Linus Torvalds
Creator and maintainer of the Linux kernel and creator of Git; Fellow at the Linux Foundation
- Fellow, The Linux Foundation12
Linus Torvalds is a Fellow of the Linux Foundation, which describes Torvalds as having announced the Linux kernel in August 1991 and as still having the final say on new code accepted into the standard kernel. The kernel's MAINTAINERS file lists Torvalds for "THE REST", the entry covering every file that has no other maintainer, and the main kernel tree on kernel.org is published under Torvalds's name. In 2005 Torvalds wrote the first version of Git, the distributed version-control system; Git's README credits Torvalds with the original code and the name. The IEEE Computer Society gave Torvalds its 2014 Computer Pioneer Award, and the Computer History Museum named Torvalds a Fellow in 2008, both for work on the Linux kernel.13567
Work
Linux kernel (external site: git.kernel.org)Open-source code
Announced the Linux kernel in August 1991, according to the Linux Foundation, and is listed in the kernel's MAINTAINERS file as the maintainer of "THE REST", the catch-all entry for files without another maintainer. The kernel's COPYING file licenses it under GPL-2.0 with the Linux syscall note.134
Git (external site: github.com)Open-source code
Wrote the first version of Git in 2005, according to the Linux Foundation. Git's README says the project was originally written by Torvalds, who also gave it its name, and that it is covered by the GNU General Public License version 2.51
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