What Linux distro does Linus Torvalds use? [Archive]

AndyCooll

January 8th, 2007, 08:51 PM

Those who saying he is using a Mac are slightly misleading. Torvalds points out that he is using Apple Mac hardware but obviously he's running Linux on it.

Torvalds switches to Apple (http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/soa/Torvalds_switches_to_Apple/0,139023165,139183867,00.htm)

:cool:

kebes

January 8th, 2007, 08:52 PM

none. he uses OS X, i'm led to believe.

No, Linus uses Mac hardware, but he has Linux installed on it. The Mac hardware was donated to him so he accepted the gift. See news items:

http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/soa/Torvalds_switches_to_Apple/0,139023165,139183867,00.htm
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/09/1314250

I have no idea what distro he uses... it's entirely possible that it's a custom build for his own purposes.

Shin_Gouki2501

January 8th, 2007, 08:55 PM

why distro? he just needs kernel , bootloader and a shell with vi :O
;)
wbr Shin Gouki

kebes

January 8th, 2007, 08:57 PM

In an interview in May 2006:
http://www.thenetworkadministrator.com/Linus%20Torvalds.htm

Linus says that he constantly switches between distros. He mentions SUSE, yellowdog, Fedora... (no mention of Ubuntu!)

I do know that he much prefers KDE over Gnome:

http://mail.gnome.org/archives/usability/2005-December/msg00021.html
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/13/1340215

ComplexNumber

January 8th, 2007, 09:06 PM

No, Linus uses Mac hardware, but he has Linux installed on it. The Mac hardware was donated to him so he accepted the gift. See news items:

http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/soa/Torvalds_switches_to_Apple/0,139023165,139183867,00.htm
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/09/1314250

I have no idea what distro he uses... it's entirely possible that it's a custom build for his own purposes.
yeah, you're right. i guess the confusion came about because i couldn't recall him sayin anything about the distro he was using, therefore i somehow remembered that he is using OS X due to that lack of information. i remembered the word "mac" being mentioned, but nothing about any distro - hence the inference.
well, one things for semi-certain, he is quite likely to be using a kde distro. i also imagine that he's likely not to mention which distro he uses because it may create an imbalance of some sorts (eg that paricular distro which he uses using his name to promote it).

Interestedinthepenguin

January 8th, 2007, 09:18 PM

This was certainly interesting.

Thanks for all the info.:)

lyceum

January 8th, 2007, 09:24 PM

I do know that he likes KDE over Gnome. I always thought he jsut made his own distro. After all, he IS Linus Torvalds.

Lord Illidan

January 8th, 2007, 09:30 PM

I thought he'd be using Linux from scratch, but perhaps, having done it once, he doesn't want to do it again :)

So he uses Fedora Core...hmm, so Kubuntu isn't too good for him?

Somenoob

January 8th, 2007, 09:37 PM

Regarding prominet figures

What distro does Richard Stallman use?

kebes

January 8th, 2007, 09:46 PM

i also imagine that he's likely not to mention which distro he uses because it may create an imbalance of some sorts (eg that paricular distro which he uses using his name to promote it).

I think you're right about that... he doesn't want to "play favorites." And in that regard I think he is a wise man! (Then again, he's quite vocal on the Gnome/KDE issue... hmm...)

kebes

January 8th, 2007, 09:50 PM

What distro does Richard Stallman use?

I did some searching and was not able to find out. Richard Stallman is very much concerned with freedom, of course, so you can be sure that he doesn't have any proprietary drivers installed! In fact he frows upon the fact that there is a non-free Debian repository (although he's glad that they keep it separate and properly labelled).... and Debian is one of the "purest" Linux distros!

My guess would be that he uses something highly customized.

I went to a talk of his once, but I didn't think to peek at what his laptop was running!

happy-and-lost

January 8th, 2007, 09:53 PM

Surely he's starting a major flame war with his comments about Gnome? ;)

ComplexNumber

January 8th, 2007, 09:54 PM

I think you're right about that... he doesn't want to "play favorites." And in that regard I think he is a wise man! (Then again, he's quite vocal on the Gnome/KDE issue... hmm...)
i think thats because the desktop environment doesn't really affect profits. if the toolkits that the DE uses had to be paid for, that may be a different matter. many distros such as redhat, oracle, SLED, etc make money, and if he stated a favouite, that could create an unfair imbalance in the market. most distros also use both kde and gnome, so it probably doesn't matter what he states as a favourite in the same way as it wouldn't matter if he stated a favourite media player or something.

