Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel, took to the stage at Open Source Summit in Los Angeles. In this keynote presentation, Torvalds joined The Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin in conversation about Linux kernel development and how to get young open source developers involved. Here are some highlights of their talk.
On the importance of the Linux kernel and being listed as by Time magazine as #17 on the list of Most Important People of the Century:
I am happy about the fact that I do something meaningful. Everyone wants to do something that matters, that has an impact. I feel like the work is meaningful. At the same time, I work in my home office, in my bathrobe.
On his book — Just for Fun
The premise of the book was that you kind of move on to fun. You have to start with survival. … Once you’re guaranteed survival, and once you’re guaranteed that you have a social connection to the world around you, then you want to get to the point where the most motivating thing in your life is fun.
For me, that fun is a technical challenge. That’s not fun for everybody, but hopefully it is fun for most people in this audience.
On open source adoption in the industry:
It’s very important to have companies involved in open source. … You should not hate those companies that can actually help make your project better. They can bring you all those users, because users to any project are what really matter.