What operating system was developed by Linus Torvalds. How Linus Torvalds made development freer. History of Linux

Linus Benedict Torvalds- the world-famous Finnish programmer, a legend in the computer world, especially among programmers. He became famous for having created an operating system that revolutionized the computer industry and gave birth to a computer "religion".

Childhood of Torvalds

The famous programmer was born in the capital of Finland - the city of Helsinki, on December 28, 1969, in a family of journalists. It was named after the famous chemist Linus Pauling, who was once awarded the Nobel Prize. Linus's mother worked as a translator for a Finnish newspaper publishing house. My father was a communist, but after the mid-70s, his interests changed and he became a radio journalist. Torvalds' uncle worked in television, and his grandfather served as chief newspaper editor. His family belonged to that small number of Finnish people who spoke Swedish, and there were about 300 thousand of the 5 million who inhabited Finland.

His father left Linus with his mother when he was still small, so the boy was raised by his mother and grandparents. Despite this, his childhood was happy. Since the family mainly consisted of journalists, since childhood, Torvalds was instilled with a craving for reading. However, he was less interested in journalism than in the computer that Leo Toerngvis (Torvalds' grandfather, on his mother's side) bought for himself in the mid-70s. It was one of the first computers at that time. It was called the Commodore Vic 20.

However, Linus soon got bored with the standard programs in the computer and wanted to write something of his own. At first he decided to master BASIC, but soon the possibilities of this programming language were not enough for him and he decided to learn another, more complex language, but at the same time with great capabilities - Assembler. Linus learned quickly and was not distracted by anything. His father tried to instill in him an interest in girls, sports and much more than Linus's peers were fond of. But all attempts were in vain. A few years later, Torvalds admitted in his book that apart from mathematics and programming, he was not interested in anything else at that time, besides, he simply did not want to understand other areas.

How Linux Came to Be

Linus saved up money and dreamed of getting his own computer. In 1987, his dream came true and he purchased a Sinclair Ql, a 32-bit personal computer with a Motorola 68008 processor, 7.5 MHz, and 128 KB of RAM.

However, Linus was not happy with his purchase for long. Disappointment befell him as soon as he learned that it was impossible to reprogram the installed operating system. This required special equipment, which he did not have. At the age of 19, he entered the University of Helsinki, where his parents used to study. At the time of enrollment, his knowledge of programming was quite extensive, so he entered the department of computer science. The programming language C Linus began to study in 1990 in the classroom at the university. This is the same language that he used to write the kernel of the Linux operating system.

In 1991, he replaces his old computer and buys a new, more powerful one for those times: an Intel 386 processor with a clock speed of 33 MHz and 4 MB of RAM.

But this computer also disappointed him, or rather its operating system - MS-DOS, which was supplied in the kit and used only half of the processor's capabilities. Therefore, Torvalds decides to replace the standard operating system with the one that is on computers at the university - the UNIX operating system. And here he is faced with another problem: the cheapest UNIX with basic features costs about five thousand dollars. He doesn't have that kind of money, so he decides to get a clone of UNIX, a small operating system called MINIX. The system was written for UNIX students. Its author was Andrew Tanenbaum - a specialist in the field of operating systems.

Although MINIX was designed for Intel x86 based processors, and much more powerful than MS-DOS, it had many drawbacks. The system was paid (but not very expensive), the functionality was poor, and everything else - half of the code was closed. Linus Torvalds could not accept this and therefore decided to write his own operating system, something in between UNIX and MINIX. It is unlikely that he then thought about how much time it would take him and certainly did not expect that his system would not only change his future life, but the entire computer industry.

He decided to announce his intention at the MINIX conference. It was August 25, 1991. Here is his original post:

Original letter

Subject: What would you like to see in Minix?

(Small survey for my new operating system)

Hello to all Minix users -

I'm developing an operating system (free, just a hobby - not that big and

professional like GNU) for 386 (486) processors. I started back in April and now I already have

first results. I'd love to hear your opinion on what you like/dislike about Minix, as my

the operating system is based on it in some ways (the same structure of the file system - but this is purely

practical considerations).

I've already ported bash(1.08), gcc(1.40) and everything seems to work fine. It follows from this that in

over the next few months I will have the first working version and therefore would like to

know what people need most.