Lord Illidan

January 8th, 2007, 09:54 PM

Surely he's starting a major flame war with his comments about Gnome? ;)

That was quite some time ago.

Regarding RMS, I would think either Utoto or Gnewsense

BarfBag

January 8th, 2007, 10:26 PM

I did some searching and was not able to find out. Richard Stallman is very much concerned with freedom, of course, so you can be sure that he doesn't have any proprietary drivers installed! In fact he frows upon the fact that there is a non-free Debian repository (although he's glad that they keep it separate and properly labelled).... and Debian is one of the "purest" Linux distros!

My guess would be that he uses something highly customized.

I went to a talk of his once, but I didn't think to peek at what his laptop was running!

He has it on his website somewhere. http://www.stallman.org/

ZylGadis

January 8th, 2007, 10:39 PM

Richard Stallman uses Ututu, I remember reading about that on his site. That is a completely Free Argentina-based distribution, AFAIK. It's a shame I don't know Spanish.

Killerah

January 8th, 2007, 10:45 PM

I have no idea what distro he uses... it's entirely possible that it's a custom build for his own purposes.

If that's true it's so nerdy it's cool! What a hardcore computer legend he is!

kebes

January 8th, 2007, 10:56 PM

Richard Stallman uses Ututu, I remember reading about that on his site. That is a completely Free Argentina-based distribution, AFAIK. It's a shame I don't know Spanish.

Oh yes, you're right, Stallman says he uses "Ututo" on this page:
http://www.stallman.org/stallman-computing.html

Apparently it is one of the only distros to use absolutely no non-free packages:
https://www.ututo.org/www/

darkhatter

January 8th, 2007, 11:28 PM

I thought Linus used Slackware...

OldTimeTech

January 8th, 2007, 11:30 PM

darkhatter did you just recently change your avatar?????

maniacmusician

January 8th, 2007, 11:50 PM

I thought Linus used Slackware...
forum psychology; your change of avatar is causing me cognitive dissonace :)

qamelian

January 9th, 2007, 12:00 AM

none. he uses OS X, i'm led to believe.

No, he doesn't. He stated in an interview a while back that he used a Mac, but had Linux installed on it instead of OS X. See the link below.

http://news.com.com/Torvalds+switches+to+Apple/2100-1003_3-5606030.html

ComplexNumber

January 9th, 2007, 12:47 AM

No, he doesn't. He stated in an interview a while back that he used a Mac, but had Linux installed on it instead of OS X. See the link below.

http://news.com.com/Torvalds+switches+to+Apple/2100-1003_3-5606030.html
read the rest of the thread before commenting!

spockrock

January 9th, 2007, 01:26 AM

hhmmm.... I thought for sure stallman would of used or tested gnu hurd, but I guess if there is a god, his os would be a copy of gnu hurd that works..........

darkhatter

January 9th, 2007, 03:18 AM

darkhatter did you just recently change your avatar?????

yes I did I got bored of the troll, I'm surprised you noticed

forum psychology; your change of avatar is causing me cognitive dissonace :-D

don't use big words, I came to the internet to lower my I.Q. not raise it ;) (little wikipedia helped) and thats what I was going for

qamelian

January 10th, 2007, 01:43 AM

read the rest of the thread before commenting!

Sorry,but I do have a life outside these forums, so I don't always have the time to read the entire thread. Maybe you should do what I do...just ignore posts that appear redundant.

So much for the friendly Ubuntu forums.

OldTimeTech

January 10th, 2007, 02:13 AM

"yes I did I got bored of the troll, I'm surprised you noticed"

I just knew it wasn't what I had seen the last time I saw your avatar....LOL!!!!

Pobega

January 10th, 2007, 03:01 AM

Sorry,but I do have a life outside these forums, so I don't always have the time to read the entire thread. Maybe you should do what I do...just ignore posts that appear redundant.

So much for the friendly Ubuntu forums.

Eh, I wouldn't consider one comment out of your whole time on the forums so bad. Just brush it off your should I'd say.

