Quotes By 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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."

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.