WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.500 Welcome, welcome to the Deep Dive. You are exactly 00:00:03.500 --> 00:00:05.240 where you need to be if you're looking to get 00:00:05.240 --> 00:00:09.480 smart, fast, and really thoroughly about the 00:00:09.480 --> 00:00:11.400 figures who didn't just participate in the digital 00:00:11.400 --> 00:00:13.720 world, but who fundamentally engineered its foundation. 00:00:14.060 --> 00:00:15.900 We're here to give you that shortcut to being 00:00:15.900 --> 00:00:18.699 truly well -informed, moving beyond the legend 00:00:18.699 --> 00:00:22.300 and into the deeply critical details. Today, 00:00:22.379 --> 00:00:25.179 we are undertaking a pretty critical synthesis 00:00:25.179 --> 00:00:27.539 of the sources you shared on one of the most 00:00:27.539 --> 00:00:30.289 influential yet... I mean, personally contradictory 00:00:30.289 --> 00:00:33.630 figures in modern technology, Linus Torvalds. 00:00:33.750 --> 00:00:35.890 His name is, well, it's synonymous with global 00:00:35.890 --> 00:00:37.850 infrastructure, whether you're using an Android 00:00:37.850 --> 00:00:40.469 phone, a massive cloud server, or really almost 00:00:40.469 --> 00:00:42.409 anything running the modern internet. That's 00:00:42.409 --> 00:00:44.909 right. We are diving deep into Linus Torvalds, 00:00:44.990 --> 00:00:48.109 the creator and lead developer of the Linux kernel, 00:00:48.189 --> 00:00:50.170 and of course, that foundational distributed 00:00:50.170 --> 00:00:53.229 version control system, Git. And our mission 00:00:53.229 --> 00:00:55.549 today is to understand not just the code he wrote, 00:00:55.630 --> 00:01:00.329 but the personality that curated a well a global 00:01:00.329 --> 00:01:03.109 collaborative revolution we're going to trace 00:01:03.109 --> 00:01:05.870 his journey from a hobbyist coder in finland 00:01:05.870 --> 00:01:08.750 all the way to the ultimate global authority 00:01:08.750 --> 00:01:11.319 on the kernel We'll be synthesizing your sources 00:01:11.319 --> 00:01:15.200 to illuminate his early life, the kind of messy, 00:01:15.319 --> 00:01:18.900 frustrating origins of both Linux and Git, and 00:01:18.900 --> 00:01:21.540 the specific high -level nature of his authority 00:01:21.540 --> 00:01:24.219 as the benevolent dictator. And, of course, we 00:01:24.219 --> 00:01:26.299 have to talk about the highly publicized, sometimes 00:01:26.299 --> 00:01:28.739 explosive controversies surrounding his leadership 00:01:28.739 --> 00:01:32.140 and his communication style. Okay, so let's unpack 00:01:32.140 --> 00:01:34.819 this with a few startling hooks right up front 00:01:34.819 --> 00:01:36.799 that should, I think, immediately illustrate 00:01:36.799 --> 00:01:38.359 the complexity we're dealing with here. Let's 00:01:38.359 --> 00:01:40.849 do it. Consider the name Linux. He originally 00:01:40.849 --> 00:01:43.049 wanted to call his kernel Freaks. Yeah, F -R 00:01:43.049 --> 00:01:45.730 -E -X -S. Which, I mean, thankfully was overruled 00:01:45.730 --> 00:01:48.689 by a university server admin. Can you imagine 00:01:48.689 --> 00:01:50.969 booting up your supercomputer with Freaks? It 00:01:50.969 --> 00:01:53.370 just doesn't sound right. It really doesn't. 00:01:53.370 --> 00:01:55.250 And then if you look at his two world -changing 00:01:55.250 --> 00:01:58.530 contributions, Linux and Git 1 was created to 00:01:58.530 --> 00:02:01.269 fill a personal technical need, sure. But the 00:02:01.269 --> 00:02:04.049 other one, Git, was created out of pure frustration 00:02:04.049 --> 00:02:06.750 and you could almost say spite towards a proprietary 00:02:06.750 --> 00:02:11.770 vendor. The tool that powers nearly all modern 00:02:11.770 --> 00:02:15.090 software collaboration is basically a technical 00:02:15.090 --> 00:02:17.729 middle finger he created himself. It absolutely 00:02:17.729 --> 00:02:19.830 is. He needed a tool. The one he was using was 00:02:19.830 --> 00:02:21.550 taken away. So he just said, fine, I'll build 00:02:21.550 --> 00:02:23.590 a better one. And here's the detail that I think 00:02:23.590 --> 00:02:26.150 just perfectly bridges the immense scale of his 00:02:26.150 --> 00:02:29.949 work with the intimacy of his life. Deep inside 00:02:29.949 --> 00:02:32.770 the Linux kernel. I mean, way down in the core 00:02:32.770 --> 00:02:35.050 function for restarting the computer. The reboot 00:02:35.050 --> 00:02:37.689 system call? Exactly. There's a set of magic 00:02:37.689 --> 00:02:40.289 values written in hexadecimal. And these magic 00:02:40.289 --> 00:02:42.270 values, if you convert them, are the dates of 00:02:42.270 --> 00:02:45.430 birth of his three daughters. That juxtaposition, 00:02:45.509 --> 00:02:48.289 the global operating system architect embedding 00:02:48.289 --> 00:02:51.610 a family secret into the core system calls, I 00:02:51.610 --> 00:02:53.750 mean, that perfectly encapsulates the complex, 00:02:53.990 --> 00:02:56.129 human, and technically brilliant figure we're 00:02:56.129 --> 00:02:58.629 about to explore. I agree. Let's start at the 00:02:58.629 --> 00:03:01.009 source. Let's trace the roots of this accidental 00:03:01.009 --> 00:03:04.289 revolutionary in Section 1. So to really understand 00:03:04.289 --> 00:03:07.189 how Linus Torvalds became the person who could 00:03:07.189 --> 00:03:10.650 start a global technology movement from a university 00:03:10.650 --> 00:03:13.150 project, we have to look at where he came from. 00:03:13.310 --> 00:03:15.770 You absolutely do. He was born in Helsinki, Finland, 00:03:15.990 --> 00:03:19.849 in 1969. And his family background, I think it 00:03:19.849 --> 00:03:22.569 sets a fascinating precedent for his later open 00:03:22.569 --> 00:03:25.330 source kind of... anti -establishment ethos. 00:03:25.349 --> 00:03:28.330 Indeed. His parents, Anna and Nils Torvalds, 00:03:28.349 --> 00:03:30.550 were both journalists, and they were notably 00:03:30.550 --> 00:03:33.789 described as campus radicals during the countercultural 00:03:33.789 --> 00:03:36.169 movements of the 1960s. And that's not just a 00:03:36.169 --> 00:03:38.250 biographical footnote, is it? No, not at all. 00:03:38.310 --> 00:03:40.650 It provides a context of, well, intellectual 00:03:40.650 --> 00:03:43.509 curiosity and a real willingness to challenge 00:03:43.509 --> 00:03:45.710 established structures. And that, I mean, that 00:03:45.710 --> 00:03:48.189 mirrors the open source movement itself. Exactly. 00:03:48.330 --> 00:03:50.090 And beyond that intellectual background, there's 00:03:50.090 --> 00:03:52.349 a cultural layer here, too. The family belongs 00:03:52.349 --> 00:03:54.289 to the Swedish speaking minority in Finland. 00:03:54.449 --> 00:03:57.409 Right, which is a significant detail. That minority 00:03:57.409 --> 00:04:00.650 status often comes with a distinct cultural identity 00:04:00.650 --> 00:04:03.729 within the broader Finnish context. It can sometimes 00:04:03.729 --> 00:04:05.990 foster an early sense of standing, you know, 00:04:06.009 --> 00:04:08.270 slightly outside the mainstream. And we can't 00:04:08.270 --> 00:04:10.430 overlook the wonderful story behind his name. 00:04:10.650 --> 00:04:14.169 He is Linus Benedict Torvalds, and the sources 00:04:14.169 --> 00:04:16.670 confirm he was named after the Nobel Prize winning 00:04:16.670 --> 00:04:20.069 chemist Linus Pauling. But, of course, when discussing 00:04:20.069 --> 00:04:23.670 his name, he gave a much more layered, much more 00:04:23.670 --> 00:04:26.470 Linus perspective on it. He did. He famously 00:04:26.470 --> 00:04:29.610 articulated this dual identity, stating he believed 00:04:29.610 --> 00:04:32.610 he was named equally for Linus the Peanuts cartoon 00:04:32.610 --> 00:04:35.290 character. Which meant he saw himself as, and 00:04:35.290 --> 00:04:37.370 this is a quote, half Nobel Prize winning Temist 00:04:37.370 --> 00:04:40.149 and half blanket carrying cartoon character. 