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Linus Torvalds facts for kids

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Linus Torvalds

Linus Benedict Torvalds is a computer scientist, born December 28, 1969, in Helsinki, Finland.

His parents named him after Linus Pauling. He studied at the University of Helsinki from 1988 to 1996. He became famous because of the success of his operating system, Linux. He started making this system as a student project in 1991. He based it on the popular UNIX operating system. Today, Linux has become the most popular free operating system.

Linus is the leader of the Linux project, which has many members around the world. He is the one person who can make decisions about changes or future development on the operating system. He also made the revision control system Git. He now lives with his family in the United States.

Linus chose the penguin to be the logo of Linux. A picture of penguin appears on many desktop computers that run Linux.


Images for kids

  • Linus Torvalds

    Torvalds in 2002

  • Linus-Torvalds IEEE Ibuka Award 2018

    Linus Torvalds receiving 2018 IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award from ICCE 2018 Conference Chair Saraju P. Mohanty and IEEE President James A. Jefferies at ICCE 2018 on 12 January 2018 in Las Vegas

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