3rdalbum

January 10th, 2007, 03:11 AM

I wouldn't be surprised if he was running Yellow Dog on it now, as it has good support for KDE and doesn't give money to Microsoft.

qamelian

January 10th, 2007, 11:48 PM

Eh, I wouldn't consider one comment out of your whole time on the forums so bad. Just brush it off your should I'd say.

You're right. I've just had a couple of extremely annoying encounters on a few forums in the last couple days, and it doesn't take many to leave a bad taste in your mouth. Still not as bad as some of the threads I seen on usenet!

microsoft92sucks

June 29th, 2007, 10:33 AM

Migs

June 29th, 2007, 11:15 AM

I just sent a Email to Linux Torvaid right before finding this thread and in the Email I asked him what Distro was his favourite. If he Emails me back I'll post it here but I don't think he will but it could happen.

I am sure youre not the first one who asked that question.

The best joke ever would be if...Linus responded... that he uses Windows Vista \\:D/

jrusso2

June 29th, 2007, 11:58 AM

Linus has been asked many times what distro he uses and he would not say because he didn't want to show any favortism.

Now that we know he uses a mac we can narrow it down to a distro that supports PPC.

RMS has recently said he now uses GNUSENSE.

Herd is pretty much unusable.

cunawarit

June 29th, 2007, 12:05 PM

Whatever he uses he probably thinks it is the best choice ever, and anyone who uses anything else is an ugly, moron.

bobbocanfly

June 29th, 2007, 01:04 PM

Now that we know he uses a mac we can narrow it down to a distro that supports PPC.

Some Macs now have x86 Intel Processors now. Though he could have been given some dodgy PPC box for running OS 8 or something. Doubt it though......

family

July 8th, 2007, 12:47 AM

yes I did I got bored of the troll, I'm surprised you noticed

don't use big words, I came to the internet to lower my I.Q. not raise it ;) (little wikipedia helped) and thats what I was going for

What was the Wikipedia slur for???:o

fairyliquidizer

July 8th, 2007, 12:53 AM

Regarding prominet figures

What distro does Richard Stallman use?

BSD :p

Anthem

July 8th, 2007, 01:01 AM

It's worth noting that the Linus-switches-to-Power stuff is over two years old. I strongly doubt he's still using that dual-G5 setup as his primary machine... there's a reason Apple switched to Intel. The Core series blows everything else away right now (and I'm a big AMD fan).

stmiller

July 8th, 2007, 01:16 AM

He has been photographed at various Linux functions sporting a Thinkpad running Fedora in the past year. I'm looking through google images to find a possible photo...

I'm sure he runs multiple distros.

EDIT: And Anthem: PowerPC development in the Linux kernel is still going big time. Ex. search this change log for 'powerpc' http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=log;h=v2.6.22-rc1
IBM has a lot of Linux clients...

godd4242

July 8th, 2007, 01:22 AM

Wouldn't he just make his own distro?

I mean, he's Linus Torvalds for crying out loud.

PS:

This thread makes me wanna switch to KDE for good.

Once I get my screensaver issue worked out I shall too.

vexorian

July 8th, 2007, 01:31 AM

As the "guy who make it" he doesn't really need a "distribution" since he already got "it"

This thread makes me wanna switch to KDE for good.

I also changed to KDE when I first learn about Linus' preferences. But 3 weeks ago when I upgraded to feisty (from way old breezy) I decided to download ubuntu (not kubuntu ) for no good reason. Right now I am undecided, on one hand KDE got Kate which is much better than Gnome, on the other hand, gnome is a little simpler in interface.

Maybe Kubuntu 8.04 will come with KDE4 stable and I will try it , and I might switch then, who knows? But I must say that the other day I tried Xubuntu and it was way too fast to ignore, I might one of these days, save my home partition and install Xubuntu...

zipperback

July 9th, 2007, 09:50 AM

Originally Posted by Somenoob View Post
Regarding prominet figures

What distro does Richard Stallman use?

BSD :p

NO. Stallman runs gNewSense.

