Linus Torvalds Linux Quotations

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

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

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

Software is like sex: It's better when it's free.

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.

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

I do get my pizzas paid for by Linux indirectly.

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

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.

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

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

I personally think of Linux development as being pretty non-localized, and I work with all the people entirely over e-mail - even if they happen to be working in the Portland area.

In many ways, I am very happy about the whole Linux commercial market because the commercial market is doing all these things that I have absolutely zero interest in doing myself.

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.

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

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

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

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

I don't have any authority over Linux other than this notion that I know what I'm doing.

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

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

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.

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.

Some people have been seen as freeloaders, selling Linux CDs and hardware and making money that way, ... But they're doing Linux a big favor by making it easier to install and approachable to normal people. It makes it a more viable OS.

Do I see fragmentation for the Linux kernel? There is certainly going to be some of that.

It's not really about Linux vs. Microsoft, it's about something you really, really have fun with and lets others have fun as well.

Talk is cheap. Show me the code.

All operating systems sucks, but Linux just sucks less

So I decided that if the architecture is fundamentally sane enough, say it follows some basic rules like it supported paging , then I would be able to say, yes, Linux fundamentally supports that model.

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

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.

I changed the Linux copyright license to be the GPL some time in the first half of 1992. Mostly because I had hated the lack of a cheaply and easily available UNIX when I had looked for one a year before.

Me trying to make a business around Linux would have been a total disaster.

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".

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.