Linus Torvalds

Linus Torvalds Linus Torvalds is a Finnish-American software engineer who created the Linux kernel in 1991 as a personal project while studying at the University of Helsinki and released it as open-source software, sparking a revolution in computing. Linux now powers the vast majority of the world's servers, supercomputers, Android smartphones, and embedded systems, making it arguably the most widely deployed software in history. He also created Git in 2005—the version control system that underpins virtually all modern software development—in a two-week sprint after frustrations with existing tools.