linus torvalds

After an F-bomb-laced rant last week from Linus Torvalds, the recipient of that ire has responded.

Torvalds, the main force behind the Linux kernel, was speaking at a forum hosted by Aalto Center for Entrepreneurship in Otaniemi, Finland, on June 14, when he was asked a question about Nvidia's alleged lack of support for its Optimus graphics products.

"Nvidia has been one of the worst trouble spots we've had with hardware manufacturers," Torvalds said. About a minute into the rant, which starts at 49:59 mark (see video at bottom), he dropped the F-bomb and gestured … Read more

Linus Torvalds does not like Nvidia. And we have graphic proof via YouTube.

Torvalds, the main force behind the Linux kernel, was speaking at a forum hosted by Aalto Center for Entrepreneurship in Otaniemi, Finland on June 14. He was responding to a question from the audience.

A woman explains that she was trying to get Linux working on a laptop that had an Optimus chip from Nvidia -- the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company is one of the largest graphics chip suppliers in the world.

"I was expecting that Nvidia would kind of chip in and do something...[… Read more

Linux Creator Linus Torvalds has been chosen as one of two recipients of the Millennium Technology Prize.

Torvalds was named a 2012 laureate by the Technology Academy of Finland for his creation and ongoing contributions to the open-source operating system. Created in 2004, the awards recognize "technological innovation that significantly improves the quality of human life, today and in the future" every two years.

"[Linux] has become the basis of Android smartphones, tablets, digital television recorders and supercomputers the world over," the academy said in announcing Torvalds' selection. "Today millions of people are using devices … Read more

It's still not clear how well Google will surmount challenges selling its Nexus One to ordinary folks, but when it comes to endorsement from the tech-savvy realm, it doesn't get much better than this.

Linus Torvalds, leader of the Linux kernel programming project, said Saturday not only that he likes the Google phone, but that it was good enough to convert him into a mobile phone believer.

"I generally hate phones--they are irritating and disturb you as you work or read or whatever--and a cell phone to me is just an opportunity to be irritated wherever you … Read more

Linus Torvalds, founder of the Linux kernel, made a startling comment at LinuxCon in Portland, Ore., on Monday: "Linux is bloated." While the open-source community has long pointed the finger at Microsoft's Windows as bloated, it appears that with success has come added heft, heft that makes Linux "huge and scary now," according to Torvalds.

No. Of course not. It has simply grown as its adoption has expanded. This is the problem with success: you get pulled into an ever-widening array of tasks.

So, while Torvalds declared "We are definitely not … Read more

Linux kernel version 2.6.30 has been released, adding support for new file systems, performance improvements, and new hardware drivers.

The Linux kernel is the core used by GNU/Linux operating system distributions from Red Hat, Novell, and others. The new release was made final and was publicized in a newslist post from Linux developer Linus Torvalds last week.

The most prominent new features include support for two new file systems, according to release notes published by Kernelnewbies, a group of Linux developers.

Support was added or updated for the NILFS2 file system, still under development, which is designed … Read more

As the founder and program chair for the Open Source Business Conference, I know what a business conference looks like. And as a regular attendee of the excellent O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON), I know what a great developer event looks like, too.

But this year's inaugural LinuxCon, put on by the business and developer-friendly Linux Foundation, is trying to bring the two worlds together this September in Portland.

I think it might succeed.

Linux and all open-source software has matured to a place where end-user involvement in the development process is no longer a nice-to-have, but a … Read more

Update at 1:25 p.m. PDT May 23: More information on the piece has been added.

Call them a "holy trinity" or the "three wise men of software"--one way or another you will eventually give these guys all your money and continue to worship at their respective altars.

The EyeBeam Gallery in New York's Chelsea neighborhood has been showing a piece of art that captures Linus Torvalds, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates (along with a tiny, cherubic Steve Ballmer) as icons, in the original sense of word.

Jeff Crouse, the artist who conceptualized … Read more

It should be obvious, but the more I talk to people about open source, and where and how it's useful, the more I'm surprised by how overinflated (or underinflated) expectations often are for open source.

One case in point is with the utility of source code as a way to save time and money, rather than reinventing the wheel. For example, Alfresco, my employer, was able to get its initial content management product to a 1.0 state in less than six months because it heavily borrowed from successful open-source projects such as Hibernate, Spring, PDFbox, and others.… Read more