Linux Creator Linus Torvalds Receives One of World's Highest Technology Honors

[btarunr]

The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced that Linux Creator and Linux Foundation Fellow Linus Torvalds is a Millennium Technology Prize laureate. This prize, determined by the Technology Academy of Finland, is one of the world's largest such prizes with candidates sought from across the world and from all fields of technology.

The Millennium Technology Prize is awarded every two years for innovations improving the quality of human life and encouraging sustainable development. Universities, research institutions, scientific and engineering academies, and high-tech companies from around the globe make nominations. The International Selection Committee, nominated by TAF Board, reviews the nominations and determines the year's laureates. The Board makes the final decision on who will be the recipients of the prize, which is together established by Finnish industry and state.



The winner(s) of the 2012 Millennium Technology Prize will be awarded by the President of the Republic of Finland in a special ceremony, taking place June 13, 2012.

Previous winners include Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web; Professor Shuji Nakamura, inventor of new revolutionary light sources; Professor Robert Langer for his invention and development of innovative biomaterials for controlled drug release and tissue regeneration; and Professor Michael Gratzel for his innovative developments in dye-sensitized solar cells.

"The Millennium Technology Prize is like the Nobel Peace Prize of technology," said Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation. "Linus Torvalds embodies the innovation and collaborative spirit that this award stands for, and we congratulate him on this tremendous honor."



Linus Torvalds created Linux in 1991. Since then it has become the world's most ubiquitous operating system (OS): it powers the popular Android phones and eight out of 10 financial trades; it runs Amazon, Facebook, Google, Twitter and other major web networks. It is the dominant OS for supercomputers, supporting nine of 10 of these major systems, and is the preferable platform for cloud computing.

[Aquinus]

It's about time!

[RejZoR]

I just wish Linux would be as popular as Windows. I mean, so you could truly use it as an OS for any task. Software developers would make games for it regularly, same for drivers.

[hhumas]

i tried too hard to understand it but

[digibucc]

yeah as bad as it is it is video games that stop me from adopting. that's what i use my computer for most after work, and i'm not going to dual boot just to play my games, so i'm still on windows... I have ubuntu on my laptop, i use it regularly but on my main i can't yet...

[qubit]

It's gone to someone truly deserving for a change.

[SIGSEGV]

Hail Linus Torvalds !

your latest stable kernel (3.3.2) run awesome on my sandy bridge (using LinuxMint 12)

preview : Sandy Bridge Become Quicker With Linux 3.3, 3.4

thanks for your effort~

[Easy Rhino]

One of the few people in the I.T. industry that deserves the massive ego.

[Prima.Vera]

Well, OK. But let's not get ahead of our self. Linus just took the Unix core and adjusted/tuned it a little so it would be much more simple OS. Just like Apple did with their OSX and Google with Android. I am not sure if Linus deserves ALL the credit on this...

[Easy Rhino]

Originally Posted by Prima.Vera

Well, OK. But let's not get ahead of our self. Linus just took the Unix core and adjusted/tuned it a little so it would be much more simple OS. Just like Apple did with their OSX and Google with Android. I am not sure if Linus deserves ALL the credit on this...

hrm perhaps, but that "adjusting/tuning" was a massive effort to undergo at the time. especially with limited hardware. what really is impressive about linux isn't necessarily the technological achievements but the fact that it was one of the earliest crowd sourcing projects in the I.T. industry. people were freely developing code for it from all over the world.

[Kreij]

I think that Linus deserves this award not because he wrote an OS (which is no small underatking, though), but because he insisted it remain free and open so that people anywhere could modify it in any manner they needed. The use and modification of this OS on supercomputers, and the like, has indeed led to advances in many areas in the scientific community (including healthcare) that have improved peoples' lives.

Here's to Linus
Well done.

[naoan]

The man deserves it.

[Mindweaver]

Nice and well deserved! and for all the people that don't use it because of games... Use Wine..

[jihadjoe]

Originally Posted by Mindweaver

Nice and well deserved! and for all the people that don't use it because of games... Use Wine..

I'd rather drink the wine...
err in a toast to Linus, of course!

[digibucc]

Originally Posted by Mindweaver

and for all the people that don't use it because of games... Use Wine..

if only i had ever heard of that before sorry, just kidding. but honestly i have tried it many times, it simply can't play newer games well.

[acerace]

The one thing that kept me from using Linux-based OS is the games. When the OS support PC games natively, then without any doubt I will change to Linux-based OS in no time.

[qubit]

Originally Posted by Kreij

I think that Linus deserves this award not because he wrote an OS (which is no small underatking, though), but because he insisted it remain free and open so that people anywhere could modify it in any manner they needed. The use and modification of this OS on supercomputers, and the like, has indeed led to advances in many areas in the scientific community (including healthcare) that have improved peoples' lives.

Here's to Linus
Well done.

Damn straight. Especially the bold bit.

[w3b]

Very nice, Congratulations to Linus Torvalds

[cm000000]

Originally Posted by Prima.Vera

Well, OK. But let's not get ahead of our self. Linus just took the Unix core and adjusted/tuned it a little so it would be much more simple OS. Just like Apple did with their OSX and Google with Android. I am not sure if Linus deserves ALL the credit on this...

You really have no idea what you are taking about. He didnt' take anything but wrote it from the begining, published it and shared it in the university. Please, read a little bit before saying so stupid things! In fact SCO issued claiming the use of parts of Unix on Linux, and lost the trial in several instances. Tunning? Adjunsting?