Linus Torvalds: I started Linux as a desktop operating system. And it'...

If you have ever done any security work - and it did not involve the concept of "network of trust" - it wasn't security work, it was - masturbation. I don't know what you were doing. But trust me, it's the only way you can do security, it's the only way you can do development.

Linus Torvalds

development done way

I don't doubt at all that virtualization is useful in some areas. What I doubt rather strongly is that it will ever have the kind of impact that the people involved in virtualization want it to have.

Linus Torvalds

impact doubt people

OK, I admit it. I was just a front-man for the real fathers of Linux, the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus.

Linus Torvalds

real men father

I claim that Mach people (and apparently FreeBSD) are incompetent idiots.

Linus Torvalds

idiot claims people

Often your 'fixes' are actually removing capabilities that you had, because they were 'too confusing to the user'. GNOME seems to be developed by interface Nazis, where consistently the excuse for not doing something is not 'it's too complicated to do', but 'it would confuse users'.

Linus Torvalds

confusing confusion complicated

I never felt that the naming issue was all that important, but I was obviously wrong, judging by how many people felt. I tell people to call it just plain Linux and nothing more.

Linus Torvalds

issues judging people

People enjoy the interaction on the Internet, and the feeling of belonging to a group that does something interesting: that's how some software projects are born.

Linus Torvalds

feelings people interesting

I think, fundamentally, open source does tend to be more stable software. It's the right way to do things.

Linus Torvalds

doe way thinking

I've actually found the image of Silicon Valley as a hotbed of money-grubbing tech people to be pretty false, but maybe that's because the people I hang out with are all really engineers.

Linus Torvalds

valleys found people

I've felt strongly that the advantage of Linux is that it doesn't have a niche or any special market, but that different individuals and companies end up pushing it in the direction they want, and as such you end up with something that is pretty balanced across the board.

Linus Torvalds

boards different special

I spend a lot more time than any person should have to talking with lawyers and thinking about intellectual property issues.

Linus Torvalds

issues should-have thinking

I see myself as a technical person who chose a great project and a great way of doing that project.

Linus Torvalds

projects persons way

In many ways, I am very happy about the whole Linux commercial market because the commercial market is doing all these things that I have absolutely zero interest in doing myself.

Linus Torvalds

linux zero way

It's a personality trait: from the very beginning, I knew what I was concentrating on. I'm only doing the kernel - I always found everything around it to be completely boring.

Linus Torvalds

boring personality found

I like to think that I've been a good manager. That fact has been very instrumental in making Linux a successful product.

Linus Torvalds

linux successful thinking

There were open source projects and free software before Linux was there. Linux in many ways is one of the more visible and one of the bigger technical projects in this area, and it changed how people looked at it because Linux took both the practical and ideological approach.

Linus Torvalds

linux people way

There's innovation in Linux. There are some really good technical features that I'm proud of. There are capabilities in Linux that aren't in other operating systems.

Linus Torvalds

linux innovation proud

I'm sitting in my home office wearing a bathrobe. The same way I'm not going to start wearing ties, I'm also not going to buy into the fake politeness, the lying, the office politics and backstabbing, the passive aggressiveness, and the buzzwords.

Linus Torvalds

ties home lying

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

Linus Torvalds

linux economy worry

I'm a technical manager, but I don't have to take care of people. I only have to worry about technology itself.

Linus Torvalds

technology worry people

I started Linux as a desktop operating system. And it's the only area where Linux hasn't completely taken over. That just annoys the hell out of me.