Linus Torvalds Quotes

Stock kernels will be the norm for some time.

Of course, C proved indispensible to the developers of all its alternatives. Dig down through enough implementation layers under any of the other languages surveyed here and you will find a core implemented in pure, portable C

There is no system but GNU and Linux is one of it's kernels

To a programmer, an operating system is defined by its API.

C is declining somewhat in usage compared to C++, and maybe Java, but perhaps even more compared to higher-level scripting languages. It's still fairly strong for the basic system-type things.

In trying to understand the Linux phenomenon, then, we have to look not at a single innovator but to a sort of bizarre Trinity : Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman, and Bill Gates. Take away any of these three and Linux would not exist.

Besides, REAL computers have a rename system call.

I'm interested in Linux because of the technology, and Linux wasn't started as any kind of rebellion against the 'evil Microsoft empire.'

There is no neat distinction between operating system software and the software that runs on top of it.

I used to be interested in Windows NT, but the more I see it, the more it looks like traditional Windows with a stabler kernel. I don't find anything technically interesting there.

A new release of Plan 9 happened in June, and at about the same time a new release of the Inferno system, which began here, was announced by Vita Nuova.

The interesting thing about Android's design is how little we modified the kernel.

Sun's role in the grand scheme of development is to work on the runtime environment and the APIs. The tools we produce are much more for systems programmers, not enterprise developers.

Linux has never been about quality. There are so many parts of the system that are just these cheap little hacks, and it happens to run.

Making Linux GPL'd was definitely the best thing I ever did.

The visible things that have come from the group have been the Plan 9 system and Inferno, but I hasten to say that the ideas and the work have come from colleagues.

Android is very different from the GNU/Linux operating system because it contains very little of GNU. Indeed, just about the only component in common between Android and GNU/Linux is Linux, the kernel.

Technically, Windows is an "operating system," which means that it supplies your computer with the basic commands that it needs to suddenly, with no warning whatsoever, stop operating.

I believe OS/2 is destined to be the most important operating system, and possibly program, of all time.

C is quirky, flawed, and an enormous success.

It's always darkest before the dawn, Todd.” I look at him, baffled. “No, it ain't! What kinda stupid saying is that? It's always lightest before the dawn!

I'm not gonna buy something without planning. If I buy $100,000 worth of gold, I gotta put $100,000 aside for my family in case something happens. You look kind of stupid wearing all that gold and you didn't have no plan.

Rappers kinda look stupid sometimes. Most of the time. I'm pretty sure I look stupid too a lot.

This one goes out to all my critics: don't you feel stupid? Look how I did it. Look how it came to pass when I said it.