Linus Torvalds gives a tour of his home office

About that sword at the end: Finland (and Sweden) have this old tradition that PhD&#x27;s have a hat and a sword [1] as part of the academic dress [2].<p>[1] <a href="http://www.lut.fi/documents/10633/139156/opiskelu-tohtoriohjelmat-paakuva-615x295-tohtorinhattu-miekat.jpg" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lut.fi&#x2F;documents&#x2F;10633&#x2F;139156&#x2F;opiskelu-tohtoriohj...</a><p>[2] <a href="http://www.helsinki.fi/filtdkpromootio2010/_Y5I6060.JPG" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.helsinki.fi&#x2F;filtdkpromootio2010&#x2F;_Y5I6060.JPG</a>

I liked that, what a nice guy. This is the dilbert he has framed on his wall:<p><a href="http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1999-03-29/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;dilbert.com&#x2F;strips&#x2F;comic&#x2F;1999-03-29&#x2F;</a><p><a href="http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1999-03-30/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;dilbert.com&#x2F;strips&#x2F;comic&#x2F;1999-03-30&#x2F;</a>

This seems to be the original Linux Foundation video, with way more views. (But exactly the same content.)<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSgUPqygAww" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=HSgUPqygAww</a>

He came and spoke at my university a couple months back. He was a really nice personable guy, especially considering how many people wanted to chat with him. It was very surreal being so close to someone acting so normal with the realization that he created so much of what you use everyday. The entire CS department felt like they&#x27;d just seen God.

Another productive night owl succumbs to the gravity of the nuclear family. Funny that it even happens to people like Linus.

It&#x27;s comforting to see that someone who is as accomplished as Linus Torvalds, is even messier than me.

Notes:<p><pre><code> -uses the web browser for email -uses standing desk with treadmill -old desk is very dirty -doesn&#x27;t like light in his room</code></pre>

It&#x27;s nice to see someone as important as Linus just act so normal, as if he didn&#x27;t create some of the most important software in the world. I really like that he doesn&#x27;t espouse minimalist, nitty-gritty Linux distros, but rather just likes stuff that works.

The laptop on his desk is his Pixel. Still IMO the best piece laptop ever made.<p>I still wish it was dual-bootbable.

He seems so nice in person.. Looking at the way he rips people apart when they write bad code, this Linus is lovable..

I wonder if his virtual office( backup, code, projects ) is more organized.

The stack of hard drives definitely got a chuckle out of me. Which of us hasn&#x27;t, at some point, had an old hard drive or two sitting around for exactly that reason? You don&#x27;t want to wipe the old drive until you&#x27;ve got the new one up and running, and at that point there are more interesting things to do, and the old drive isn&#x27;t even connected anymore and... meh, add it to the stack.

&gt; for some reason people keep sending me penguins<p>i would be careful. there could be cameras in there.

I couldn&#x27;t agree more about the old &quot;garbage&quot; lying around.

I was surprised he doesn&#x27;t use Emacs instead of a terminal.

He uses only one monitor?<p><a href="http://i.imgur.com/FFE1ysu.png" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;FFE1ysu.png</a><p>Perhaps it lets him stay focused. He also doesn&#x27;t use a debugger if I remember correctly.