Do we like Linus Torvalds?
Our score: 6 out of 10. Nothing harmful found in his words or company, but a long record of savage put-downs he has himself apologised for keeps this in the middle.
Linus Torvalds is the Helsinki-born programmer who started the Linux kernel, the engine under Android, most of the internet's servers and a good chunk of everything else. He also built Git, the tool most coders now use to track their work. In 2012 he shared Finland's Millennium Technology Prize, worth 1.2 million euros, with a stem cell researcher.
The story he is best known for isn't code, it's temper. For years his posts on the kernel mailing list were famous for insults aimed at developers. In September 2018 The New Yorker sent him questions about complaints that his behaviour put women off becoming kernel programmers. Days later he announced a break, saying he needed to change some of his behaviour and wanted to apologise to people his behaviour hurt.
The apology was blunt and, by the look of it, real. He wrote “To anyone whose feelings I have hurt, I am deeply sorry.” The kernel also swapped its old Code of Conflict for a proper code of conduct around the same time. Even the editor he spoke to couldn't say for sure what tipped him over, so don't over-credit the magazine.
Has the leopard changed its spots? Partly. In August 2025 he told a Meta developer that late RISC-V patches were “garbage” and put him “on notice” for further late submissions. The developer apologised, and the rant was reportedly milder than his old form. It is still a public dressing-down of a colleague, though aimed at code and timing, not at who the person is.
On the harm test, honestly, there's little to chew on. Nothing in the coverage we read shows him campaigning against LGBTQ+ or trans people, pushing conspiracy theories, or working with people who do. We found no remarks from him either way on trans issues, so we can't say more than that. That is a thin record, not a glowing one.
Lately the news is leadership. In January 2026 he signed off on the kernel's first formal continuity plan, a process for choosing who steps up if he can't lead. The following month he joked that 7.0 would be followed one day by “somebody more competent in charge”. He's not going anywhere yet, but the project has finally planned for it.