Cisco.com: The Charlie Rose Interview: Linus Torvalds

Torvalds: There’s this myth that I did
it because I wanted to be the Mahatma Gandhi of whatever. The
1990s.

Rose: I’m here for mankind.

Torvalds: Yes. And that is so untrue. The only
reason that I made Linux available on the Internet was really that
it made so much sense. It took me some time to realize what it
really meant.

At first it was just that I know all these people. I know
they’re interested in operating systems. I’d been discussing it
with them. So, I knew, like, five or ten people who I was sure
would be interested in looking at what I did. Maybe they wouldn’t
ever use it. So, I just made it available because it made sense at
the time.”

Complete
Story