Any suggestions are welcome, but I can't promise I'll implement them :)

Linus Torvalds [email protected]

Linus quotes

Below is a list of the most famous quotes from Linus Torvalds:

“Here I want to talk about my golden rules. First, treat others the way you want them to treat you. Following this rule, in any situation you will know what to do. Second, be proud of what you do. Third: do everything with pleasure.

“Everyone who reads this column will think that the growing burdens of my role as master hacker have turned me into a bastard. But this is not true. I've always been a bastard."

“I brought girls home only when they wanted to work out. It wasn't that often, and I was never the initiator, but my father has the illusion that they wanted to do more than just mathematics. (In his opinion, they all bought into the same formula: a significant nose = a significant man).

"Programs are like sex: it's better when it's free."

"Microsoft is not evil, they just have really lousy operating systems."

"My name is Linus and I am your God."

"You see, not only do you have to be a good coder to create a Linux-like system, you also have to be a smart-ass son of a bitch."

Linux philosophy: "Laugh in the face of danger." Ouch. Not that. "Do it yourself". Yes, right.

“Some have told me that a fat penguin doesn't quite represent the elegance of Linux, in their opinion. But in my opinion, they just never ran an angry penguin at a speed of under 200 km / h.

“Intelligence is the ability to avoid doing work, but in such a way that it gets done.”

When you say, "I wrote a program that crashes Windows," people just look at you stupidly and answer: "Yes, I got such programs along with the system, for free."

“I have no doubt at all that virtualization is useful in some areas. What I highly doubt is that it will ever have the kind of impact that those involved in virtualization want.”

“So, most of you are probably going to be bored out of your mind this Christmas, and here is the perfect entertainment for you. Test 2.6.15-rc7. All shops will be closed and there really won't be a better activity between meals."

Linus Torvalds believes that ARM has very little chance of completely defeating x86. An entire hardware and software ecosystem has been built around the x86 architecture, while ARM is just building a large number of devices.

Torvalds expressed his opinion at the Linaro Connect conference, which took place last week. This happened in a conversation with David Rusling, CTO of Linaro, a non-profit organization that optimizes software for ARM processors.

Why Linus Torvalds prefers x86

When Rusling asked Torvalds if he had a favorite processor architecture, he replied without batting an eyelid that his favorite architecture was still x86. No other architecture provides such a large and open infrastructure. Processor instructions are not that important. It's some people who get hung up on things that don't really matter. What really matters is the infrastructure around the x86 instruction set.

Linus Torvalds said that ARM is strong in mobile phones, but he was disappointed with ARM because as a hardware platform it is still not very pleasant to deal with. This is mainly because it doesn't have a unified instruction set like x86 does, but it's getting better now.

The task of being as compatible as possible was not as acute for ARM developers as it was done in x86. And in an ecosystem where compatibility is not a top priority, according to Linus Torvalds, there is no incentive for manufacturers to make their platforms more useful.

As proof of this, we can cite the fact that ARM development is carried out on regular x86 computers. Torvalds really likes the Raspberry Pi, but he considers it just a toy. ARM cannot win until the developers of the platform are willing to use it as their main machines.

Linus Torvalds said that he had been trying to buy an ARM computer for 30 years. And from his early experience with the 6502, he gave ARM high marks for instruction processing speed. But the difficulty of getting the Acorn Archimedes machine to Finland made him buy the Sinclair QL, it was a mistake that made him understand the importance of compatibility and broad support for the platform.

Linus said similar things about the Internet of Things (IoT). When asked about making Linux easier to run on devices with low computing resources, he said the Linux developer community wouldn't do it because most of those devices are too limited.

There are many open IoT devices that the community will care about, but if their specifications are closed, only their manufacturers will support them and the kernel will not include the code to make them work properly.

In any case, Linux facilitation may not be the way to push IoT devices, even if cheaper hardware is better. People will always want more computing power and hardware resources will keep growing.

Torvalds also touched on the viability of Linux. He said that the operating system is evolving, not just adding new features, a lot of changes were made at a low level but no one really noticed it. Replying to the remark that the age of key core developers is an issue, Linus Torvalds said that there is continuity in the team and the number of core developers is commendably high, far more than other open source projects.

