Software is like sex; it's better when it's free.

Nobody should start to undertake a large project. You start with a small _trivial_ project, and you should never expect it to get large. If you do, you'll just overdesign and generally think it is more important than it likely is at that stage. Or worse, you might be scared away by the sheer size of the work you envision. So start small, and think about the details. Don't think about some big picture and fancy design. If it doesn't solve some fairly immediate need, it's almost certainly over-designed. And don't expect people to jump in and help you. That's not how these things work. You need to get something half-way _useful_ first, and then others will say "hey, that _almost_ works for me", and they'll get involved in the project.

We all know Linux is great…it does infinite loops in 5 seconds.

Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect.

Talk is cheap. Show me the code.

I'm really not a very nice person. I can say "I don't care" with a straight face, and really mean it.

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 d*mn fault, and you should just fix your evil ways.

The Linux philosophy is 'laugh in the face of danger'. Oops. Wrong one. 'Do it yourself'. That's it.

Ok, I admit it. I was just a front-man for the real fathers of Linux, the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus.

The memory management on the PowerPC can be used to frighten small children.

Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow. Also known as Linus's Law.

My personal opinion of Mach is not very high. Frankly, it's a piece of crap. It contains all the design mistakes you can make, and even managed to make up a few of its own.

Modern PCs are horrible. ACPI is a complete design disaster in every way. But we're kind of stuck with it. If any Intel people are listening to this and you had anything to do with ACPI, shoot yourself now, before you reproduce. 2003.

If you need more than 3 levels of indentation, you're screwed anyway, and should fix your program.

My name is Linus, and I am your god. Attributed to Torvalds at the 1998 Linux Expo in Durham, North Carolina.

Most days I wake up thinking I'm the luckiest bastard alive.

There are literally several levels of SCO being wrong. And even if we were to live in that alternate universe where SCO would be right, they'd still be wrong.

Note that nobody reads every post in linux-kernel. In fact, nobody who expects to have time left over to actually do any real kernel work will read even half. Except Alan Cox, but he's actually not human, but about a thousand gnomes working in under-ground caves in Swansea. None of the individual gnomes read all the postings either, they just work together really well.

If you still don't like it, that's ok: that's why I'm boss. I simply know better than you do.

Only wimps use tape backup: _real_ men just upload their important stuff on ftp, and let the rest of the world mirror it ;)

Some people have told me they don't think a fat penguin really embodies the grace of Linux, which just tells me they have never seen an angry penguin charging at them in excess of 100mph. They'd be a lot more careful about what they say if they had.

You know you're brilliant, but maybe you'd like to understand what you did 2 weeks from now.

Do you pine for the days when men were men and wrote their own device drivers?

I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. Post to comp.os.minix newsgroup (1991-08-25). This was the launch of Linux.

I'm a bastard. I have absolutely no clue why people can ever think otherwise. Yet they do. People think I'm a nice guy, and the fact is that I'm a scheming, conniving bastard who doesn't care for any hurt feelings or lost hours of work, if it just results in what I consider to be a better system.