Here is the link to his website.

http://www.stallman.org/stallman-computing.html

plb

July 9th, 2007, 11:45 AM

Why switch to KDE because Linus uses it? Use it because it's better than GNOME. =)

issueperson

July 31st, 2008, 03:59 AM

Torvalds actually does mention Ubuntu: http://news.oreilly.com/2008/07/linux-torvalds-on-linux-distri.html

specifically, he doesn't like Debian but does like Ubuntu.

kitili

July 31st, 2008, 04:24 AM

you'd think that Linus would have made his own distro.. :P

wrtpeeps

July 31st, 2008, 04:32 AM

NO. Stallman runs gNewSense.

Here is the link to his website.

http://www.stallman.org/stallman-computing.html

Stallman has the writing style of a 10 year old. It's strange.

bikeboy

July 31st, 2008, 04:44 AM

Torvalds actually does mention Ubuntu: http://news.oreilly.com/2008/07/linux-torvalds-on-linux-distri.html

specifically, he doesn't like Debian but does like Ubuntu.

He never says that he doesn't like Debian. He didn't like the fact that it used to be difficult to install. He hasn't had reason to try it since the install process was improved and therefore doesn't have a current opinion.

Foster Grant

July 31st, 2008, 03:45 PM

What I liked about that interview is that he's beating the drum for ease of use, which is why he leans toward distros like Fedora and Ubuntu. Ease of use is a good thing; rather than spending all your time getting your computer to work you can get on with getting to work with your computer. :)

RELL33

January 13th, 2010, 08:47 PM

http://news.oreilly.com/2008/07/linux-torvalds-on-linux-distri.html

Quote from Linus Torvalds

"I've used different distributions over the years. Right now I happen to use Fedora 9 on most of the computers I have, which really boils down to the fact that Fedora had fairly good support for PowerPC back when I used that, so I grew used to it. But I actually don't care too much about the distribution, as long as it makes it easy to install and keep reasonably up-to-date. I care about the kernel and a few programs, and the set of programs I really care about is actually fairly small. And when it comes to distributions, ease of installation has actually been one of my main issues - I'm a technical person, but I have a very specific area of interest, and I don't want to fight the rest. So the only distributions I have actively avoided are the ones that are known to be "overly technical" - like the ones that encourage you to compile your own programs etc.
Yeah, I can do it, but it kind of defeats the whole point of a distribution for me. So I like the ones that have a name of being easy to use. I've never used plain Debian, for example, but I like Ubuntu. And before Debian people attack me - yeah, I know, I know, it's supposedly much simpler and easier to install these days. But it certainly didn't use to be, so I never had any reason to go for it."

the8thstar

January 13th, 2010, 09:09 PM

I guess that means no Arch or Gentoo for Mr Torvalds.

k64

January 14th, 2010, 12:02 AM

NoaHall

January 14th, 2010, 12:04 AM

Ubuntu doesn't work on PowerPC architecture, anyway, and Intel Macs would be too expensive to be donated. So, it would make sense.

Yes it does - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCDownloads

MasterNetra

January 14th, 2010, 12:04 AM

If he still uses Fedora I'd imagine he'd be using Fedora 12 now. But it probably be better to ask him.

slakkie

January 14th, 2010, 12:06 AM

I know his wife/girl is using Fedora. Saw a bug report where he posted this info.

blur xc

January 14th, 2010, 12:24 AM

I use Fedora for historical reasons. I have one of the EeePC laptops and I re-installed my own distribution so I am the wrong the person to ask. However, most users don't want to do the installation and configuration.

from http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/012209-open-source-identity-linux-founder.html?page=3

not that recent, but seems more recent than most sitings in this [old] thread...

BM

oospill

January 14th, 2010, 12:25 AM

why distro? he just needs kernel , bootloader and a shell with vi :O
;)
wbr Shin Gouki

hmm. is this true? anyone have a good link that would show how to go about doing that?

thanks

linux is too fun to quit learning new stuff.

whoop

January 14th, 2010, 12:27 AM

hmm. is this true? anyone have a good link that would show how to go about doing that?

thanks

linux is too fun to quit learning new stuff.

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

oospill

January 14th, 2010, 02:14 PM

http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/

=) much appreciated.

Fersure

March 12th, 2010, 08:22 PM

I'm kind-of disappointed that Linus is against distributions like Gentoo and Arch. But I can see his point. However, in my experience, only -new- GNU/Linux users (e.g. former Windows users) fear the console. OS X users might have come across Terminal before, so it wouldn't be that big of a jump. I will agree with him on a couple of points though.

