In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But when I’m talking to journalists I just say “programmer” or something like that.
In many ways, I am very happy about the whole Linux commercial market because the commercial market is doing all these things that I have absolutely zero interest in doing myself.
The economics of the security world are all horribly, horribly nasty and are largely based on fear, intimidation and blackmail.
I started Linux as a desktop operating system. And it’s the only area where Linux hasn’t completely taken over. That just annoys the hell out of me.
Before the commercial ventures, Linux tended to be rather hard to set up, because most of the developers were motivated mainly by their own interests.
People enjoy the interaction on the Internet, and the feeling of belonging to a group that does something interesting: that’s how some software projects are born.
The cyberspace earnings I get from Linux come in the format of having a Network of people that know me and trust me, and that I can depend on in return.
I am not out to destroy Microsoft, that would be a completely unintended side effect.
Let’s put it this way: if you need to ask a lawyer whether what you do is right or not, you are morally corrupt. Let’s not go there. We don’t base our morality on law.
The fact is, there aren’t just two sides to any issue, there’s almost always a range of responses, and “it depends” is almost always the right answer in any big question.
Nobody actually creates perfect code the first time around, except me. But there’s only one of me.
I think one thing I do pretty well is not taking myself too seriously.
I can mostly laugh at myself and this whole mess called “Linux developers,” which means that I get along with most people and most people get along with me.
I changed the Linux copyright license to be the GPL some time in the first half of 1992. Mostly because I had hated the lack of a cheaply and easily available UNIX when I had looked for one a year before.
I’m not worried about the kernel itself or the basic system. All the commercialization is about the distributions and the applications. As such, it only brings value-added things to Linux, and it doesn’t take anything away from the Linux scene.
I’m perfectly happy with all the people who are walking around and just staring at the clouds and looking at the stars and saying, “I want to go there.” But I’m looking at the ground, and I want to fix the pothole that’s right in front of me before I fall in.
I am not a visionary. I’m an engineer. I’m happy with the people who are wandering around looking at the stars but I am looking at the ground and I want to fix the pothole before I fall in.
I’d argue that everybody wants to do something that matters.
For high school graduation in Finland, you wear a fluffy white hat with a black band. There’s a ceremony in which they hand out diplomas, and when you come home all your relatives are there with lots of champagne, flowers, and cake. And there’s also a party for the entire class at a local restaurant. We did all that, and I guess I had fun, but I don’t remember anything special about it. But ask me about the specs on my 68008-chip machine and I can rattle them off with total recall.
An ugly system is one in which there are special interfaces for everything you want to do. Unix is the opposite. It gives you the building blocks that are sufficient for doing everything. That’s what having a clean design is all about.
Benevolent dictator? No, I’m just lazy. I try to manage by not making decisions and letting things occur naturally. That’s when you get the best results.