Rusling also made a remark to Torvalds about his behavior. To which Linus said that he is a direct person, and through the Internet no one can hear your tone. The arguing language in the Linux kernel mailing list is sometimes harsh, Linus uses tough language, but in the end you can't always be nice and calm. He went on to say that sometimes his grumpiness makes more news than his ability to be nice. Linus says he feels like a completely happy person. They had a great development process and it all actually works.

And here is the recording of the conversation between Linus Torvalds and David Rusling:

"I make free software because I think it's the only right way to develop"

Some consider Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux operating system and the Git repository, to be just a lucky man. To some, he, on the contrary, seems to be a purposeful enthusiast of his work. However, no one will argue with the fact that thanks to the exceptional talent of Torvalds, an operating system appeared that spread throughout the world.

Moreover, the free use and free editing of the OS source code was fundamentally important for its creator. A huge open source community has formed around Linux, thanks to which the system has been developing to this day: new builds and new operating systems based on the Linux kernel are constantly appearing.

The distribution terms for Linux were developed at an early stage. Linux is distributed freely and cannot be put up for sale. If the user made any changes or improvements to the system, he had to make them public in the form of source codes.

Linus wrote his OS, relying on many tools freely distributed on the Internet. The most important of these was the GCC compiler, which was copyrighted under the General Public License. Subsequently, the entire Linux operating system was licensed under the GPL.

"Game" in Linux

Linus Torvalds did not think about fame, and did not even imagine that the Linux story would go so far. He was fond of computers and programming since his school days and continued to do what he loved while studying at the University of Helsinki. He himself often notes that programming should be done with pleasure. Therefore, just like in childhood, he simply "played" in the development of Linux. Driven first by excitement, and later by positive reviews, Torvalds at one point discovered that he had created an operating system.

Linux 0.01

"No one actually creates great code the first time, except for me, but I'm the only one."

Gradually, other developers began to "play" in Linux along with its creator. Having revealed all the cards and made the source code of his offspring in the public domain, Torvalds to some extent risked losing the status of the lead developer in the project. However, he apparently guessed that his professional level was much higher than most developers. In addition, not everyone knows how to work a lot, efficiently and at the same time for free. And Linus Torvalds just had such a "unique" ability.

And the following quote illustrates the term "entertainment" in the representation of Torvalds:

So, most of you are likely to be unbearably bored at Christmas, and here is the perfect entertainment for you. Test 2.6.15-rc7. All shops will be closed and there really won't be a better activity between meals.

In general, before Linus married his student, programming was almost the only thing he did between "eating food." After marrying in 1996, Torvalds took a job at Transmeta, a California startup that was developing energy-efficient CPUs. But nevertheless, he remained the leading developer of Linux and at the same time continued to have fun.

And in 2003, he left the company to focus entirely on developing his OS. The departure was made possible by the newly formed public organization The Linux Foundation (at that time it was called Open Source Development Labs), which provided Torvalds with medical insurance and a salary.

unexpected success

The Linux community has become a kind of self-regulatory organism that no one controls centrally. Accordingly, there was no point in organizing a power struggle in the project. However, Torvalds is still credited with informal leadership. According to a famous quote, managing programmers is like herding a herd of cats. Perhaps Linus was able to find a balance between the overall direction of the project and at the same time did not interfere with the developers to walk on their own. Moreover, within the framework of this project, any participant can conduct their own development based on the Linux kernel, without disturbing anyone.

You can also remember that like attracts like: being an adequate and self-critical professional without an overestimated heart rate, Torvalds naturally “attracted” those who had similar qualities to himself. At some point, Linux became the most successful open source project. And as you know, the team most often achieves serious success when its members look in approximately the same direction.

Such results could not leave indifferent commercial manufacturers of operating systems ... and just envious people who remained on the sidelines. However, Linus Torvalds did not seek to cross their path or make anyone jealous. The Linux OS began to spread outside the community because it was a really good product. Especially wide opportunities opened before her when in the spring of 1992 the hacker Orest Zbrowski successfully adapted the X Window for Linux. Thus, Linux has a graphical interface.

git

Apart from the development of operating systems, Torvalds had little interest. Although this topic includes many aspects that you can deal with all your life. Linus considered the development of version control systems and working with databases to be the most boring areas. However, ironically, in 2005 he was forced to create his own source code control system.

