Linus Torvalds Inspirational Quotes (132)

Being open source meant that I could work on the technical side (along with lots of other people), and others who had the interest and inclination could start up companies around it.

I often compare open source to science. To where science took this whole notion of developing ideas in the open and improving on other peoples' ideas and making it into what science is today and the incredible advances that we have had. And I compare that to witchcraft and alchemy, where openness was something you didn't do.

If you want to travel around the world and be invited to speak at a lot of different places, just write a Unix operating system.

You won't get sued for anticompetitive behavior.

Language is one of the fundamental principles of human understanding. It is the way we interact with each other and how we grasp the world we live in. Intelligence is the ability to avoid doing work, yet getting the work done.

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

In open source, we feel strongly that to really do something well, you have to get a lot of people involved.

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. As such, I'm not very likely to make the same kind of money that Bill made.

Linux has more than satisfied any small initial expectations I had. It's simply incredible how successful Linux has been, and how good a time I've had developing it and leading the project. It does take a lot of my time, but it's time I really enjoy spending, and Linux has continued to be challenging both technically and from a managing standpoint.

I like offending people, because I think people who get offended should be offended.

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

The correct form factor for a laptop is obviously 12 and 2 lbs, and I don't understand why everybody gets that wrong.