"Slackware is horrid, so is Gnome." - Both are ugly, imho.

Roasted

March 12th, 2010, 08:24 PM

"Slackware is horrid, so is Gnome." - Both are ugly, imho.

Default gnome? Yes.
After 20 seconds of tweaking? No.

PhoHammer

March 12th, 2010, 08:55 PM

default gnome? Yes.
After 20 seconds of tweaking? No.

+1

NightwishFan

March 12th, 2010, 09:24 PM

I understand where he is going, but I like GTK+ programs better. Why I do not like KDE is summed up in this article. (Though to a lesser degree in my case, I am not as strict as the author)
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=570

I have heard that Linus uses Fedora as well.

Tibuda

March 12th, 2010, 09:42 PM

Hanna Montana Linux :)

katie-xx

March 12th, 2010, 09:52 PM

I have his book "Just for Fun" and he states quite clearly the manuscript was done on Microsoft Software.
This is a claim he has also made about his presentations. ..Yes he uses PowerPoint

He also says in his book he uses several Linux Distros

Kate

hhh

March 12th, 2010, 10:57 PM

I do know that he much prefers KDE over Gnome
As of one year ago, that is totally wrong...

I used to be a KDE user. I thought KDE 4.0 was such a disaster, I switched to GNOME. I hate the fact that my right button doesn't do what I want it to do. But the whole "break everything" model is painful for users, and they can choose to use something else.

I realize the reason for the 4.0 release, but I think they did it badly. They did so may changes, it was a half-baked release. It may turn out to be the right decision in the end, and I will retry KDE, but I suspect I'm not the only person they lost.

sources...
http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20090202#feature
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9126619/Q_A_Linux_founder_Linus_Torvalds_talks_about_open_ source_identity?taxonomyId=18&pageNumber=5&taxonomyName=Software

He may have switched back by now, I can't find a more recent interview on the subject.

Personally, I'm in love with Openbox/tint2 (along with a slew of others on this forum).

katie-xx

March 12th, 2010, 11:14 PM

Personally, I'm in love with Openbox/tint2 (along with a slew of others on this forum).

Openbox is boss with me too.

Kate

jtslau

March 12th, 2010, 11:49 PM

From what I heard over the past year or so (and no I don't stalk Linus or anything)

- Linus uses a PowerPC G5 Dual
- Linus currently has Fedora installed (most likely because of all the main distros, Fedora officially supports PowerPC)
- Linus uses GNOME nowadays, ever since KDE4 came out.
- Linus does not use elite distros like Gentoo because he wants a distro that is easily maintainable, he does not like to spend all his time compiling. His interest with Linux is on the kernel, and not on how icons are arranged on the desktop

Giant Speck

March 12th, 2010, 11:52 PM

This thread is over three years old. :shock:

Post Monkeh

March 12th, 2010, 11:58 PM

+1

stop! hammer time!

kevin01123

March 13th, 2010, 01:36 AM

why distro? he just needs kernel , bootloader and a shell with vi :O
;)
wbr Shin Gouki

Linus uses microemacs, not vi.

XubuRoxMySox

March 13th, 2010, 02:59 AM

I heard he was using LCARS now.

dragos240

March 13th, 2010, 03:17 AM

I heard he uses fedora.

swoll1980

March 13th, 2010, 03:46 AM

As of one year ago, that is totally wrong...

That post was made 3 years ago. ;)

murderslastcrow

March 13th, 2010, 03:49 AM

I think he would like us to be as misinformed as possible. So I'd say he uses a hybrid DE that utilizes an Xfce panel with equal use of Qt and GTK utilities, uses PackageKit, and runs Safari through Wine as his web browser.

TADA!

He probably gets bored and switches to a new one every 6 months or so. But I can definitely see the appeal of an officially supported PPC distro.

EDIT: Lol, Wine on PowerPC. What was I dreaming?

swoll1980

March 13th, 2010, 03:58 AM

PmDematagoda

March 13th, 2010, 04:07 AM

Three years of trying to figure out what distro Linus Torvalds uses, and still no decision has been made even though all the evidence is there for all to see on the Linux Kernel Mailing List.:P

On that, this thread is closed for necromancy.