00:04:40.449 --> 00:04:43.089 That quote is just pure gold. It completely humanizes 00:04:43.089 --> 00:04:45.290 him and it sets the tone for his professional 00:04:45.290 --> 00:04:47.649 persona. It really does. He brings the scientific 00:04:47.649 --> 00:04:50.199 rigs. That's the Nobel Temes part. But with a 00:04:50.199 --> 00:04:52.939 pragmatic, almost comforting simplicity and, 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:56.000 you know, a need for security. That's the blanket 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:57.779 carrying Peanuts character. He wanted something 00:04:57.779 --> 00:05:00.800 robust, but also simple and accessible. OK, so 00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:03.379 now let's talk about the spark, the actual computing. 00:05:03.899 --> 00:05:06.870 His interest began exceptionally young. age 11 00:05:06.870 --> 00:05:10.009 in 1981, when he first got his hands on a Commodore 00:05:10.009 --> 00:05:12.209 VIC -20. And you have to remember, this wasn't 00:05:12.209 --> 00:05:14.649 some powerful research machine. It was a consumer 00:05:14.649 --> 00:05:16.949 hobbyist device. And this was at a time when 00:05:16.949 --> 00:05:18.689 computers were still pretty rare in Finland. 00:05:18.889 --> 00:05:20.949 Right. And what stands out here is his technical 00:05:20.949 --> 00:05:23.910 trajectory. He didn't just dabble in basic like 00:05:23.910 --> 00:05:26.949 most of us did. No. He demonstrated an immediate 00:05:26.949 --> 00:05:30.350 and, frankly, intense desire to master the machine 00:05:30.350 --> 00:05:33.550 at its most fundamental level. He quickly progressed 00:05:33.550 --> 00:05:36.449 from basic to programming by directly accessing 00:05:36.449 --> 00:05:39.870 the 6502 CPU in machine code. Wait, let's pause 00:05:39.870 --> 00:05:42.250 on that for a second for our listeners. Why is 00:05:42.250 --> 00:05:44.959 that so significant? bypassing assembly language 00:05:44.959 --> 00:05:47.399 and going straight to machine code on the 6502 00:05:47.399 --> 00:05:50.040 it's massively significant assembly language 00:05:50.040 --> 00:05:53.639 is um it's the human readable intermediary layer 00:05:53.639 --> 00:05:56.360 between a programming language like c and the 00:05:56.360 --> 00:05:58.800 raw binary instructions that chip executes so 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:01.959 that's like a translation layer exactly by skipping 00:06:01.959 --> 00:06:04.980 that and going straight to machine code raw binary 00:06:04.980 --> 00:06:08.560 or hexadecimal instructions he was demonstrating 00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:11.339 a foundational commitment to absolute control 00:06:11.339 --> 00:06:14.519 over the hardware He wasn't relying on a compiler 00:06:14.519 --> 00:06:16.879 or an assembler to interpret his intentions. 00:06:17.139 --> 00:06:19.560 He was telling the CPU exactly what to do. Directly. 00:06:19.560 --> 00:06:22.399 This meticulous, low -level mastery is precisely 00:06:22.399 --> 00:06:25.040 the mindset you need to build a modern kernel, 00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:27.800 which is the layer that mediates between all 00:06:27.800 --> 00:06:30.639 the software and the raw hardware. He was basically 00:06:30.639 --> 00:06:32.660 teaching himself kernel development by the age 00:06:32.660 --> 00:06:34.939 of 12. And that early self -teaching was fueled 00:06:34.939 --> 00:06:38.399 by necessity, too. When he later acquired a Sinclair 00:06:38.399 --> 00:06:42.019 QL computer, he modified it extensively. especially 00:06:42.019 --> 00:06:44.600 his operating system. That's because, as he noted, 00:06:44.759 --> 00:06:47.100 software was incredibly difficult to get in Finland 00:06:47.100 --> 00:06:49.160 in the 1980s. You couldn't just download a tool 00:06:49.160 --> 00:06:52.060 chain or pop down to a huge computer store. So 00:06:52.060 --> 00:06:54.879 this isolation, rather than stifling him, it 00:06:54.879 --> 00:06:57.220 actually forced him into self -reliance. It really 00:06:57.220 --> 00:06:59.680 did. He wrote his own assembler, his own graphics 00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:01.959 libraries for Pac -Man, and even a full Pac -Man 00:07:01.959 --> 00:07:04.560 clone game he called Cool Man. So he was building 00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:07.579 the entire software step he needed, from the 00:07:07.579 --> 00:07:10.160 tool to translate the code to the actual entertainment 00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:13.060 at the end. all because the external market just 00:07:13.060 --> 00:07:15.980 wasn't there for him. Which strongly foreshadows 00:07:15.980 --> 00:07:18.139 the mentality that later drove him to create 00:07:18.139 --> 00:07:20.660 Linux. If the tools you need don't exist, or 00:07:20.660 --> 00:07:22.819 if they're proprietary and limiting, you build 00:07:22.819 --> 00:07:25.720 them yourself, and you make them open. That self 00:07:25.720 --> 00:07:28.430 -reliance theme is so strong. After graduating 00:07:28.430 --> 00:07:31.050 high school, he attended the University of Helsinki 00:07:31.050 --> 00:07:34.709 starting in 1988, but his studies were interrupted. 00:07:35.290 --> 00:07:37.870 Right, by Finland's system of mandatory military 00:07:37.870 --> 00:07:40.670 service. He completed an 11 -month tour of duty 00:07:40.670 --> 00:07:43.069 in the Finnish Natin Island Brigade in 1989. 00:07:43.790 --> 00:07:46.209 And he went through officer training, achieving 00:07:46.209 --> 00:07:48.449 the rank of second lieutenant, serving as an 00:07:48.449 --> 00:07:50.449 artillery observer. It's certainly a surprising 00:07:50.449 --> 00:07:52.889 line on the resume of the world's most famous 00:07:52.889 --> 00:07:55.720 coder. It is, but... You have to wonder if that 00:07:55.720 --> 00:07:58.259 kind of mandatory service instills a certain 00:07:58.259 --> 00:08:00.620 kind of disciplined, structured approach. It 00:08:00.620 --> 00:08:03.100 very well could, even if it seems antithetical 00:08:03.100 --> 00:08:08.040 to the chaotic, free nature of open source coding. 