Linus Torvalds

Linux kernel

Torvalds began work on a new operating system kernel, later named Linux, in 1991, and announced the project in August of that year. Torvalds's master's thesis was titled "Linux: A Portable Operating System". Working with a growing team of volunteers, Torvalds released version 1.0 of the kernel in the spring of 1994.⁴⁵¹

Torvalds later joined Transmeta, a start-up designing an energy-saving processor, while continuing to oversee kernel development. In 2003 Torvalds left Transmeta to work on the kernel full time with the backing of the Open Source Development Labs, which merged with the Free Standards Group in 2007 to form the Linux Foundation, where Torvalds is a Fellow.⁴¹

Torvalds remains the final authority on new code accepted into the standard kernel. The kernel's MAINTAINERS file lists Torvalds for "THE REST", the catch-all entry for files without another maintainer, and major releases such as Linux 3.0 and 6.0 were tagged by Torvalds in the mainline tree. The kernel is distributed under the GPL-2.0 license with a syscall exception described in its COPYING file.¹²⁷⁸⁹

Git

In 2005 Torvalds created Git, a distributed version-control system, after finding that existing free and open-source tools did not meet Torvalds's needs for performance and scale. Git's README credits Torvalds with the original code and the name, and the project's first commit, "Initial revision of git, the information manager from hell", is authored by Torvalds.¹³¹⁰

Work and contributions

• Linux kernel Open-source code

  Announced the Linux kernel in August 1991, according to the Linux Foundation, and is listed in the kernel's MAINTAINERS file as the maintainer of "THE REST", the catch-all entry for files without another maintainer. The kernel's COPYING file licenses it under GPL-2.0 with the Linux syscall note.¹²⁹

• Git Open-source code

  Wrote the first version of Git in 2005, according to the Linux Foundation. Git's README says the project was originally written by Torvalds, who also gave it its name, and that it is covered by the GNU General Public License version 2.³¹

Timeline

1. Aug 1991Announced development of the Linux kernel.¹
2. 1994Released version 1.0 of the Linux kernel with a team of volunteers.⁴
3. 2003Left Transmeta to work on the Linux kernel full time with backing from OSDL.⁴
4. 2005Created the Git distributed version-control system.¹¹⁰
5. Jul 2011Tagged the Linux 3.0 release in the mainline kernel tree.⁷
6. 2012Received the Millennium Technology Prize for the open-source Linux operating system.¹¹
7. 2014Received the IEEE Computer Society Computer Pioneer Award.⁴
8. Oct 2, 2022Tagged the Linux 6.0 release in the mainline kernel tree.⁸

Other documented roles

Roles the sources document that are not confirmed as current.

• Held a position at Transmeta while continuing to oversee Linux kernel development (until 2003), Transmeta⁴
• Worked full time on the Linux kernel with OSDL backing (from 2003), Open Source Development Labs (OSDL)⁴

Honors and recognition

• Computer History Museum Fellow · Computer History Museum⁵
• Millennium Technology Prize · Technology Academy Finland, 2012¹¹
• Computer Pioneer Award · IEEE Computer Society, 2014⁴

Where they work

• Linux Foundation 3 people in the wiki

Related people

• Matt WhiteAlso at Linux Foundation
• Jim ZemlinAlso at Linux Foundation
• Andrew LaackDeveloper tools
• Michael HanDeveloper tools
• Harold BoothDeveloper tools
• Scott WuDeveloper tools
• Jay ParikhDeveloper tools
• 0xSeroDeveloper tools
• Terry Yue ZhuoDeveloper tools
• Ben DavisDeveloper tools