Linus Torvalds

Helsinki isn't all that bad. It's a very nice city, and it's cold really only in wintertime.

The thing I love about diving is the flowing feeling. I like a sport where the whole point is to move as little as humanly possible so your air supply will last longer. That's my kind of sport. Where the amount of effort spent is absolutely minimal.

When it comes to software, I much prefer free software, because I have very seldom seen a program that has worked well enough for my needs, and having sources available can be a life-saver.

Fairly cheap home computing was what changed my life.

I very seldom worry about other systems. I concentrate pretty fully on just making Linux the best I can.

The memory management on the PowerPC can be used to frighten small children.

To be honest, the fact that people trust you gives you a lot of power over people. Having another person's trust is more powerful than all other management techniques put together.

I don't have any authority over Linux other than this notion that I know what I'm doing.

I try to avoid long-range plans and visions - that way I can more easily deal with anything new that comes up.

Finnish companies tend to be very traditional, not taking many risks. Silicon Valley is completely different: people here really live on the edge.

In many cases, the user interface to a program is the most important part for a commercial company: whether the programs works correctly or not seems to be secondary.

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.