Linus Torvalds interview Reader's Digest - 2001

Exactly, the neoliberal capitalist religion causes collective brain damage. Especially at that time, since there was a frenzy of propaganda around Bill Gates and how he became the worlds richest man by selling software, in particular operating systems. So from that non-logic it follows that if you have a popular operating system you should become the worlds richest man, but if you just give it all away for free, then you gave away a fortune. It makes total sense in the completely warped, schizophrenic world view of the US neoliberal mainstream media.

Not impossible, just The Most Generous Man In The World!

Linux exists solely because he made it a collaborative endeavour from the start.

That is the important part. If Linux had tried to compete with Microsoft as a closed-source operating system, no one would have used it -- who would use a tiny, buggy (back then), incomplete, closed-source operating system made by a few guys in their spare time against a very popular, feature-complete, close-source operating system with billions of dollars funding its engineering effort?

What makes Linux popular is that it is collectively owned, that is as much a feature of the operating system as any technology or algorithm written into the source code itself. That feature is what set it apart from Windows or Mac OS.

Perhaps I'm confused. I've never seen or heard Torvalds act in the manner you describe. In interviews, and talks, at least, I've seen him be quite self-deprecating, quite deferential, and quite humble. He just doesn't put up with bullshit in the space he knows extremely well, and he's very direct with little regard to being empathetic, or at least that's how he's acted in the past on the Linux mailing lists. Being matter-of-fact can often be misconstrued as acting superior, but I've found it's usually a time-saving personality quirk.

Edit>> Clearly this guy is unable to understand what being matter of fact is and resorts to ad hominem when someone doesn’t share his opinion. Sad, really, but pretty normal for the internet, I suppose. Oh well.

Mr.Redmond

This man is my our

If you want to see what the world would look like without the GPL, just look at how the BSDs are getting shanked by Apple (and many other companies too, but they're the biggest).

If it weren't for him, I have no idea what Linux would be today. No doubt in my mind, RMS is #1 on my list of most important software developers to have ever lived.

I agree with you 100%. Stallman is the soul of free software movement, he is the the philosopher of the movement and Torvalds the body, the "tech guy"