Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatina
Linus Torvalds
177 quotes
“The fact that ACPI was designed by a group of monkeys high on LSD, and is some of the worst designs in the industry obviously makes running it at any point pretty damn ugly.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“I personally just encourage people to switch to KDE.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now, most of you are probably going to be totally bored out of your minds on Christmas day, and here's the perfect distraction. Test 2.6.15-rc7. All the stores will be closed, and there's really nothing better to do in between meals.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“For example, the GPLv2 in no way limits your use of the software. If you're a mad scientist, you can use GPLv2'd software for your evil plans to take over the world ("Sharks with lasers on their heads!!"), and the GPLv2 just says that you have to give source code back. And that's OK by me. I like sharks with lasers. I just want the mad scientists of the world to pay me back in kind. I made source code available to them, they have to make their changes to it available to me. After that, they can fry me with their shark-mounted lasers all they want.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“I claim that Mach people (and apparently FreeBSD) are incompetent idiots.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: LKML, April 21, 2006
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“I like colorized diffs, but let's face it, those particular color choices will make most people decide to pick out their eyes with a fondue fork.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“…git actually has a simple design, with stable and reasonably well-documented data structures. In fact, I'm a huge proponent of designing your code around the data, rather than the other way around, and I think it's one of the reasons git has been fairly successful […] I will, in fact, claim that the difference between a bad programmer and a good one is whether he considers his code or his data structures more important. Bad programmers worry about the code. Good programmers worry about data structures and their relationships.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“EFI is this other Intel brain-damage (the first one being ACPI).”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“I think people can generally trust me, but they can trust me exactly because they know they don't have to.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“… even if the Hurd didn't depend on Linux code (and as far as I know, it does, but since I think they have their design heads firmly up their *sses anyway with that whole microkernel thing, I've never felt it was worth my time even looking at their code), I don't believe a religiously motivated development community can ever generate as good code except by pure chance.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: LKML, September 27, 2006
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“I'm a huge believer in evolution (not in the sense that "it happened" – anybody who doesn't believe that is either uninformed or crazy, but in the sense "the processes of evolution are really fundamental, and should probably be at least thought about in pretty much any context").”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: LKML, September 28, 2006
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“Gcc is crap.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Friends don't let friends use [gcc] "-W".”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's one of those rare "perfect" kernels. So if it doesn't happen to compile with your config (or it does compile, but then does unspeakable acts of perversion with your pet dachshund), you can rest easy knowing that it's all your own damn fault, and you should just fix your evil ways.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“Me, I just don't care about proprietary software. It's not "evil" or "immoral," it just doesn't matter. I think that Open Source can do better, and I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is by working on Open Source, but it's not a crusade – it's just a superior way of working together and generating code.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nobody actually creates perfect code the first time around, except me. But there's only one of me.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you have ever done any security work – and it did not involve the concept of "network of trust" – it wasn't security work, it was – masturbation. I don't know what you were doing. But trust me, it's the only way you can do security, it's the only way you can do development.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So the whole "We have a list and we're not telling you" should tell you something. Don't you think that if Microsoft actually had some really foolproof patent, they'd just tell us and go, "nyaah, nyaah, nyaah!"?”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“I don't ask for money. I don't ask for sexual favors. I don't ask for access to the hardware you design and sell. I just ask for the thing I gave you: source code that I can use myself.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm an egotistical bastard, and I name all my projects after myself. First Linux, now git.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You try to claim that the GPLv3 causes "More developers", and that, my idiotic penpal, is just crazy talk that you made up.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: LKML, June 18, 2007
