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An Interview with Linus Torvalds

Filed under
Linux

We wanted to interview Linus Torvalds because all the computers at our school run Linux. Mr. Torvalds lives in our neighborhood so we sent him an email and asked for an interview.

So what happens when Linus Torvalds sits down with a high school freshman for an interview? You get to hear what every 15 year-old wants to know about our favorite open source software developer.

Linus Torvalds Q & A, by Anthony Q.

Q: What is something you want the public to know about Linux or yourself?

Linus: “Not a lot, I usually keep a low profile. I try to concentrate on the technical side. The nicest thing is that because Linux is open source, I don’t do any of the marketing stuff and I’ve never had a company around Linux. Other people have made companies around Linux. That means that I don’t have any incentive to go and spread the word.”

Q: Did you ever imagine that you would become a famous computer programmer?

Linus: “No. When I grew up I actually wanted to be a scientist, I mean everyone dreams of being something. Being a famous scientist, when I was a teenager, was my goal in life. I guess it's close enough. It was more of a daydream.”

Q: What was your first computer?

Linus: “My first computer was a (were not that common in the US) commodore VIC 20 which ran at one megahertz, not gigahertz, megahertz, and had 3 ½ kilobytes of memory. In many ways it was a very simple (computer) one. It’s much easier to get into computers when they are simple, so you can understand exactly what they are doing.”

Q: Who was your idol when you were growing up, and is it the same now?

Full Interview.

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