00:08:08.459 --> 00:08:10.699 And when he returned to his studies in 1990, 00:08:11.060 --> 00:08:13.160 the technical environment at the university was 00:08:13.160 --> 00:08:15.540 richer, and that structure was immediately applied 00:08:15.540 --> 00:08:18.600 to his most important discovery. unix he first 00:08:18.600 --> 00:08:21.800 encountered unix on a dc microvax running ultri 00:08:21.800 --> 00:08:26.000 ix so this is his first exposure to a truly robust 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:28.939 multi -user operating system the professional 00:08:28.939 --> 00:08:31.970 standard It was the blueprint. But the truly 00:08:31.970 --> 00:08:33.889 transformative catalyst, that came on academic 00:08:33.889 --> 00:08:36.590 work. Andrew Tannenbaum's book, Operating Systems, 00:08:36.990 --> 00:08:39.730 Design and Implementation. Which described MIX. 00:08:39.929 --> 00:08:41.990 Exactly. A stripped down educational version 00:08:41.990 --> 00:08:44.509 of Unix. Torvald studied this and he saw both 00:08:44.509 --> 00:08:46.570 its brilliance and its limitations, especially 00:08:46.570 --> 00:08:48.330 what applied to the hardware he was just about 00:08:48.330 --> 00:08:50.789 to buy. Which brings us to the single most important 00:08:50.789 --> 00:08:52.929 purchase in the history of his career. January 00:08:52.929 --> 00:08:58.029 5, 1991. He bought an Intel 80386 based IBM PC 00:08:58.029 --> 00:09:01.740 clone. And this timing is so crucial. The 386 00:09:01.740 --> 00:09:05.360 chip offered a 32 -bit architecture and, importantly, 00:09:05.639 --> 00:09:08.399 memory management that previous chips just couldn't 00:09:08.399 --> 00:09:11.659 provide affordably. This was powerful, affordable 00:09:11.659 --> 00:09:14.399 new hardware that could handle a real operating 00:09:14.399 --> 00:09:17.220 system, not just a toy OS. And the key detail 00:09:17.220 --> 00:09:19.779 is that he bought this PC before he even received 00:09:19.779 --> 00:09:23.100 a copy of MiNagX. Yes. Having the platform was 00:09:23.100 --> 00:09:25.720 the final trigger. It enabled him to begin work 00:09:25.720 --> 00:09:28.100 almost immediately on what would become the... 00:09:28.139 --> 00:09:30.559 Linux kernel. He had the hardware, the educational 00:09:30.559 --> 00:09:33.019 blueprint in a Minix and the foundational knowledge 00:09:33.019 --> 00:09:36.320 from his 6502 days. The accidental revolutionary 00:09:36.320 --> 00:09:38.240 was ready. So the creation of the Linux kernel 00:09:38.240 --> 00:09:41.980 was at its heart fundamentally pragmatic. Torvalds 00:09:41.980 --> 00:09:43.779 appreciated Minix, but it was really designed 00:09:43.779 --> 00:09:46.080 for teaching. It wasn't designed for leveraging 00:09:46.080 --> 00:09:48.559 the powerful 386 architecture he had just bought. 00:09:48.659 --> 00:09:51.639 Right. He needed a true multitasking system that 00:09:51.639 --> 00:09:54.220 could access all the 386's features, which was 00:09:54.220 --> 00:09:57.080 something MNAX, by design, just couldn't easily 00:09:57.080 --> 00:09:59.659 offer. So the core story isn't about lofty ideals 00:09:59.659 --> 00:10:01.840 just yet. It's about pure personal technical 00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:04.549 need. He wanted to use his machine fully, and 00:10:04.549 --> 00:10:07.129 the existing options felt restrictive. And this 00:10:07.129 --> 00:10:09.309 is where that famous naming mishap occurred. 00:10:09.509 --> 00:10:13.490 Because Torvalds had a perfectly fine, if slightly 00:10:13.490 --> 00:10:16.570 bizarre, name for his initial prototypes. The 00:10:16.570 --> 00:10:20.110 name was Freaks. Combining free, freak, and the 00:10:20.110 --> 00:10:23.350 X to signify its Unix -like nature. I can see 00:10:23.350 --> 00:10:26.309 why he liked it. But thankfully, his friend Ari 00:10:26.309 --> 00:10:28.549 Lemke, who was the administrator of the university 00:10:28.549 --> 00:10:31.909 FTP server, had much better branding sense. Lemke 00:10:31.909 --> 00:10:35.269 unilaterally rejected freaks. He just created 00:10:35.269 --> 00:10:37.889 a directory called Linux on the FTP server for 00:10:37.889 --> 00:10:41.169 Torvald's files. Torvald's apparently initially 00:10:41.169 --> 00:10:43.590 resisted it, preferring his own creation. But 00:10:43.590 --> 00:10:45.850 the name just stuck. It stuck immediately with 00:10:45.850 --> 00:10:48.389 the small but growing community of early adopters. 00:10:48.590 --> 00:10:51.590 That first public release happened in late 1991, 00:10:51.850 --> 00:10:54.289 right from that university FTP server. And version 00:10:54.289 --> 00:10:57.169 1 .0 was officially released on March 14th, 1994, 00:10:57.549 --> 00:11:00.049 which really marked the kernel's stable entry 00:11:00.049 --> 00:11:02.190 into the computing world. Okay, so the kernel's 00:11:02.190 --> 00:11:04.509 technical birth was crucial. But its longevity 00:11:04.509 --> 00:11:07.870 and its incredible spread were entirely dependent 00:11:07.870 --> 00:11:10.169 on a legal and philosophical choice. The crucial 00:11:10.169 --> 00:11:13.389 shift to open source. Exactly. Initially, Torvalds 00:11:13.389 --> 00:11:15.750 used a license that explicitly forbade commercial 00:11:15.750 --> 00:11:18.710 use. And that initial restriction was a massive 00:11:18.710 --> 00:11:20.750 limiter. I mean, it almost choked the project 00:11:20.750 --> 00:11:23.029 in the cradle. It meant that while hackers and 00:11:23.029 --> 00:11:25.909 hobbyists could use it, no company could build 00:11:25.909 --> 00:11:28.450 a business around it or contribute significantly 00:11:28.450 --> 00:11:30.929 without violating the terms. Which raises the 00:11:30.929 --> 00:11:33.559 big question. What forced him to change this 00:11:33.559 --> 00:11:36.559 fundamental legal stance? The sources are very 00:11:36.559 --> 00:11:39.460 clear on this. The influence of the GNU project 00:11:39.460 --> 00:11:42.539 and its leader, Richard Stallman. Torvalds heard 00:11:42.539 --> 00:11:45.559 Stallman speak in the autumn of 1991. And that 00:11:45.559 --> 00:11:48.340 exposure, coupled with pressure from early contributors 00:11:48.340 --> 00:11:50.620 who wanted to see the kernel adopted more widely, 00:11:50.840 --> 00:11:52.980 that's what pushed him toward liberalization. 00:11:53.480 --> 00:11:56.000 This shift to the GNU General Public License 00:11:56.000 --> 00:11:59.779 Version 2, the GPLv2, was revolutionary. We really 00:11:59.779 --> 00:12:02.220 need to spend a moment clarifying why this licensing 00:12:02.220 --> 00:12:04.600 change was arguably as important as the code 00:12:04.600 --> 00:12:07.340 itself. Yeah, let's define that. How does this 00:12:07.340 --> 00:12:10.659 concept of copyleft under GPLv2 fundamentally 00:12:10.659 --> 00:12:12.899 differ from his original, more restrictive license? 00:12:13.320 --> 00:12:16.480 Well, his original license was restrictive. You 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:18.279 can use it, but you can't make money from it. 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:21.620 GPLv2 said the complete opposite. You can use 00:12:21.620 --> 00:12:24.299 it, you can modify it, and crucially, you can 00:12:24.299 --> 00:12:26.440 sell it. you can build commercial distributions 00:12:26.440 --> 00:12:29.580 like Red Hat or SCSE. Okay, but there's a catch. 00:12:29.779 --> 00:12:31.879 There's a big catch. However, if you distribute 00:12:31.879 --> 00:12:34.340 the modified code, you must also distribute the 00:12:34.340 --> 00:12:36.600 source code for your modifications under the 00:12:36.600 --> 00:12:40.039 exact same GPLv2 license. Ah, so it's a feedback 00:12:40.039 --> 00:12:43.019 loop. It's a mandatory feedback loop. This mechanism 00:12:43.019 --> 00:12:45.519 ensures that as companies leverage Linux for 00:12:45.519 --> 00:12:48.080 commercial game, they are legally compelled to 00:12:48.080 --> 00:12:49.940 contribute their improvements back to the community. 