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“I have an ego the size of a small planet, but I'm not _always_ right [...].”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Is "I hope you all die a painful death" too strong?”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“C++ is a horrible language. It's made more horrible by the fact that a lot of substandard programmers use it, to the point where it's much much easier to generate total and utter crap with it.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“C++ is in that inconvenient spot where it doesn't help make things simple enough to be truly usable for prototyping or simple GUI programming, and yet isn't the lean system programming language that C is that actively encourages you to use simple and direct constructs.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“It has nothing to do with dinosaurs. Good taste doesn't go out of style”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yes, I realize that there's a lot of insane people out there. However, we generally don't do kernel design decisions based on them. But we can pat the insane users on the head and say "we won't guarantee it works, but if you eat your prozac, and don't bother us, go do your stupid things".”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Controlling a laser with Linux is crazy, but everyone in this room is crazy in his own way. So if you want to use Linux to control an industrial welding laser, I have no problem with your using PREEMPT_RT.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think Leopard is a much better system [than Windows Vista] … but OS X in some ways is actually worse than Windows to program for. Their file system is complete and utter crap, which is scary.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And what's the Internet without the rick-roll?”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“Security people are often the black-and-white kind of people that I can't stand. I think the OpenBSD crowd is a bunch of masturbating monkeys, in that they make such a big deal about concentrating on security to the point where they pretty much admit that nothing else matters to them.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“It's what I call "mental masturbation", when you engage is some pointless intellectual exercise that has no possible meaning.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“Sometimes "pi = 3.14" is (a) infinitely faster than the "correct" answer and (b) the difference between the "correct" and the "wrong" answer is meaningless. And this is why I get upset when somebody dismisses performance issues based on "correctness". The thing is, some specious value of "correctness" is often irrelevant because it doesn't matter. While performance almost always matters. And I absolutely detest the fact that people so often dismiss performance concerns so readily.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Git mailing list, Fri, 8 Aug 2008
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“Real quality means making sure that people are proud of the code they write, that they're involved and taking it personally.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“The fact is, there aren't just two sides to any issue, there's almost always a range of responses, and "it depends" is almost always the right answer in any big question.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Your problem has nothing to do with git, and everything to do with emacs. And then you have the gall to talk about "Unix design" and not gumming programs together, when you yourself use the most gummed-up piece of absolute sh*t there is!”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“The thing that has always disturbed me about O_DIRECT is that the whole interface is just stupid, and was probably designed by a deranged monkey on some serious mind-controlling substances [*].”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“Your code is shit.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Crying that it's an application bug is like crying over the speed of light: you should deal with reality, not what you wish reality was.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“I may make jokes about Microsoft at times, but at the same time, I think the Microsoft hatred is a disease.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“There are "extremists" in the free software world, but that's one major reason why I don't call what I do "free software" any more. I don't want to be associated with the people for whom it's about exclusion and hatred.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: 林纳斯·托瓦兹 (zh)
“Your argument is shit.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every time I see some piece of medical research saying that caffeine is good for you, I high-five myself. Because I'm going to live forever.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Standards are paper. I use paper to wipe my butt every day. That's how much that paper is worth.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Toto, I don't think we're talking white-socks-and-sandals any more.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This whole ARM thing is a f*cking pain in the ass.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Torvalds argued on ARM architecture (2011-03-17).
“Why don't we write code that just works? Or absent a "just works" set of patches, why don't we revert to code that has years of testing? This kind of "I broke things, so now I will jiggle things randomly until they unbreak" is not acceptable. [...] Don't just make random changes. There really are only two acceptable models of development: "think and analyze" or "years and years of testing on thousands of machines". Those two really do work.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So here's a plea: if you have anything to do with security in a distro, and think that my kids (replace "my kids" with "sales people on the road" if you think your main customers are businesses) need to have the root password to access some wireless network, or to be able to print out a paper, or to change the date-and-time settings, please just kill yourself now. The world will be a better place.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We're not masturbating around with some research project. We never were. Even when Linux was young, the whole and only point was to make a *usable* system. It's why it's not some crazy drug-induced microkernel or other random crazy thing.”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Of course, I'd also suggest that whoever was the genius who thought it was a good idea to read things ONE F*CKING BYTE AT A TIME with system calls for each byte should be retroactively aborted. Who the f*ck does idiotic things like that? How did they not die as babies, considering that they were likely too stupid to find a tit to suck on?”
Linus Torvalds (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source