In 2005, Torvalds released Linux 2.6.12-rc2 and stated that he would not continue development of the operating system until there was a replacement for the BitKeeper repository that the Linux community used until 2005. BitKeeper had to be abandoned due to disagreements with its developers regarding its free use in open source development. And Toralds categorically did not like other source code control systems.

“As a result, I decided that I myself could write something better in two weeks, and I was not mistaken.”

Torvalds created a distributed source control system Git in two weeks. He has repeatedly said that he hates centralized repositories like SVN. When creating Git, Linus clearly understood what he needed: decentralization, the ability to independently develop offline, and the convenience and reliability of branching and merging. Moreover, he created a source code management system specifically for the needs of Linux kernel developers.

But Git was destined for a "great" fate, which Torvalds, again, did not expect. The repository has become popular outside of the Linux community. Git was used by developers of such products as KVM, Qt, Drupal, Puppet, Wine.

Geek with character

In the wake of Git's popularity, Linus even gave a talk at Google in 2007. After reviewing the report, we can conclude that Torvalds treated himself and the current situation with a fair amount of irony and self-criticism:

I should give you a little warning that I'm not a very good speaker, partly because I don't like speaking, and partly because over the past few years, everyone has wanted me to talk about the foggy future of Linux in the next century, and I - in general geek and prefer to talk about technology.

Even as a child, Linus Torvalds was a shy and uncommunicative person. At school, he was considered a typical "nerd", which is quite consistent with his appearance (frail and undersized) and hobbies. He considered himself "ugly" - including because of the big nose.

In his youth, he continued to suffer from all sorts of complexes associated with socialization. True, he suffered only in his free time from programming - that is, quite rarely.

His failures in society were more than offset by successes in computer science, where Torvalds enjoyed his own "omnipotence". But such contradictions are characteristic of outstanding people and are compensated with age. In this case, you can see what imprint this left on his manner of communication.

You can disagree with me all you want, but for the duration of this report, everyone who disagrees with me is, by definition, dumb freaks. Remember this! You will be free to do and think whatever you want when I finish my report. And now I'm giving my only correct opinion, so CVS users, if you really love it so much, get out of my sight. You need to go to a psychiatric hospital or somewhere else.

The topic in which Torvalds feels confident becomes a field for improvisation, self-irony, coquetry and other forms of flirting with the public.

I started the project, developed the architecture and the initial code, and over the past year and a half it has been supported by a much nicer guy, the Japanese Junio ​​Hamano, and it was he who made Git more accessible to mere mortals. Early versions of Git did require a certain amount of "mental points" of brainpower. Since then, it has become much easier.

In general, this is my usual approach - everyone else does their best, and I myself can just sit and sip Pina Colada.

Not alien to Linus Torvalds and such qualities as frank directness, bordering on demonstrative obscenity. This is illustrated by the history of cooperation with NVidia in 2012.

One of the university students asked the creator of Linux to comment on the relationship of the open source community with one of the world's largest developers of graphics accelerators and processors - NVidia.

Linus Torvalds has stated that NVidia is one of the worst companies he has ever dealt with. According to him, representatives of NVidia are completely unwilling to cooperate with the Linux development community and continue to keep the code of their graphics drivers for Linux closed.

Concluding his answer, Linus Torvalds summed up the above in relation to NVidia, made an obscene hand gesture to the camera and declared: "NVidia, fuck you!"

The values ​​that Linus Torvalds championed (perhaps a little too ostentatiously) changed the way the open source community could be. His example inspired, and still continues to inspire, "feats" of other developers.

April 20, 2012 Linus Torvalds (together with the Japanese physician Sinya Yamanaka) became the laureate of the Millennium Technology Award (Finland).

In 2014, Linus Torvalds received the Computer Pioneer Award from the IEEE Computer Society.

Finnish programmer and hacker Linus Benedikt Torvalds (according to other sources - Torvalds) was born in Helsinki in 1969 on December 28th.

