Do you find the story of Linus Torvalds’ upbringing and creation of Linux inspiring, interesting, or irrelevant? How does his story compare to other computing luminaries such as Bill Gates or Steve Jobs? What do you wish your story to be?

The day we got a new computer in my house in 2005 was a glorious day. Not just because we got a computer, but because this computer was mine! This computer not only was brand new but also came with a new internet connection called broadband! It was supposed to be soooo much faster than the old dial-up we had on my dad’s computer. It was on this day that I found part of my true calling.

My upbringing was in ways very similar to Linus’, I was always the smartest kid in the class, always top in math and science. I was always tinkering with things on the computer. By 8th grade I could program simple games on my computer and was always showing my friends the new simple games I was creating. Where I differed from Linus’ was that my life didn’t solely revolve around computers. I had friends too, good friends who I would often hang out with. So you could say that my life was a little more balanced socially than Linus’. The end result was the same though, while I might now put in as much time as Linus I still was certainly obsessed with computers and bending them to my will through programming.

What can be said for this upbriging though is evident in Linus’ work on Linux. When he realized that his OS wasn’t all that he wanted it to be he set out to build his own. He used a dissassember and some books and figured out all how to do it all because of his inherient passion for this project. It is for this reason alone that Linus’ upbringing is inspiring. It shows exactly what can happen if you have a passion and dedicate your mind fully to something. While other computing luminaries like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs happened to also have the business prowess with the technical knowledge to build what they built, Linus just had the amazing techincal knowledge which makes his crazy success all the more compeleing. It shows that really all you need to change the world is some technial passion, some crazy good skills, some luck, and a lot of time.

I think most people (and hackers) would agree that they would love for their work to be accaimed as something that will change the world. For this I would 100% asprie my story to be like that of Linus’. I would love to use my technical prowess to make something I am passionate about that could be used for free by billions around the world. Currently my interests lie in emulators, I would love to be able to build emulators for older devices so that many people in my generation and younger can expereicne the same type of computing that our parents (and Linus) did. As long as your passion is there I believe that anything you put your mind to has the poential to change the world!