“Yet to people who spend vast time with their machines, those
who have become imbued with the zen of it all, operating systems
have distinct personalities. No operating system has a more
distinct personality than does Linux. That has a great deal to do
with the vast number of truly original personalities who built it.
They’re all over the place. Their mark is made in the comments they
place in the code and in the way the code itself works. Their code
is an extension of themselves as surely as a painting is an
extension of its painter. And of these unique personalities, none
is more interesting than the guy who started it all.”
“The interviews don’t really capture him. To do that, you need
to watch him at work, which for most of us is limited to reading
the kernel development mailing list — which for most of us would
be a heavy burden, in that the kernel list some days spews 200
messages. The vast majority of those messages are understandable
only to serious kernel hackers or, at least, those who are heavily
into operating system theory (yes, there is such a thing).”
“If one were to read the kernel list (which I do, and I believe
some of it will have soaked in by the turn of the century), one
would be amazed by the competence of the huge number of people
involved in creating the kernel. But more than that, one would be
amazed by Linus himself. The guy is tremendously bright. He also
knows an enormous amount. (“You really know your kernel,” someone
wrote to him not long ago. “That’s why I’m paid the big bucks,” was
his reply.)”
“Some of his posts are technical delights, prose interspersed
with illustrative bits of code, the way a reporter uses quotes.
Some of his posts are delights for other reasons, and those are the
ones that are the subject of this column.”