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THE FATHER OF LINUX
COMPANY Transmeta Corp., Programmer
AGE 29
E-MAIL torvalds@transmeta.com
BIO Some people are born to lead millions. Others are born to write world-changing
software. Only one person does both: Torvalds. As a student at the University of
Helsinki in 1991, the Finn invented the alternative operating system Linux and
gave away the source code free. Anybody anywhere could hack away happily on
Linux, fixing bugs, adding features and making it perfect. Eight years later,
with untold thousands of programmers banging away on it, Linux is challenging
Microsoft's dominance of the operating-system market.
Linux hit the mainstream last year. A late-summer survey showed that 13% of
companies use it on at least some of their computers and 17% of all servers run
on it. Not surprisingly, IBM, Dell, Intel, Oracle and Compaq are gearing up to
support Linux. And it's still evolving. Version 2.4, scheduled for this fall, is
billed as the most user-friendly version yet, with support for both usb and
FireWire. As it gets easier to install, Linux is going to make serious inroads
into the consumer-oriented PC market. Perhaps more important is the open-source
development model that Linux pioneered. Thanks in part to daily bulletins from
Eric Raymond, influential author and minister of propaganda for the open-source
movement, the open-source model is spreading to other projects, from computer
games to Web browsers.
Torvalds has moved on to the Next Big Thing. He lives in Silicon Valley, near the
Santa Clara, Calif., offices of Transmeta, the ultra-secretive high-tech firm
that's rumored to be working on a superchip that will take on Intel in the
microprocessor market.
BEST LINE "Software is like sex: it's better when it's free."
FORWARD TILT Linux beats Windows. Transmeta trumps Intel. Linus Torvalds is
elected king of the world. Pigs fly.
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