00:12:50.200 --> 00:12:52.940 It prevents proprietary forks and ensures the 00:12:52.940 --> 00:12:56.830 collective knowledge base... So the GPLv2 wasn't 00:12:56.830 --> 00:12:58.730 just a permissive license. It was an aggressively 00:12:58.730 --> 00:13:01.690 protective one. It forced collaboration and really 00:13:01.690 --> 00:13:04.470 cemented Linux as a truly collective, self -improving 00:13:04.470 --> 00:13:07.389 project. That legal framework was the engine 00:13:07.389 --> 00:13:10.519 of its expansion. Exactly. It ensured that every 00:13:10.519 --> 00:13:12.980 corporate investment in Linux ultimately benefited 00:13:12.980 --> 00:13:15.600 the shared resource. And as the kernel grew, 00:13:15.899 --> 00:13:18.480 so did Torvald's stature. And that eventually 00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:21.559 took him from academic life in Helsinki to professional 00:13:21.559 --> 00:13:23.919 life in the United States. He took a job at the 00:13:23.919 --> 00:13:26.039 chip design company Transmeta in California, 00:13:26.299 --> 00:13:29.779 and he worked there from February 1997 to June 00:13:29.779 --> 00:13:32.960 2003. And that move was significant because it 00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:35.779 provided stability and a practical context for 00:13:35.779 --> 00:13:38.019 his work. He wasn't just a professor or a student 00:13:38.019 --> 00:13:40.879 anymore. He was an engineer working on real hardware 00:13:40.879 --> 00:13:43.919 and real architecture, which fed directly back 00:13:43.919 --> 00:13:46.080 into his kernel understanding. And that stability 00:13:46.080 --> 00:13:50.500 eventually led to massive, albeit symbolic, financial 00:13:50.500 --> 00:13:54.139 recognition. In 1999, two major players in the 00:13:54.139 --> 00:13:56.840 emerging Linux commercial ecosystem, Red Hat 00:13:56.840 --> 00:13:59.960 and VA Linux, they decided to reward his foundational 00:13:59.960 --> 00:14:02.490 career. by granting him stock options. And when 00:14:02.490 --> 00:14:04.970 both of those companies went public, those options 00:14:04.970 --> 00:14:07.769 matured, and Torvald's share value briefly peaked 00:14:07.769 --> 00:14:10.970 at about $20 million. It's such a powerful moment 00:14:10.970 --> 00:14:13.110 in the history of open source. It completely 00:14:13.110 --> 00:14:15.789 validated the model. It showed that building 00:14:15.789 --> 00:14:19.669 foundational, free infrastructure could paradoxically 00:14:19.669 --> 00:14:22.309 generate immense wealth, not necessarily for 00:14:22.309 --> 00:14:24.450 the creator directly, but certainly in the surrounding 00:14:24.450 --> 00:14:27.840 ecosystem. And Torvald's... having achieved that 00:14:27.840 --> 00:14:30.279 financial independence, was able to transition 00:14:30.279 --> 00:14:33.299 into a role that was dedicated entirely to curation. 00:14:33.399 --> 00:14:36.480 Right. After Transmeta, he moved to the Open 00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:39.840 Source Development Labs, or OSDL, which eventually 00:14:39.840 --> 00:14:43.019 merged to become the Linux Foundation. And today, 00:14:43.200 --> 00:14:45.639 the Linux Foundation sponsors him to work full 00:14:45.639 --> 00:14:49.139 -time, exclusively on the kernel. Which is the 00:14:49.139 --> 00:14:51.980 ultimate job description. Benevolent dictator 00:14:51.980 --> 00:14:54.539 funded by the global industry to keep the trains 00:14:54.539 --> 00:14:57.210 running on time. And we can't forget the face 00:14:57.210 --> 00:15:00.330 of the project, Tux the Penguin. Torvald's personal 00:15:00.330 --> 00:15:02.950 mascot became the community's universal standard. 00:15:03.149 --> 00:15:05.230 And while his ideals are rooted in open source, 00:15:05.370 --> 00:15:07.570 his philosophy remains profoundly practical. 00:15:07.809 --> 00:15:10.769 He believes open source is the only right way 00:15:10.769 --> 00:15:12.990 to do software, which, you know, sounds like 00:15:12.990 --> 00:15:15.250 pure idealism. But he tempers that with immense 00:15:15.250 --> 00:15:17.690 pragmatism. He's admitted to using proprietary 00:15:17.690 --> 00:15:20.289 software when it's necessary, stating that he 00:15:20.289 --> 00:15:22.870 prefers to use the best tool for the job. And 00:15:22.870 --> 00:15:26.240 that... Flexibility idealism tempered by efficiency 00:15:26.240 --> 00:15:29.419 is just so critical to his success. It's why 00:15:29.419 --> 00:15:32.120 Linux works in so many environments, even those 00:15:32.120 --> 00:15:34.419 run by commercially focused vendors. And that 00:15:34.419 --> 00:15:36.399 blend of technical excellence and revolutionary 00:15:36.399 --> 00:15:39.779 impact was recognized very early on. In 1999, 00:15:40.080 --> 00:15:42.620 he was included in the MIT Technology Review's 00:15:42.620 --> 00:15:46.159 TR100 as one of the world's top 100 innovators 00:15:46.159 --> 00:15:49.440 under 35. It was such a swift journey. From a 00:15:49.440 --> 00:15:52.259 hobbyist modifying his Sinclair QL in isolation, 00:15:53.000 --> 00:15:55.740 to being recognized as a major global tech force. 00:15:56.759 --> 00:15:59.019 So when we talk about Linus Torvalds today, the 00:15:59.019 --> 00:16:00.960 conversation isn't really about how much code 00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:03.419 he personally writes anymore. It's about the 00:16:03.419 --> 00:16:05.559 sheer weight of his authority. Exactly. This 00:16:05.559 --> 00:16:07.899 is the architect who became the curator. The 00:16:07.899 --> 00:16:10.460 sources from around 2006 suggested he wrote about 00:16:10.460 --> 00:16:12.980 2 % of the Linux kernel code. And while that 00:16:12.980 --> 00:16:15.279 sounds numerically small, it approaches with 00:16:15.279 --> 00:16:17.120 millions of lines of code. It was still one of 00:16:17.120 --> 00:16:19.700 the largest single percentages from any one person. 00:16:19.740 --> 00:16:21.139 But you're right. The point is that percentage 00:16:21.139 --> 00:16:24.639 is largely irrelevant now. So if he's not coding 00:16:24.639 --> 00:16:27.360 the newest drivers or the latest features, what 00:16:27.360 --> 00:16:29.059 is his full -time job at the Linux Foundation? 00:16:29.399 --> 00:16:31.879 What does he do all day? As he himself has explained, 00:16:32.019 --> 00:16:34.120 his current function is almost entirely merging 00:16:34.120 --> 00:16:37.169 code written by others. Think of the kernel as 00:16:37.169 --> 00:16:39.789 a massive river fed by thousands and thousands 00:16:39.789 --> 00:16:43.149 of tributaries. Torvalds sits at the delta. And 00:16:43.149 --> 00:16:45.269 he decides which tributaries are pure enough. 00:16:45.710 --> 00:16:48.029 powerful enough and safe enough to flow into 00:16:48.029 --> 00:16:51.250 the mainstream. Exactly. He retains the absolute 00:16:51.250 --> 00:16:54.649 highest authority to decide which new code, submitted 00:16:54.649 --> 00:16:57.049 from anywhere in the world, gets incorporated 00:16:57.049 --> 00:17:00.870 into the standard, stable Linux kernel. He is 00:17:00.870 --> 00:17:04.170 the technical and, in some ways, the moral gatekeeper. 00:17:04.369 --> 00:17:06.349 And holding that technical authority is crucial, 00:17:06.549 --> 00:17:08.670 but he also has to manage the legal authority 00:17:08.670 --> 00:17:11.390 behind the brand. That's right. Because the code 00:17:11.390 --> 00:17:14.269 is open source and free, the brand itself needs 00:17:14.269 --> 00:17:16.890 protection. Torvalds acquired the Linux trademark 00:17:16.890 --> 00:17:20.109 way back in 1994, and he monitors its use through 00:17:20.109 --> 00:17:22.430 the LinuxMark Institute. And that's a common 00:17:22.430 --> 00:17:24.829 and necessary protection for these big open source 00:17:24.829 --> 00:17:27.950 projects, right? It is. Without trademark protection, 00:17:28.369 --> 00:17:31.130 any company could just slap the name Linux on 00:17:31.130 --> 00:17:34.069 a product, fork the code, make proprietary changes, 00:17:34.150 --> 00:17:37.009 and confuse the entire market. The trademark 00:17:37.009 --> 00:17:39.569 ensures quality control and brand integrity, 00:17:39.809 --> 00:17:42.869 even if the source code itself is public. This 00:17:42.869 --> 00:17:45.450 tension between open access and necessary control 00:17:45.450 --> 00:17:48.589 is a theme that runs throughout his career, and 00:17:48.589 --> 00:17:51.029 it directly led to his second world -changing 00:17:51.029 --> 00:17:54.559 creation, Git. The creation of Git is just a 00:17:54.559 --> 00:17:57.400 fantastic example of Torvald solving a global 00:17:57.400 --> 00:18:00.039 problem born purely out of ideological frustration. 