The Rampantly Unofficial Linus Torvalds FAQ

Here is a decent picture of Linus. It is Copyright 1999 by Gary Wagner. He has since had laser eye surgery and no longer wears glasses.

If you're speaking English, Linus answers to either /lie'nus/ (long i) or /li'nus/ (short i). We have a sound file of Linus pronouncing his name in English.

Finland. He grew up in Helsinki (the capital of Finland and its largest city). He wrote the Linux kernel while a student at Helsinki University.

Finland has a significant (about 6%) Swedish-speaking minority population. They call themselves finlandssvensk or finlandssvenskar and consider themselves Finns; many of their families have lived in Finland for centuries. Swedish is one of Finland's two official languages.

Many people seem to think think Linus's middle name is "God". A few claim it ought to be Eric. But in fact his middle name is `Benedict'. He doesn't use it much.

He's now resident in Portland, Oregon, having moved to the U.S. from Helsinki in early 1997. He lived in Santa Clara and San Jose before going to work for OSDL

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