Linus Benedict Torvalds is a Finnish computer scientist and software engineer who has an estimated net worth of $50 million. He is the main person behind the development of the Linux operating systems that run a vast portion of the internet, including Google and Facebook, and a leading supporter of open source software, which guarantee end users the freedom to run, share, and modify the programs. In 1994, Torvalds released his kernel, the core code of an operating system. He published his work on the internet and invited others to improve it. Since then, Linux has become one of the largest collaborative projects in history. Currently, the Linux kernel is key for billions of mobile phones via Android and for all the different operating systems based on it, among which stand out Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, and especially Red Hat, widely used at the corporate level. In 2012, he was inducted into the Internet Society's (ISOC) Internet Hall of Fame.

Torvalds has overseen the development of Linux since its creation and remains the last authority on what new code is incorporated into the kernel. In 1999, Red Hat and VA Linux (now Geeknet), both leading developers of Linux-based software, gave Torvalds stock options for his creation. That year the companies went public and Torvalds' shares value shot up to $20 million, though then they lost significant value due to the dot-com crisis, and the firms are no longer publicly traded. In 2003, he was backed by the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), a group formed by companies such as AMD, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, and Red Hat, among others, in order to promote Linux development. The OSDL merged with The Free Standards Group in 2007, becoming The Linux Foundation, an organization for developers and companies with the aim of building systems that accelerate open source projects and commercial adoption. It has a $50 million operating budget and pays Torvalds around $1.5 million per year. Besides, he holds the trademark for "Linux".

Torvalds was born on December 28, 1969, in Helsinki, Finland, to Anna Toerngvist, who worked for a Finnish newspaper as a translator and creator of news graphics, and Nils Torvalds, a radio journalist. His parents divorced when he was very young, and he lived with his mother and also with his grandparents. In the mid-1970s, his maternal grandfather bought one of the first personal computers, a Commodore Vic 20. Torvalds got bored with the few programs that were available for it, and he began to create new ones, first using the BASIC programming language and then the assembly language, which is used for direct hardware manipulation. In his early years, he coded several video games and altered computer performance and operating systems.

In 1987, Torvalds purchased his first computer, a Sinclair QL, one of the first 32-bit computers for home use and a big step up from his grandfather's machine, but he soon became unhappy with it because its operating system could not be reprogrammed. In 1988, he enrolled at the University of Helsinki to study computer science. However, his education was halted for a year in 1989, when he had to complete mandatory military service. He joined the Finnish Navy and eventually reached the rank of second lieutenant. In 1990, Torvalds took his first class in the C programming language, which he would use to write the Linux kernel. In 1991, he acquired an IBM-clone computer. Torvalds was disappointed with the MS-DOS operating system that came with it. He preferred the  UNIX operating system used on the university's computers, but because of the prices, he chose Minix, which was based on Unix. After began using Minix, Torvalds started to work on his own kernel with Unix and Minix as starting point. In 1991, because the university education in Finland was free and there was little pressure to graduate within four years, Torvalds decided to take a pause in his studies to dedicate full time to his project. He gathered a team to continue working on the new kernel, released three years later.

In 1996, Torvalds obtained his master’s degree with a thesis titled Linux: A Portable Operating System. Later that year, Torvalds was hired by Transmeta, a California start-up that was designing an energy saving central processing unit (CPU). While working for Transmeta, he continued to oversee the development of the kernel. Torvalds received an Honorary Doctorate from the Stockholm University in 1999 and from the University of Helsinki in 2000. He left Transmeta in 2003 to focus on the Linux kernel, with the support of the OSDL. As of today, Torvalds has contributed approximately 2% to the Linux kernel code, one of the largest contributions of any individual.

Besides, Torvalds created Git, a software for tracking changes in files used for coordinate work among programmers collaboratively developing code. Git was the basis for the development of GitHub, a provider of hosting and version control for software developers that Microsoft bought for $7.5 billion for in 2018. He is also the author of Subsurface, a program for logging and planning scuba dive activity, which implied that the diver uses an underwater breathing apparatus independent of surface supply to breathe underwater.

Torvalds is married to Tove Monni, a six-time Finnish national karate champion who was his student in 1993, when he was teaching at the University of Helsinki. They have three daughters, Patricia Miranda, Daniela Yolanda, and Celeste Amanda.

Sources: Celebrity Net Worth, Internet Hall of Fame, Wired, The Linux Foundation, Linfo.org, ComputerHistory.org, Stockholm University, University of Helsinki, Microsoft, Itsfoss.

This article was updated on April 2nd, 2021 by Andrés Taurian

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