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TIME Europe, March 22, 1999
Giving it all Away
Linus Torvalds Crashes Through Windows
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Software engineers have long complained about Bill Gates' Windows operating system, the internal logic that drives an estimated 84% of the world's personal computers: it's too complex, too secretive, too expensive. Finland's Linus Torvalds, 29, decided to do more than complain.
In 1991, while still a student at the University of Helsinki, he created Linux, a more flexible operating system tailored to run both on servers--central computers that process data and distribute it to networks--and on desktop PC's. And then Torvalds gave it away. He put the code on the Web and asked volunteers to perfect it. Some of the world's best programmers took up the challenge and have been doing so ever since.
Though Linux was originally seen as a quixotic challenge to Windows, major industry players such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Dell Computer and Silicon Graphics have recently endorsed the technology. German software giant SAP will announce at CeBITthat it will create a line of products based on the Linux operating system.
TIME DIGITAL contributor Peggy Salz-Trautman chats with Torvalds, who has since left Europe for Silicon Valley, where he is working on projects for microprocessor designer Transmeta Corp. He still tinkers with Linux in his spare time.
TIME: Are you surprised that so many mainstream companies suddenly support Linux?
TORVALDS: Everybody was ready to start supporting Linux to some degree but everybody was a bit afraid. And that meant that when one company jumped on Linux suddenly a lot of the other ones that were on the edge and waffling followed. So then you get a kind of avalanche of all the decisions appearing to happen at the same time.
TIME: You started developing Linux when you were in Europe. Why move to the U.S.?
TORVALDS: Both places have their advantages. Finland, for example, is very high-tech. In fact when I moved here to the Silicon Valley, the Mecca of high-tech, a lot of the things I had taken for granted in Finland didn't work anymore. The Internet connections in Finland were better and I had better electronic banking. Studying in Finland (where tuition fees are much lower than in the U.S.) as I did made it possible for me to do something like Linux for free.
While Europe is a good place for laying the basis for new technology, I don't think Europeans are very competitive. [Europe] also doesn't offer the kind of environment that...I have in [Silicon Valley]. You have tons of choices in a small area and that's very enticing. You get to do something really cutting-edge, and you get paid to do it. There is a lot of money in the area and there's a good feedback cycle between venture capitalists and technology. There are also a lot of people taking risks that most Europeans wouldn't take. It's the mentality of Americans and it's the dream of most professionals [in technology] to work hard and retire at the age of 40.
TIME: Is that your goal?
TORVALDS: No. I started out to do Linux because I enjoyed the technical challenges and that's why I'm still doing it. Thinking that I'm some kind of monk who is doing this for the good of humanity is completely the wrong picture. I did it because I really wanted to.
TIME: You have done more than develop the technology. You have motivated programmers to improve it.
TORVALDS: People couldn't understand why I opened up the code. It's a simple concept and simply generates a better product... In five or 10 years we'll see a lot more projects like this. Big companies will do big projects like I did Linux and see the advantages of doing this [development] in a distributed manner and allowing users to give much more feedback into the development model.
TIME: Linux is freely available, so how do you compensate developers?
TORVALDS: Programming is partially an art form and, like artists, programmers will do it even if they don't get money.
TIME: What's your next step
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