Linux (the most popular independent operating system today) was inspired by Andrew Tanenbaum's book on the capabilities of the Minix operating system.

Linus Torvalds: biography of the "mighty Finn"

Torvalds' father and mother are Finnish Swedes. In the 1960s they were called students who sympathized with the radicals. They named their only son in honor of Linus Pauling, an American physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize winner in 1954.

The political preferences of Linus's father (he was a member of the Communist Party) were often the reason for ridicule from the boy's classmates. Despite this, Linus, who was considered a reserved child, studied perfectly. He was especially good at the exact sciences - mathematics and physics.

In 1988, Torvalds joined the ranks of students at the University of Helsinki, successfully graduated and graduated (1996), receiving the title of Master of Cybernetics.

To date, Linus Torvalds and his wife Tove, a six-time Finnish karate champion and a former student of Linus, live in the American city of Portland. They have three daughters: Patricia Miranda (1996), Daniela Yolanda (1998) and Celeste Amanda (2000) along with Randy the cat.

From an early age, Linus did everything himself. Once, without waiting for the help of his father, he independently assembled a model of a complex model of a sea vessel, and a few years later, as a twenty-year-old student, he “went crazy” and independently created a complex computer program.

Starting to build his own system, a student at the University of Helsinki did not plan to compete with companies like Microsoft in any way, programming was just a hobby for him, which in just eight years quietly transformed into one of the most promising operating systems.

Penguin Tooks - the emblem of Linux - was at first a personal talisman that Torvalds chose for himself. Linus explains his choice this way: when he was at the zoo, he was bitten by a penguin.

Among the "laws of Linus" there is one that was fully formulated by the US programmer Eric Raymond. It sounds like this: "When observation is at the proper level, all errors lie on the surface." When a deep mistake is searched for by many people, it becomes superficial. Both software developers are united by the same views on things.

There is only one question. Raymond considers him a serious problem, and Torvalds does not want to notice him. Linus believes that the most important thing is the openness of the program code, and Eric is sure that the overly high cost of programs is a much more important problem.

To date, Torvalds, without too much modesty, can call himself the creator of approximately two percent of the system kernel. He also owns the trademark of the same name and has the right to decide on changes to the official kernel branch. To monitor the operation of the Linux system, Torvalds is helped by the non-profit organization Linux International, as well as users of the Linux operating system.

Today, leading computer companies such as Microsoft are hiring Linux-savvy programmers, and in the Celestial Empire, Linux has been declared the official state operating system. The first Slavic company that refused to update Windows was the Russian Aquarius.

Every year, on August 25, the community called "Open Source" celebrates the birthday of Linux, the operating system that Torvalds created. Linus, in turn, takes care of the general availability of his invention, thereby attracting the attention of thousands of progressive programmers to it.

First own house

Buying a house in the United States was a forced measure: renting an apartment costs Americans much more than buying their own home. Torvalds himself admitted to reporters that the appearance of his own house and the sudden rise of fame did not affect his lifestyle in any way, which cannot be said about the birth of daughters.

He talks about all this and many more things in his autobiography (Linus Torvalds, the book Just for Fun).

The career path of Linus Torvalds

Programmer Linus Torvalds, whose brief biography can fit in just a few lines, from February 1997 to June 2003 did not represent his work outside the Transmeta Corporation. The next place of work was the English company Open Source Development Lab (now called The Linux Foundation).

Today, Torvalds is a remote employee, he works from home.

Linus Torvalds, computer science and the first iron. How it all started

A significant role in the life of Linus Torvalds (as he himself believes) was played by the work written by Andrew Tanenbaum, called "Operating Systems: Creation and Sale", where the author reproduces the designs of systems such as Minix.

The boy was first introduced to the computer by his mathematician grandfather Leo Torvalds. Linus then for the first time (it happened in 1981) touched the first computer in his life - the Commodore VIC-20. Leo managed to interest his grandson - Linus became interested in programming and began by studying the manual for his grandfather's computer. Soon, having read specialized magazines, he began to write his own programs and one day he bought a new computer based on the 386th processor, where he put Minix.

