b. 1969, Helsinki, Finland · Creator of Linux and Git; lead kernel maintainer
Also known as: Torvalds, Linus
Linus Torvalds released the first version of the Linux kernel in 1991 while a computer-science student at the University of Helsinki, and has been its lead maintainer ever since. He picked the GPL for version 0.12 in 1992, which made Linux combinable with the GNU userland.
In 2005 he wrote the first version of Git in days to support kernel development. Git is now the foundation of the kernel's workflow and of the broader open-source ecosystem.
Video
Related people: Andrew Tanenbaum, Alan Cox, Greg Kroah-Hartman
Works cited in this book:
- What would you like to see most in minix? (1991)
- LINUX is obsolete (1992) (with Andrew S. Tanenbaum)
- Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary (2001) (with David Diamond)
- Tech Talk: Linus Torvalds on git (2007)
- Linux Kernel Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct (2018) (with Linux Kernel Community)
Discussed in:
- Chapter 1: Introduction: What Is Linux? · Linux, Unix, macOS, and Windows
- Chapter 2: A History of Unix and Linux · 1991: Linus Torvalds
- Chapter 16: Version Control with Git · Git
