Quotes from Linus Torvalds

What commercialism has brought into Linux has been the incentive to make a good distribution that is easy to use and that has all the packaging issues worked out.

I do get my pizzas paid for by Linux indirectly.

I try to avoid long-range plans and visions - that way I can more easily deal with anything new that comes up.

You won't get sued for anticompetitive behavior.

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.

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

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

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.

The Linux philosophy is 'Laugh in the face of danger'. Oops. Wrong One. 'Do it yourself'. Yes, that's it.

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

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

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

One of the reasons that I really don't mind that people are selling Linux commercially is exactly because it does make me feel good that people use the product.

A lot of people still like Solaris, but I'm in active competition with them, and so I hope they die.

Talk is cheap. Show me the code.

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

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.

Helsinki isn't all that bad. It's a very nice city, and it's cold really only in wintertime.

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

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

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.

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.

I actually think that I'm a rather optimistic and happy person; it's just that I'm not a very positive person, if you see the difference.

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.