00:18:00.460 --> 00:18:02.799 For years, the Linux kernel development relied 00:18:02.799 --> 00:18:05.119 on a proprietary distributed version control 00:18:05.119 --> 00:18:07.539 system called BitKeeper. And let's be clear, 00:18:07.660 --> 00:18:10.279 why was using proprietary software such a flashpoint 00:18:10.279 --> 00:18:12.539 of conflict for projects founded on open source 00:18:12.539 --> 00:18:14.680 principles? Well, for many in the open source 00:18:14.680 --> 00:18:17.299 community, paying for or even just relying on 00:18:17.299 --> 00:18:20.079 a closed source tool for kernel management was 00:18:20.079 --> 00:18:22.380 seen as hypocritical. It went against the whole. 00:18:22.410 --> 00:18:24.970 So Torvalds was criticized heavily for this. 00:18:25.150 --> 00:18:27.529 Heavily. But he argued that the tool was just 00:18:27.529 --> 00:18:30.009 superior and necessary for managing the scale 00:18:30.009 --> 00:18:32.869 of the kernel. However, the whole thing came 00:18:32.869 --> 00:18:35.470 to a head when the BitKeeple developers revoked 00:18:35.470 --> 00:18:37.950 the free of charge license for the community 00:18:37.950 --> 00:18:40.410 users. And suddenly the ideological conflict 00:18:40.410 --> 00:18:42.730 became a technical disaster. They were left without 00:18:42.730 --> 00:18:45.109 a tool. And Torvalds' response to this crisis 00:18:45.109 --> 00:18:47.910 wasn't to go look for another tool. It was to 00:18:47.910 --> 00:18:51.420 build one. Fast. He was driven by pure technical 00:18:51.420 --> 00:18:55.119 impatience and, I guess, ideological commitment. 00:18:55.299 --> 00:18:58.259 Absolutely. He began development on Git on April 00:18:58.259 --> 00:19:01.259 3rd, 2005. He wanted something that was distributed 00:19:01.259 --> 00:19:04.180 incredibly fast and simple. And the results, 00:19:04.240 --> 00:19:06.259 I mean, they speak for themselves. Git has become 00:19:06.259 --> 00:19:09.339 the globally dominant distributed version control 00:19:09.339 --> 00:19:11.539 system. It's indispensable for pretty much every 00:19:11.539 --> 00:19:13.839 modern software project, whether it's open or 00:19:13.839 --> 00:19:16.579 closed source. It's a remarkable legacy. I mean, 00:19:16.599 --> 00:19:18.700 creating a foundational operating system and 00:19:18.700 --> 00:19:20.880 the foundational tool used to manage all large 00:19:20.880 --> 00:19:23.279 software projects. Beyond these two giants, though, 00:19:23.420 --> 00:19:26.700 he still codes for fun. His interest in scuba 00:19:26.700 --> 00:19:28.839 diving led to the creation of the Subsurface 00:19:28.839 --> 00:19:32.019 software. Right. Subsurface is a free and open 00:19:32.019 --> 00:19:34.680 source log and planner for scuba dives, which 00:19:34.680 --> 00:19:37.359 he started developing in late 2011, licensed 00:19:37.359 --> 00:19:40.980 under the same GPLv2. He's an active diver, and 00:19:40.980 --> 00:19:42.680 this just reflects that pragmatic engineering 00:19:42.680 --> 00:19:45.680 spirit. if you need a specialized tool build 00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:48.140 it and make it available for the community and 00:19:48.140 --> 00:19:50.940 he also created sparse which is a highly specialized 00:19:50.940 --> 00:19:53.099 tool for kernel development itself what does 00:19:53.099 --> 00:19:56.380 that do sparse is a static analysis tool its 00:19:56.380 --> 00:19:59.460 purpose is to act as a safety net it flags specific 00:20:00.009 --> 00:20:02.309 very complex constructs that are relevant to 00:20:02.309 --> 00:20:05.150 kernel developers. For instance, mixing pointers 00:20:05.150 --> 00:20:08.130 to user and kernel address spaces. So these are 00:20:08.130 --> 00:20:10.430 the kinds of obscure, low -level errors that 00:20:10.430 --> 00:20:12.569 could destabilize an entire operating system. 00:20:12.650 --> 00:20:14.890 Exactly. And Sparse helps the curators maintain 00:20:14.890 --> 00:20:18.730 stability. Okay, let's pivot to the deeply personal 00:20:18.730 --> 00:20:21.650 details that are permanently woven into the Linux 00:20:21.650 --> 00:20:24.859 kernel's fabric. He met his wife, Tove, who was 00:20:24.859 --> 00:20:26.960 a six -time Finnish national karate champion 00:20:26.960 --> 00:20:29.119 at the University of Helsinki. And the story 00:20:29.119 --> 00:20:31.319 is wonderful. Torvalds was running an introduction 00:20:31.319 --> 00:20:34.140 to computer lab exercise, and he instructed the 00:20:34.140 --> 00:20:36.559 students to send him an email as a test. And 00:20:36.559 --> 00:20:38.980 Tove responded, but instead of submitting the 00:20:38.980 --> 00:20:41.440 required test material, she just... She simply 00:20:41.440 --> 00:20:44.259 asked him out on a date. That's fantastic. They 00:20:44.259 --> 00:20:46.779 married and have three daughters, two of whom 00:20:46.779 --> 00:20:48.819 were born after they moved to the U .S. And we 00:20:48.819 --> 00:20:50.779 have to circle back to that Colonel Easter egg. 00:20:51.130 --> 00:20:53.430 Explain why the Reboot System Call is such a 00:20:53.430 --> 00:20:56.509 unique place for this dedication. Well, the Reboot 00:20:56.509 --> 00:20:58.970 System Call is one of the most low -level, critical 00:20:58.970 --> 00:21:01.529 functions in the entire operating system. It's 00:21:01.529 --> 00:21:03.490 what signals the machine to shut down and restart. 00:21:04.039 --> 00:21:06.200 Only the highest level code can execute this 00:21:06.200 --> 00:21:08.920 safely. So by embedding the hexadecimal versions 00:21:08.920 --> 00:21:11.460 of his daughter's birthdays into this function 00:21:11.460 --> 00:21:15.559 as magic values, he created a permanent personal 00:21:15.559 --> 00:21:19.119 coded dedication hidden deep in the operating 00:21:19.119 --> 00:21:21.779 system's bedrock. It's a signature mark of the 00:21:21.779 --> 00:21:24.220 creator. It's a way of merging his technical 00:21:24.220 --> 00:21:26.619 architecture with his family life, which only 00:21:26.619 --> 00:21:28.779 those who study the source code at that low level 00:21:28.779 --> 00:21:30.799 would ever find. Following his move to the U 00:21:30.799 --> 00:21:32.980 .S., the family relocated from Silicon Valley 00:21:32.980 --> 00:21:36.259 to Dunthope near Portland, Oregon in 2004. And 00:21:36.259 --> 00:21:38.500 that was to be closer to the OSDL headquarters 00:21:38.500 --> 00:21:41.380 in Beaverton. And then a major shift occurred 00:21:41.380 --> 00:21:44.500 in 2010. He became a naturalized United States 00:21:44.500 --> 00:21:47.920 citizen. But what's crucial here is his political 00:21:47.920 --> 00:21:50.859 statement regarding that transition. He registered 00:21:50.859 --> 00:21:53.400 as unaffiliated with any U .S. political party. 