He quickly identified the disadvantages of this system and began to write his own version of the device. Constantly supplementing his project with new features, Linus found that as a result of the transformations, an independent "OS" appeared. So, unexpectedly for himself, Linus Torvalds created his own operating system. It was then that he sent the Minix news team his landmark message.

Legendary Correspondence

“Greetings to Minix users!

I am creating an operating system for free (this is my hobby, so the system will be amateur) for 386(486) AT clones ...

I want feedback on what qualities of Minix people like (or don't like) because my concept is similar to this...

I would like to know about the preferences of the majority of users. I agree to listen to any advice, but I do not promise to implement them.

On one of the September days of 1991, Linus Torvalds created the source code for the very first version of his program, making it publicly available. His work attracted the attention of hundreds and then thousands of programmers, who, by the way, gave the name to his invention. Linux quickly spread across the Web, and everyone tried to supplement and improve it. Linus's invention continues to be distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Wrath of the "system gods"

The public's keen interest in Linux angered the author of the Minix system. Andrew Tanenbaum severely criticized his student Torvalds for the design of the new system, calling the creation of a monolithic kernel (1991) a fundamental mistake. Having titled his message on the Web with a capacious phrase: "Linux is outdated," Professor Tanenbaum tried to explain to users that Linux is short-lived, since it cannot be transferred to another processor other than the current standard (80x86).

The criticism hit Linus Torvalds hard. It was dangerous to argue with the famous and influential Tanenbaum, but Torvalds continued to defend his case.

The publicity of the kernel written by Linus made it available for use along with the developments of the public version of the Unix system. Soon, journalists began to talk and write about Linux and its creator.

Timeline of fame

In 1996, astronomers who discovered a new asteroid named their discovery after Linux Torvalds.

In 1998, he received the EFF Pioneer Award.

1999 - Stockholm University award. Torvalds was awarded a Ph.D.

And in the next year, 2000, the "mighty Finn" was awarded a similar title by scientists from the University of Helsinki. In the same year, the Finnish programmer was awarded the medal "For the Improvement of Information Systems", and also took 17th position in the list compiled by Time reporters based on the results of the "Person of the Century" poll.

In 2001, Richard Stallman and Ken Sakamura shared the Takeda Prize with Linus Torvalds (it is given to people who contribute to the social and financial well-being of the nation).

In 2004, Time magazine included Linus in the list of the most famous people, and after the journalistic investigation "100 famous Finns" he was in an honorable 16th place.

In 2005, according to BusinessWeek, Linus Torvalds was awarded the title of "Best Executive" and also earned an award from Reed College.

2006: Time proclaimed Torvalds a pioneering hero and one of those who have achieved success over the past 60 years. In the same year, Business 2.0 magazine, appreciating Torvalds' personal qualities, included him in the "top ten non-materialists."

And in 2008, Linus became the official "exhibit" of the California Computer History Museum.

The era of Linux

Linux time is usually counted from the day when Finnish student Linus Torvalds began a correspondence with the team that maintains the Minix operating system (Linux prototype).

An interesting detail: in his message, Torvalds said that Linux can only be installed on 80386 platforms. Now Linux is installed on many platforms, including many embedded and portable ones. Hundreds of copies of the Linux distribution have been distributed to millions of users and developers.

Projects like Gnome, MySQL, Apache, OpenOffice.org, Mozilla and other open source applications became active popularizers of Linux, and Sun, IBM and Hewlett-Packard were among the investors who believed in the need for further development of this system.

Hermit programmer

The weekly periodical "Orthodox Computer Security" unspeakably pleased the fans of Linus Torvalds in March 2015, announcing that their idol and creator of the Linux operating system is being prepared for tonsure.

From one of the pages of "Orthodox Computer Security" Hieromonk Lukian (that's exactly what Torvalds will be called now, the source points out) reports that he is tired of being in the company of Satan's servants - Apple and Microsoft.

The creator of the innovative operating system also said that when creating Linux, he did not think about self-interest, but only wanted to make the world a better place... Now he accepts monasticism, since his views on life are most in tune with the lifestyle of a minister of the Orthodox Church.

"The seclusion, meekness and innocence of monks and fans of my operating system are identical," said Lucian, known to the world under the name of programmer Linus Torvalds, saying goodbye.

