My Take
Linus Torvalds is the kind of person whose impact is almost impossible to overstate — he wrote the Linux kernel as a college student in Helsinki just because he wanted a better operating system for himself, then handed it to the world with a casual "here, do whatever you want with it," and now it runs practically everything from Android phones to the servers behind the internet to the Mars rovers. He also gave us Git almost as a side project, which is now how basically every developer on the planet manages code. He's notoriously blunt, famously uninterested in PR polish, and has never seemed to care much about being likable — he just cares about the work being right. For a guy who's never been a celebrity in any traditional sense, his fingerprints are on more of modern life than almost anyone alive.
Overview
Linus Benedict Torvalds (born 28 December 1969) is a Finnish and American software engineer who is the creator and lead developer of the Linux kernel since 1991. He also created the distributed version control system Git.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Linus Torvalds
- Name (Japanese)
- リーナス・トーバルズ
- Reading
- りーなす・とーばるず
- Born
- December 28, 1969 (age 56)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Capricorn / Rooster
- Origin
- Helsinki, Finland
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- programmer / software developer / writer / inventor / blogger
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- University of Helsinki
Awards & achievements
- 2012 Millennium Technology Prize
- 2014 Computer Pioneer Award
- Suuret suomalaiset
- 2000 Lovelace Medal
- 1999 honorary doctor of Stockholm University
- 1998 EFF Award
- 2000 doctor honoris causa of the University of Helsinki
- 2008 Computer History Museum Fellow
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | Subsurface | — |
6. Links
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.