00:21:53.559 --> 00:21:57.079 And his reasoning was that he had too much personal 00:21:57.079 --> 00:22:00.140 pride to associate with any of them. That sentiment, 00:22:00.259 --> 00:22:03.839 that aversion to entrenched ideological groups, 00:22:03.960 --> 00:22:06.420 feeds directly into his outspoken views on religion, 00:22:06.539 --> 00:22:09.880 too. Absolutely. He describes himself as completely 00:22:09.880 --> 00:22:13.079 a religious atheist. And his reasoning isn't 00:22:13.079 --> 00:22:15.380 just a simple rejection of faith. No, it's a 00:22:15.380 --> 00:22:17.980 preference for intellectual honesty and technical 00:22:17.980 --> 00:22:21.180 appreciation. He feels that religion detracts 00:22:21.180 --> 00:22:23.720 from the appreciation of nature and morals because 00:22:23.720 --> 00:22:25.859 it gives people an easy out to call creation 00:22:25.859 --> 00:22:28.630 merely miraculous. Instead of appreciating the 00:22:28.630 --> 00:22:30.970 scientific and cosmic incredible that something 00:22:30.970 --> 00:22:32.470 like this could have happened in the first place. 00:22:32.609 --> 00:22:34.769 Right. And he also contrasted the cultural difference 00:22:34.769 --> 00:22:36.529 between Europe and the U .S., noting that in 00:22:36.529 --> 00:22:38.650 Europe, religion tends to be personal, while 00:22:38.650 --> 00:22:41.309 in the U .S. it is heavily politicized. And this 00:22:41.309 --> 00:22:43.769 desire for efficiency, for intellectual rigor, 00:22:43.970 --> 00:22:47.029 and this aversion to politicized conflict, all 00:22:47.029 --> 00:22:49.950 of that is central to his leadership style. Which 00:22:49.950 --> 00:22:52.819 is the focus of our next section. This intellectual 00:22:52.819 --> 00:22:55.559 frankness and political independence really set 00:22:55.559 --> 00:22:57.819 the stage for the controversial manner in which 00:22:57.819 --> 00:23:00.700 he manages the global Linux community. So if 00:23:00.700 --> 00:23:03.240 Section 3 defined Torvalds as the benevolent 00:23:03.240 --> 00:23:06.640 dictator, then Section 4, I think, reveals the 00:23:06.640 --> 00:23:08.799 inherent fragility of that model. I think you're 00:23:08.799 --> 00:23:11.400 right. Because Torvalds is just as famous for 00:23:11.400 --> 00:23:14.099 his technical genius as he is for his notoriously 00:23:14.099 --> 00:23:17.720 blunt, often profanity -laden communication style 00:23:17.720 --> 00:23:20.589 on the Linux kernel mailing list. The kernel 00:23:20.589 --> 00:23:23.210 mailing list, the LKML, is the central nervous 00:23:23.210 --> 00:23:26.289 system of the entire project. All major decisions 00:23:26.289 --> 00:23:28.890 and code reviews happen there in public. And 00:23:28.890 --> 00:23:31.170 historically, Torvalds has used it as a platform 00:23:31.170 --> 00:23:34.589 for, well, for scorched earth critique. He doesn't 00:23:34.589 --> 00:23:37.609 pull punches. And he frequently uses highly charged 00:23:37.609 --> 00:23:40.029 language to dress down developers whose code 00:23:40.029 --> 00:23:42.869 he finds subpar. Which raises a massive philosophical 00:23:42.869 --> 00:23:45.650 tension. Does that high standard, enforced by 00:23:45.650 --> 00:23:48.450 this relentless, brutal honesty, does it drive 00:23:48.450 --> 00:23:51.609 away talented people? Or is it necessary to maintain 00:23:51.609 --> 00:23:54.049 the technical integrity of a massive mission 00:23:54.049 --> 00:23:57.210 -critical project? That is the core debate. And 00:23:57.210 --> 00:24:00.069 Torvald's own self -assessment is incredibly 00:24:00.069 --> 00:24:03.269 revealing. He once called himself a really unpleasant 00:24:03.269 --> 00:24:05.609 person. And he expressed a sense of resignation 00:24:05.609 --> 00:24:08.490 about his own conduct. He stated, and I'm quoting 00:24:08.490 --> 00:24:11.339 from the source here, I'd like to be a nice person 00:24:11.339 --> 00:24:13.779 and curse less and encourage people to grow rather 00:24:13.779 --> 00:24:16.500 than telling them they are idiots. I'm sorry 00:24:16.500 --> 00:24:20.670 I tried. It's just not in me. So he saw his abrasive 00:24:20.670 --> 00:24:23.430 style as just an unchangeable part of his engineering 00:24:23.430 --> 00:24:26.089 personality. He did. But this attitude created 00:24:26.089 --> 00:24:28.390 a hostile environment that critics argued was 00:24:28.390 --> 00:24:30.930 exclusive and damaging to the project's diversity 00:24:30.930 --> 00:24:33.589 and growth. And this criticism was voiced publicly 00:24:33.589 --> 00:24:36.029 by some very respected figures in the community. 00:24:36.190 --> 00:24:39.130 People like Intel programmer Sage Sharp and the 00:24:39.130 --> 00:24:41.230 prominent system developer Lenark Poetering. 00:24:41.640 --> 00:24:43.599 They pointed out that while Torvald's technical 00:24:43.599 --> 00:24:46.039 judgment might be flawless, his delivery created 00:24:46.039 --> 00:24:48.680 toxic work conditions, especially for new or 00:24:48.680 --> 00:24:51.180 marginalized contributors. And this internal 00:24:51.180 --> 00:24:53.920 friction finally erupted into a major institutional 00:24:53.920 --> 00:24:57.420 reform in 2018. The change was dramatic and sudden. 00:24:57.720 --> 00:25:02.059 On Sunday, September 16, 2018, the Linux kernel's 00:25:02.059 --> 00:25:04.619 official governance document, the Code of Conflict, 00:25:04.660 --> 00:25:07.460 was abruptly replaced. Replaced by a brand new 00:25:07.460 --> 00:25:09.839 code of conduct, which was based on the more 00:25:09.839 --> 00:25:12.859 community -friendly contributor covenant. This 00:25:12.859 --> 00:25:16.200 was a colossal ideological shift. The original 00:25:16.200 --> 00:25:18.859 code of conflict was known for emphasizing technical 00:25:18.859 --> 00:25:22.339 merit above all else, including interpersonal 00:25:22.339 --> 00:25:25.160 politeness. Right, it essentially justified the 00:25:25.160 --> 00:25:27.980 aggressive, blunt communication style as necessary 00:25:27.980 --> 00:25:30.960 for technical rigor. Whereas the new code of 00:25:30.960 --> 00:25:33.420 conduct shifted the focus entirely toward inclusion, 00:25:33.839 --> 00:25:36.259 respect, and harassment -free communication. 00:25:36.720 --> 00:25:39.259 It mirrored a major trend that was happening 00:25:39.259 --> 00:25:41.460 across the broader open source community. And 00:25:41.460 --> 00:25:43.579 what followed that institutional change was an 00:25:43.579 --> 00:25:46.079 equally shocking personal reckoning from the 00:25:46.079 --> 00:25:48.619 benevolent dictator himself. Torvalds issued 00:25:48.619 --> 00:25:51.180 a major public apology in the release notes for 00:25:51.180 --> 00:25:55.490 Linux 4 .19 -RC4. He acknowledged that his behavior 00:25:55.490 --> 00:25:58.069 had been unprofessional and uncalled for. And 00:25:58.069 --> 00:26:00.390 crucially, he then announced he was taking a 00:26:00.390 --> 00:26:02.950 time off to seek assistance on how to understand 00:26:02.950 --> 00:26:04.890 people's emotions and respond appropriately. 00:26:05.500 --> 00:26:08.259 This was an unprecedented admission of failure 00:26:08.259 --> 00:26:11.500 and a commitment to personal reform from a figure 00:26:11.500 --> 00:26:14.660 who had resisted that kind of pressure for decades. 00:26:14.980 --> 00:26:17.619 That level of public introspection and institutional 00:26:17.619 --> 00:26:20.460 changes doesn't happen in a vacuum, though. The 00:26:20.460 --> 00:26:22.539 sources suggest there was an external pressure 00:26:22.539 --> 00:26:25.079 point that triggered this swift action. Right. 00:26:25.480 --> 00:26:27.599 The events followed, the New Yorker magazine 00:26:27.599 --> 00:26:30.359 approaching him with a series of pointed, critical 00:26:30.359 --> 00:26:33.019 questions about his history of abrasive conduct. 