Linus Torvalds interviews with Linux Journal Magazine: 1994 - 2019
Six interviews with Linus Torvalds that give a peek into the private life of the Linux creator, and provide a history of one of the most important software projects of the last quarter century.
Linux Journal magazine — which made its debut back in 1994 — chronicled the rise of Linux from almost the very beginning. Unfortunately, Linux Journal has closed up shop, but we still are lucky enough to have the extensive back catalog of articles.
Some of the shining gems in that collection are the interviews with Linux creator, Linus Torvalds, dating all the way back to the beginning.
If you ever want to get a good feeling for the mindset, background, and attitudes of the creator of Linux — and how they evolve over time — the Linux Journal interviews are a great place to start.
Bob Young (founder of Red Hat) interviewed Linus in the first issue of Linux Journal magazine. The interview opened with the excellent question:
“Ken Thompson was once asked, if he had the chance to do it all again, what changes would he make in Unix. He said he would add an e to the creat system call. How about you and Linux?”
A fantastic read.
Belinda Frazier talked with Linux about the origin of the Penguin mascot (the whole “bit by a penguin” thing), PowerPC, Windows emulation, OS/2, and all sorts of fun stuff.
Phil Hughes talked with Linux on the release of Linux kernel 2.0. They also talk about additional architecture support (SPARC, PPC, MIPS), and some other stuff. This was back when Linus was still mostly a student, which resulted in this exchange that I find rather amusing…
Phil: When you get your masters degree do you plan on “getting a real job” or do you intend to stay the highest-profile unemployed person in the computer field
Linus: Hey, I resent that remark. I'm not unemployed, I'm just selective about what I do...
They also talk about Wabi, which was a commercial Windows 3.1 emulation layer that was a big deal in the 90s… but people have mostly forgotten even existed nowadays.
Doc Searls had a chat with Linus at an event called “Linux for Suits” with the topics heavily focusing on commercial usage and big business adoption of Linux. A fascinating conversation from the early days of when Linux was beginning to make major inroads with companies like IBM>
This interview is a bit different as it focused almost entirely on personal things. Marjorie Richardson asked Linus about his childhood, early family life, politics, religion, sports, his kids… if you were ever curious about the private life of Linus Torvalds… this is the interview.
25 years after the launch of Linux Journal magazine, Bob Young sat down with Linux to have another interview… a quarter of a century after their first one. Lots of gems in here, but this particular exchange gave me a smile:
Bob: Your running joke back in the day when asked about your future goals for Linux was "world domination". Now that you and the broader Open Source/Free Software community have achieved that, what's next?
Linus: Well, I stopped doing the "world domination" joke long ago, because it seemed to become less of a joke as time went on.
Disclaimer: I served as the Deputy Editor of Linux Journal magazine during the final days of that glorious publication. Good times.