Selflessness as a springboard

After moving from Finland to the USA, Linus was “grabbed off” by the processor corporation Transmeta, appointing a person whose very name alone now brings in a good income, an excellent salary. Working in a corporation, Linus finds time to improve his operating system.

Transmeta is not the only source of income for the "mighty Finn". His compatriots - the owners of Finnish communications companies - consider it an honor to include Linus on the Board of Directors.

Linus Torvalds, whose fortune is dependent on the sale of shares in Linux-based software companies, keeps an eye on the activities of his colleagues, preventing the slightest attempts by competitors to make his creation less compact and practical.

Linus Benedict Torvalds, or Turvalds (Swedish Linus Benedict Torvalds (inf.) ; December 28, 1969, Helsinki, Finland) - Finnish-American programmer, hacker.

Encouraged by reading Andrew Tanenbaum's book on the Minix operating system, Linus created Linux, the core of the GNU/Linux operating system, which is currently the most widely used free operating system.

From 1997 to 2003 Linus worked for Transmet. After that, he organized Open Source Development Labs. He currently works at the Linux Foundation (since 2007), where he develops the Linux kernel.

Biography

Linus's parents, Finnish Swedes Niels and Anna Torvalds, were radical students in the 1960s and later became journalists. Linus was named after the American chemist Linus Pauling. At school he excelled in physics and mathematics. He was an uncommunicative, modest boy. He was often teased because of his father's political views.

In 1988, Linus entered the University of Helsinki, graduating in 1996 with a master's degree in cybernetics.

Linus Torvalds lives in the city of Portland (USA, Oregon) with his wife Tove (fin. Tove Torvalds, nee Tove Monni), a six-time Finnish karate champion and a former student of Linus, three daughters: Patricia Miranda (born December 5, 1996), Daniela Yolanda (born April 16, 1998) and Celeste Amanda (born November 20, 2000).

From February 1997 to June 2003, he worked at Transmeta Corporation, after which he moved to Open Source Development Labs (now The Linux Foundation). While the Linux Foundation is based in Beaverton, Torvalds works from home.

The personal mascot of Linus Torvalds is the Tux penguin, which also became the emblem of Linux. In his book Just for Fun, Torvalds writes that he chose the penguin as an emblem because he was once pecked by a penguin at the zoo.

One of the "Linus Laws", finally formulated by the American hacker Eric Raymond, says: "With enough eyes, all errors lie on the surface." A deep mistake is one that is difficult to find. However, if enough people are looking for bugs, they all come to the surface. Both programmers share the ideology of open source, partly based on the belief in this law.

However, their views differ on what is more important: the openness of the code or the "freedom" of programs, their distribution (Raymond is a supporter of the latter).

linux

In 1981, Linus' grandfather Leo, a mathematician, introduced his grandson to the Commodore VIC-20 computer, which he used for mathematical calculations. Linus became interested in programming and read machine manuals. He then began reading computer magazines and writing his own programs, first in BASIC and then in assembly language.

From his school years, Linus received scholarships for excellence in mathematics. The first computer he bought was the Sinclair QL, which then cost almost $2,000.

After leaving school, Linus entered the University of Helsinki for a course in computer science. The training was interrupted by a year's service in the army.

A significant event in Torvalds' life was his reading of Andrew Tanenbaum's book Operating Systems: Design and Implementation, ISBN 0-13-638677-6. The book presents the structure of systems of the UNIX family using the example of the Minix OS written by Tanenbaum. Linus was very interested in what he had read. Later, he bought a new 386-based computer and installed Minix.

Having discovered flaws in the system, he began to write his own terminal emulator, in which he implemented task switching. Then Linus added more and more functions to the program, thanks to which it soon began to acquire the features of a full-fledged operating system. He then sent the now-famous announcement to the Minix newsgroup asking, "What would you most like to see in minix?"

On September 17, 1991, Linus released the source code of the program (version 0.01) for public download. The system immediately aroused great interest. Hundreds, then thousands of programmers became interested in the system (the directory with the program, for lack of better options, was called “Linux”) and worked on improving and supplementing it. It was distributed and is still distributed under the terms of the GNU public license - GPL.