00:26:33.339 --> 00:26:35.740 So the timing strongly suggests that the prospect 00:26:35.740 --> 00:26:38.660 of a high profile, critical journalistic examination 00:26:38.660 --> 00:26:41.779 played a significant role in forcing both the 00:26:41.779 --> 00:26:44.660 apology and the governance shift. He did return 00:26:44.660 --> 00:26:47.200 to maintaining the kernel after the 4 .19 release, 00:26:47.440 --> 00:26:49.920 but the code of conduct remains in force. It 00:26:49.920 --> 00:26:52.660 does. OK, let's move to some of the high profile 00:26:52.660 --> 00:26:55.019 public controversies that really cement. his 00:26:55.019 --> 00:26:58.799 reputation for being uncompromising. The NVIDIA 00:26:58.799 --> 00:27:01.519 incident from 2012 is a perfect case study. This 00:27:01.519 --> 00:27:03.599 happened during a talk at Aalto University in 00:27:03.599 --> 00:27:06.900 Finland. Torvalds was asked about NVIDIA's extremely 00:27:06.900 --> 00:27:09.619 poor support for their hardware within the kernel 00:27:09.619 --> 00:27:12.240 ecosystem, which was a common headache for developers 00:27:12.240 --> 00:27:15.960 at the time. And his response was visceral. To 00:27:15.960 --> 00:27:18.380 say the least. He held up his middle finger to 00:27:18.380 --> 00:27:21.539 the camera and used profanity. publicly criticizing 00:27:21.539 --> 00:27:24.720 Nvidia as the single worst company he had ever 00:27:24.720 --> 00:27:26.779 dealt with regarding kernel development. It was 00:27:26.779 --> 00:27:29.079 a visual and verbal explosion of frustration. 00:27:29.440 --> 00:27:32.220 It demonstrated his willingness to publicly shame 00:27:32.220 --> 00:27:35.559 a massive corporation if he felt they were hindering 00:27:35.559 --> 00:27:37.500 the progress of the open source community. It 00:27:37.500 --> 00:27:40.400 was the curator defending his garden. And that 00:27:40.400 --> 00:27:42.819 willingness to draw hard lines was tested again 00:27:42.819 --> 00:27:45.720 very recently in a much messier geopolitical 00:27:45.720 --> 00:27:49.200 context. In 2024, amidst the ongoing conflict 00:27:49.200 --> 00:27:50.940 stemming from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 00:27:51.319 --> 00:27:53.900 an issue arose regarding the exclusion of some 00:27:53.900 --> 00:27:56.019 developers from the kernel maintainer list. Right. 00:27:56.119 --> 00:27:58.480 The report suggested some developers were excluded 00:27:58.480 --> 00:28:00.380 potentially because they were Russian or were 00:28:00.380 --> 00:28:02.960 using Russian email addresses. And this instantly 00:28:02.960 --> 00:28:05.359 creates tension because open source is supposed 00:28:05.359 --> 00:28:08.259 to be borderless. Exactly. So how does a figure 00:28:08.259 --> 00:28:11.160 who champions open in collaboration justify such 00:28:11.160 --> 00:28:13.920 an exclusionary move? This moves beyond technical 00:28:13.920 --> 00:28:17.000 merit and squarely into legal compliance, which 00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:19.640 is a new and challenging pressure point for Torvalds. 00:28:19.700 --> 00:28:22.279 He claimed the exclusion was due to government 00:28:22.279 --> 00:28:25.180 compliance requirements and due to legal issues 00:28:25.180 --> 00:28:27.750 around Russia. Which makes sense. If he is sponsored 00:28:27.750 --> 00:28:30.609 by the Linux Foundation, a U .S. entity, and 00:28:30.609 --> 00:28:33.029 he's a U .S. citizen, he would be directly exposed 00:28:33.029 --> 00:28:35.789 to U .S. sanctions and legal obligations. Exactly. 00:28:36.150 --> 00:28:38.349 Even though the kernel code is free and open, 00:28:38.509 --> 00:28:41.049 the act of managing and merging code can be deemed 00:28:41.049 --> 00:28:44.289 a form of transaction or service under international 00:28:44.289 --> 00:28:47.630 sanction regimes. So Torvalds, operating as the 00:28:47.630 --> 00:28:50.769 final authority, has to ensure his activities 00:28:50.769 --> 00:28:53.670 and those of the Linux Foundation do not violate 00:28:53.670 --> 00:28:56.690 international law. He's forced to confront the 00:28:56.690 --> 00:28:58.769 messy reality that open source collaboration 00:28:58.769 --> 00:29:01.289 is not immune to geopolitical conflict. And he 00:29:01.289 --> 00:29:02.990 added a very personal defense to that action, 00:29:03.029 --> 00:29:05.630 too. He did. Referencing his Finnish heritage, 00:29:05.809 --> 00:29:08.329 a nation with a complex and often hostile history 00:29:08.329 --> 00:29:11.430 with Russia, he added, I'm Finnish. Did you think 00:29:11.430 --> 00:29:13.319 I'd be supporting Russian aggression? Which just 00:29:13.319 --> 00:29:15.539 highlights the immense difficulty of maintaining 00:29:15.539 --> 00:29:18.599 a neutral technical dictatorship when global 00:29:18.599 --> 00:29:21.160 events force you to take a side based on legal 00:29:21.160 --> 00:29:24.119 obligations and personal history. The curator 00:29:24.119 --> 00:29:27.220 is now dealing with international law, not just 00:29:27.220 --> 00:29:30.480 C -code. The entire narrative of Linus Torvalds 00:29:30.480 --> 00:29:33.150 is defined by this contradiction. a man whose 00:29:33.150 --> 00:29:35.970 open -source idealism built the framework for 00:29:35.970 --> 00:29:39.049 modern collaboration, yet whose uncompromising 00:29:39.049 --> 00:29:41.990 conduct necessitated a major internal reform, 00:29:42.309 --> 00:29:45.369 only to be later forced by geopolitical realities 00:29:45.369 --> 00:29:48.829 to make these difficult exclusions. So despite 00:29:48.829 --> 00:29:51.150 the internal friction and the external controversy 00:29:51.150 --> 00:29:54.690 surrounding his conduct, the sheer scale of Torvald's 00:29:54.690 --> 00:29:57.670 technical and systemic contribution has earned 00:29:57.670 --> 00:30:00.650 him massive high -level international recognition. 00:30:01.279 --> 00:30:03.740 Awards that are often referred to as the Nobels 00:30:03.740 --> 00:30:05.500 of technology. Let's start with the big one, 00:30:05.579 --> 00:30:07.779 the Millennium Technology Prize. Absolutely. 00:30:07.980 --> 00:30:10.519 In 2012, Torvalds was named one of the winners 00:30:10.519 --> 00:30:12.880 of this prestigious prize. It's often compared 00:30:12.880 --> 00:30:14.819 to the Nobel Prize in terms of its technological 00:30:14.819 --> 00:30:17.500 impact and significance. And the award specifically 00:30:17.500 --> 00:30:20.019 recognized his creation of a new open source 00:30:20.019 --> 00:30:22.380 operating system, leading to the widely used 00:30:22.380 --> 00:30:24.819 Linux kernel. Right. It acknowledged that his 00:30:24.819 --> 00:30:27.359 work wasn't just good code, but a systemic change 00:30:27.359 --> 00:30:29.319 in how software is developed and distributed 00:30:29.319 --> 00:30:32.539 globally. And his influence is recognized across 00:30:32.539 --> 00:30:35.240 the most authoritative engineering bodies in 00:30:35.240 --> 00:30:37.500 the world. That would be the Institute of Electrical 00:30:37.500 --> 00:30:41.400 and Electronics Engineers, the IEE. He received 00:30:41.400 --> 00:30:45.900 the 2014 IEE Computer Pioneer Award, which is 00:30:45.900 --> 00:30:48.400 an award that recognizes individuals whose efforts 00:30:48.400 --> 00:30:51.380 in computer science have resulted in significant 00:30:51.380 --> 00:30:54.319 and visible milestones. And then in 2018, he 00:30:54.319 --> 00:30:58.299 received the IEE Mazaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics 00:30:58.299 --> 00:31:01.779 Award. which specifically cited him for his leadership 00:31:01.779 --> 00:31:04.140 of the development and proliferation of Linux. 