same kind of money that Bill made. — Linus Torvalds

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

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. — Linus Torvalds

Developers have the attention spans of slightly moronic woodland creatures. — Linus Torvalds

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. — Linus Torvalds

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

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

I actually don't believe that everybody should necessarily try to learn to code. I think it's reasonably specialized, and nobody really expects most people to have to do it. It's not like knowing how to read and write and do basic math. — Linus Torvalds

Hmmm, completely a-religious - atheist. I find that people seem to think religion brings morals and appreciation of nature. I actually think it detracts from both. — Linus Torvalds

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

Right now some people are just running around in circles and claiming that moving things to the kernel automatically makes it more stable. I'm telling you that the kernel is stable not because it's a kernel, but because I refuse to listen to arguments like this. — Linus Torvalds

Only religious fanatics and totalitarian states equate morality with legality. — Linus Torvalds

I think the term "intellectual property" should be avoided, not because it's a bad term, but because it mixes things up that shouldn't be mixed up. There are different forms, and they hardly have anything to do with each other. — Linus Torvalds

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. — Linus Torvalds

Security people are often the black-and-white kind of people that I can't stand. I think the OpenBSD crowd is a bunch of masturbating monkeys, in that they make such a big deal about concentrating on security to the point where they pretty much admit that nothing else matters to them. — Linus Torvalds

You know, the mark of intelligence is realizing when you're making the same mistake over and over and over again, and not hitting your head in the wall five hundred times before you understand that it's not a clever thing to do. — Linus Torvalds

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

When somebody who is different shows himself to be different in a good way, that's how development happens. — Linus Torvalds

I made very sure that I did not get involved with any of the commercial Linux companies, exactly so that I would be neutral and not ever seen as "working for the competition". — Linus Torvalds

I love making friends.... it's people I can't stand. — Linus Torvalds

You won't get sued for anticompetitive behavior. — Linus Torvalds

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

Linux has more than satisfied any small initial expectations I had. It's simply incredible how successful Linux has been, and how good a time I've had developing it and leading the project. It does take a lot of my time, but it's time I really enjoy spending, and Linux has continued to be challenging both technically and from a managing standpoint. — Linus Torvalds

This 'users are idiots, and are confused by functionality' mentality of Gnome is a disease. If you think your users are idiots, only idiots will use it. — Linus Torvalds

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. — Linus Torvalds

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. — Linus Torvalds

Life Lessons by Linus Torvalds

1. Linus Torvalds' work has taught us the importance of collaboration and open source development, which has allowed for the creation of powerful software and systems.
2. He has also shown us the value of staying true to your vision and not giving up, even when faced with criticism and obstacles.
3. Finally, he has demonstrated how passion and dedication can lead to success, inspiring others to take on ambitious projects and achieve great things.