Linus Torvalds has not joined FLAPSS and has not endorsed it. This page is a reference record assembled from published interviews and public remarks. Every answer below is a direct quotation with the source and date shown next to it.
Creator of the Linux kernel and of Git
Finland · b. 1969
Wrote the first version of the Linux kernel as a student in Helsinki in 1991 and has coordinated its development since. Also created the version-control system Git in 2005. Has lived in the United States since 1997.
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I mean, I still work alone. Really — I work alone in my house, often in my bathrobe. When a photographer shows up, I dress up, so I have clothes on. And that's how I've always worked.
Recorded Chris Anderson, TED2016, Vancouver, TED (transcript of the TED2016 interview), February 2016 source
The way I work is — I want to not have external stimulation. You can kind of see, on the walls are this light green. I'm told that at mental institutions they use that on the walls. It's like a calming color, it's not something that really stimulates you. What you can't see is the computer here, you only see the screen, but the main thing I worry about in my computer is — it doesn't have to be big and powerful, although I like that — it really has to be completely silent. I know people who work for Google and they have their own small data center at home, and I don't do that. My office is the most boring office you'll ever see. And I sit there alone in the quiet. If the cat comes up, it sits in my lap. And I want to hear the cat purring, not the sound of the fans in the computer.
Recorded Chris Anderson, TED2016, Vancouver, TED (transcript of the TED2016 interview), February 2016 source
I've actually felt slightly uncomfortable at TED for the last two days, because there's a lot of vision going on, right? And I am not a visionary. I do not have a five-year plan. I'm an engineer. And I think it's really — I mean — I'm perfectly happy with all the people who are walking around and just staring at the clouds and looking at the stars and saying, “I want to go there.” But I'm looking at the ground, and I want to fix the pothole that's right in front of me before I fall in.
Recorded Chris Anderson, TED2016, Vancouver, TED (transcript of the TED2016 interview), February 2016 source
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