00:31:04.420 --> 00:31:07.180 Proliferation. That's the key word there. It 00:31:07.180 --> 00:31:09.180 acknowledges his role not just as the initial 00:31:09.180 --> 00:31:12.380 creator, but as the sustained leader who ensured 00:31:12.380 --> 00:31:14.900 its global growth. And cementing his role in 00:31:14.900 --> 00:31:17.539 shaping the modern digital landscape, he was 00:31:17.539 --> 00:31:20.119 named one of the inaugural inductees into the 00:31:20.119 --> 00:31:23.160 Internet Hall of Fame in 2012. He was placed 00:31:23.160 --> 00:31:25.880 in the prestigious innovators category. So he 00:31:25.880 --> 00:31:28.240 stands alongside the figures who truly define 00:31:28.240 --> 00:31:30.700 the Internet era. He does. And it's rare for 00:31:30.700 --> 00:31:32.700 a software engineer to achieve this level of 00:31:32.700 --> 00:31:35.339 broad cultural recognition outside of pure engineering 00:31:35.339 --> 00:31:38.200 circles. But Time magazine repeatedly recognized 00:31:38.200 --> 00:31:40.960 his influence. They recognized him multiple times 00:31:40.960 --> 00:31:43.720 across different axes of influence. He was named 00:31:43.720 --> 00:31:45.759 one of the most influential people in the world 00:31:45.759 --> 00:31:48.619 in 2004. And then again, as one of the revolutionary 00:31:48.619 --> 00:31:52.079 heroes of the past 60 years in 2006. Even earlier, 00:31:52.240 --> 00:31:56.200 he was ranked 17th in their 2000 Time 100, the 00:31:56.200 --> 00:31:59.259 most important people of the century poll. That 00:31:59.259 --> 00:32:02.259 early placement showed just how quickly and profoundly 00:32:02.259 --> 00:32:04.599 the industry understood the importance of Linux 00:32:04.599 --> 00:32:07.259 long before it conquered the server market. And 00:32:07.259 --> 00:32:09.880 his legacy isn't just terrestrial either. It's 00:32:09.880 --> 00:32:12.460 literally astronomical. That's a fun detail. 00:32:12.779 --> 00:32:16.160 Asteroid 9793 Torvalds was named after him in 00:32:16.160 --> 00:32:19.099 1996. And the asteroid moon, Linus, which was 00:32:19.099 --> 00:32:21.460 discovered in 2003, was also partly motivated 00:32:21.460 --> 00:32:24.119 to honor him. It's fitting that someone who created 00:32:24.119 --> 00:32:26.059 a system designed to look at the universe through 00:32:26.059 --> 00:32:28.839 computing has pieces of the universe named after 00:32:28.839 --> 00:32:30.859 him. Finally, we have to return to his academic 00:32:30.859 --> 00:32:33.740 roots. This entire journey started at the University 00:32:33.740 --> 00:32:35.579 of Helsinki, and they have certainly recognized 00:32:35.579 --> 00:32:38.240 him. After years of working on The Colonel, he 00:32:38.240 --> 00:32:40.400 ultimately received his master's degree in computer 00:32:40.400 --> 00:32:43.039 science with a Laudator grade, which is the highest 00:32:43.039 --> 00:32:45.859 possible grade. And he's received two honorary 00:32:45.859 --> 00:32:48.440 doctorates, one from Stockholm University and 00:32:48.440 --> 00:32:51.160 one from his alma mater, the University of Helsinki. 00:32:51.440 --> 00:32:54.079 And the University of Helsinki gave him the ultimate 00:32:54.079 --> 00:32:56.480 permanent dedication. They did. They named an 00:32:56.480 --> 00:32:59.160 auditorium after him, forever linking his name 00:32:59.160 --> 00:33:02.380 to the institution's physical space. And even 00:33:02.380 --> 00:33:05.500 more symbolically, his original computer. The 00:33:05.500 --> 00:33:08.200 one that started it all. The 8386 -based machine. 00:33:08.420 --> 00:33:11.200 That very one. It's on permanent display at the 00:33:11.200 --> 00:33:13.339 Department of Computer Science. It's a museum 00:33:13.339 --> 00:33:15.779 piece showing the physical starting point of 00:33:15.779 --> 00:33:18.240 the software that redefined the world. So what 00:33:18.240 --> 00:33:21.079 does this entire deep dive teach us when we synthesize 00:33:21.079 --> 00:33:23.200 all these elements? We've tracked his journey 00:33:23.200 --> 00:33:25.519 from a young man who bypassed assembly language 00:33:25.519 --> 00:33:27.920 because he needed total control over his hardware, 00:33:28.119 --> 00:33:31.099 learned from M -1X, then built a kernel, and 00:33:31.099 --> 00:33:34.180 get out of, well... ideological necessity. And 00:33:34.180 --> 00:33:36.859 we see a career arc defined by this relentless 00:33:36.859 --> 00:33:39.920 drive for efficiency and open access, but governed 00:33:39.920 --> 00:33:42.380 by an uncompromising personal management style. 00:33:42.640 --> 00:33:46.559 He needed that 2018 reckoning to survive as the 00:33:46.559 --> 00:33:49.160 curator. It demonstrates that while genius can 00:33:49.160 --> 00:33:52.029 be solitary, Global collaboration requires more 00:33:52.029 --> 00:33:54.269 than just technical perfection. And his story 00:33:54.269 --> 00:33:56.950 teaches us that in the world of massive, decentralized, 00:33:57.349 --> 00:34:00.309 mission -critical software, the most valuable 00:34:00.309 --> 00:34:03.450 role is not the initial code contribution. It's 00:34:03.450 --> 00:34:06.650 the sustained, authoritative, and sometimes agonizing 00:34:06.650 --> 00:34:09.469 work of maintenance and governance. He evolved 00:34:09.469 --> 00:34:12.329 from the core coder, the creator, into the supreme 00:34:12.329 --> 00:34:15.010 authority, the curator. The shift is the heart 00:34:15.010 --> 00:34:17.750 of his lasting legacy. His genius now lies in 00:34:17.750 --> 00:34:20.050 his decision -making framework, his ability to 00:34:20.050 --> 00:34:22.090 merge millions of lines of code from diverse, 00:34:22.230 --> 00:34:25.030 often competitive, corporate and individual sources, 00:34:25.269 --> 00:34:27.929 and ensure technical cohesion and legal compliance. 00:34:28.510 --> 00:34:30.650 Which leads us to our final provocative thought 00:34:30.650 --> 00:34:33.030 for you to carry forward. Given that Linus Torvald's 00:34:33.030 --> 00:34:34.929 ultimate authority today rests almost entirely 00:34:34.929 --> 00:34:36.969 in his judgment regarding which code gets merged, 00:34:37.170 --> 00:34:39.510 the power to say yes or no to the work of thousands 00:34:39.510 --> 00:34:41.889 rather than his own programming. What does this 00:34:41.889 --> 00:34:45.409 shift from creator to curator ultimately teach 00:34:45.409 --> 00:34:48.949 us about true leadership and lasting legacy in 00:34:48.949 --> 00:34:51.909 decentralized global collaborative projects? 00:34:52.570 --> 00:34:55.170 Does the longevity of a project depend more on 00:34:55.170 --> 00:34:57.030 the person who sets the technical standard and 00:34:57.030 --> 00:34:59.849 maintains the final high -level integrity, or 00:34:59.849 --> 00:35:02.010 on the multitude of collaborators writing the 00:35:02.010 --> 00:35:04.070 features? The fact that the most important person 00:35:04.070 --> 00:35:05.710 in global software maintenance hasn't written 00:35:05.710 --> 00:35:07.889 a major feature in decades tells you everything 00:35:07.889 --> 00:35:09.730 you need to know about where true power lies. 00:35:10.230 --> 00:35:12.760 That's it for this deep dive. We hope you feel 00:35:12.760 --> 00:35:15.159 thoroughly informed and ready to appreciate the 00:35:15.159 --> 00:35:17.440 complex history embedded in every device you 00:35:17.440 --> 00:35:20.159 use and the contradictory figure who holds the 00:35:20.159 --> 00:35:22.500 keys to so much of the modern world. We'll see 00:35:22.500 --> 00:35:22.880 you next time.