Linus Torvalds

Any program is only as good as it is useful.

The fact that I liked to show off didn't hurt.

I'm a huge proponent of designing your code around the data, rather than the other way around.

Nobody should start to undertake a large project. You start with a small trivial project, and you should never expect it to get large.

I have this disease where I get really excited about new technology.

I'm perfectly happy with all the people who are walking around and just staring at the clouds and looking at the stars and saying, 'I want to go there.' But I'm looking at the ground, and I want to fix the pothole before I fall in.

When you say, 'I wrote a program that crashed Windows,' people just stare at you blankly and say, 'Hey, I got those with the system, for free.'

The only way to go fast, is to go well.

A computer is like air conditioning: it becomes useless when you open Windows.

The best thing about open source is that anybody can contribute, and the worst thing is that anybody can contribute.

I'm not interested in the 'big picture'. I'm interested in the little details.

Under Linux, there are no guarantees. None. Nada. Zip.

My name is Linus, and I am your god.

I'm a technical person. I like the technology. I like the problem solving.

The goal is to make the best possible software, not to have the most users.

If you need to do something twice, write a program to do it once.

The GPL is a great license. It's not about open source; it's about freedom.

I've been told I can be a bit of a jerk sometimes. I'm working on it.

C++ is a horrible language.

In many cases, the user interface is the program.