Revolution OS: Video Story Of Linux Creation Ft. Linus Torvalds

Revolution OS is a 2001 documentary which traces the history of GNU, Linux, and the open source and free software movements. This is the story of people who rebelled against the proprietary software model and Microsoft to create GNU/Linux and the Open Source movement. It features several interviews with well-known hackers and entrepreneurs, including Linus Torvalds, Richard Stallman and many others.

On June 1, 2001, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said "Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches." Microsoft fears GNU/Linux, and rightly so. GNU/Linux and the Open Source & Free Software movements arguably represent the greatest threat to Microsoft's way of life. Shot in cinemascope on 35mm film in Silicon Valley, Revolution OS tracks down the key movers and shakers behind Linux, and finds out how and why Linux became such a potent threat.

Linus Torvalds is interviewed on his development of the Linux kernel as well as on the GNU/Linux naming controversy and Linux's further evolution, including its commercialization. Richard Stallman remarks on some of the ideological aspects of open source vis-á-vis Communism and capitalism and well as on several aspects of the development of GNU/Linux.

Companies such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Oracle, Wipro, Ogilvy & Mather, OSTG, and Dreamworks Animation have rented REVOLUTON OS for private theatrical screenings. It has also screened in numerous film festivals including South By Southwest Film Festival, the Atlanta Film & Video Festival, Boston Film Festival, and Denver International Film Festival. REVOLUTION OS won Best Documentary at both the Savannah Film & Video Festival and the Kudzu Film Festival.

REVOLUTION OS is available in the 35 mm motion picture format and runs 85 minutes. Now it is also shipping on DVD.

40 Amusing "facts" about Linus Torvalds

• Linus Torvalds can do an infinite loop in five seconds... in his head.
• Linus Torvalds doesn't wear glasses anymore not because he had laser eye surgery, but because he finally got his xorg.conf properly configured in his head.
• Linus Torvalds can use a nice level lower than -20.
• Linus Torvalds doesn't need to mount his drives.
• Linus Torvalds doesn't debug. His programs are always perfect.
• Linus Torvalds can install Linux on a dead badger.
• Linus Torvalds doesn't need backups. He just uploads his files and lets the world mirror them.
• Linus Torvalds is taking over the world. Microsoft is just a deversion so that no one would suspect a mild mannered Finnish programmer.
• Linus Torvalds can run kill -9 and kill Chuck Norris.
• Linus Torvalds already has Linux 3.0. He is just keeping it to himself to build suspense.
• Linus Torvalds didn't design Linux to run on the 386. Intel designed the 386 to run Linux.
• People pray to Jesus, but Jesus prays to Linus Torvalds.
• Linus Torvalds doesn't die, he simply returns zero.
• Linus Torvalds once found a segmentation fault in the universe.
• Linus Torvalds runs Linux on his wristwatch and toster.
• Linus Torvalds only has 2 buttons on his keyboard '1' and '0'
• Linus Torvalds can write to ntfs.
• Linus Torvalds can install Gentoo in under a week
• Linus Torvalds is more powerful than root.
• Linus Torvalds doesn't need anti-virus software. Virii need anti-linus software.
• If you could read Linus Torvald's mind, you'd find that his stream of conciousness is entirely in binary.
• Linus Torvalds scared A and B away, so they had to make C.
• Linus is REAL unless declared INTEGER.
• There are no man pages for Linus Torvalds, only god pages.
• Code:
  linus@debtux:~$ apt-cache search sudo
  linus@debtux:~$
  
• Linus Torvalds takes one look at your desktop and knows which porn sites you visited. In the last ten years.
• Being touched by Linus can cure carpal tunnel syndrome. He does not cure RMS because he thinks it's funny to listen to RMS dictating code for the HURD.
• On the first day Linus said ".configure"
  On the second day he said "make"
  On the third day he said "make install"
  And on the fourth day there was Linux, and Linus saw that it was kick ***, because it wasn't Windows.
• Linus Torvalds doesn't push the flush toilet button. He simply says "make clean".
• When Linus Torvalds writes new software, he just makes punch cards with his teeth and feeds them into a reader.
• Linus Torvalds source codes complie themselfs.
• Linus Torvalds surfs the web using nothing but netcat
• Linus Torvalds can play 3D games in his head by interpreting the source code in real-time.
• Linus Torvalds can program without a keyboard.
• Linus Torvalds didin't learn from the University of Helsinki the University of Helsinki learned from Linus Torvalds.
• Linus Torvalds finished the Linux Kernel the day before he started on it.
• Linus Torvalds once developed a programming language so good that it makes python look like punch cards.
• Linus Torvalds doesn't need to boot.
• Linus Torvalds first written program had artificial intelligence.
• Linus Torvalds doesn't receive error messages.

Ten Funny Quotes By Linus Torvalds

• "Dijkstra probably hates me"
• (in kernel/sched.c)
• "How should I know if it works? That's what beta testers are for. I only coded it"
  (somewhere in a posting)
• "I'm an idiot.. At least this one [bug] took about 5 minutes to find.."
  (in response to a bug report)
• "If you want to travel around the world and be invited to speak at a lot of different places, just write a Unix operating system."
  (source unknown)
• "Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect." (NewYork Times interview)
• "An infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never make a good program."
  (source unknown)
  
• "Hey, maybe I could apply for a saint-hood from the Pope. Does somebody know what his email-address is? I'm so nice it makes you puke."
  (taken from Linus's reply to someone worried about the future of Linux)
• "When you say "I wrote a program that crashed Windows", people just stare atyou blankly and say "Hey, I got those with the system, *for free*"
  (source unknown)
  
• "Other than the fact Linux has a cool name, could someone explain why I should use Linux over BSD? No. That's it. The cool name, that is. We worked very hard on creating a name that would appeal to the majority of people, and it certainly paid off: thousands of people are using linux just to be able to say "OS/2? Hah. I've got Linux. What a cool name". 386BSD made the mistake of putting a lot of numbers and weird abbreviations into the name, and is scaring away a lot of people just because it sounds too technical."
  (Linus Torvalds' follow-up to a question about Linux)
• "The day people think linux would be better served by somebody else (FSF being the natural alternative), I'll "abdicate". I don't think that it's something people have to worry about right now - I don't see it happening in the near future. I enjoy doing linux, even though it does mean some work, and I haven't gotten any complaints (some almost timid reminders about a patch I have forgotten or ignored, but nothing negative so far). Don't take the above to mean that I'll stop the day somebody complains: I'm thick-skinned (Lasu, who is reading this over my shoulder commented that "thick-HEADED is closer to the truth") enough to take some abuse. If I weren't, I'd have stopped developing linux the day ast ridiculed me on c.o.minix. What I mean is just that while linux has been my baby so far, I don't want to stand in the way if people want to make something better of it."
  (source unknown)

Linus Torvalds Talks Future Of Linux

Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel, has, along with others like Richard Stallman, literally changed the world of software forever.

Linux-based distributions seem to pop up every day, while more and more devices now run Linux at their core, from mobile phones to inflight entertainment systems, to the world's mission critical server infrastructures.

The development of the kernel has changed, and Linux is just getting better and better. However, with a community as large and fractured as the Linux community, it can sometimes be hard to get a big picture overview of where Linux is going: what's happening with kernel version 2.6? Will there be a version 3.0? What has Linus been up to lately? What does he get up to in his spare time?

APC Interviewer James Buchanan who is an Australian programmer, writer and cartoonist chats with Linus Torvalds and quizes him about what the future holds for the Linux kernel and in what direction it is being steered. Read the full interview.