Linus Torvalds

In October 2024, the Linux kernel removed about a dozen maintainers associated with Russian entities from the MAINTAINERS file, citing 'various compliance requirements.' The changes were made without review by other developers or the affected maintainers. Torvalds affirmed the decision, referencing Russian sanctions and his Finnish heritage. Community members criticized the lack of transparency and the process used.

After decades of aggressive, personal attacks on Linux kernel contributors in mailing lists, Torvalds publicly apologized, calling his behavior 'unprofessional and uncalled for.' He took a 5-week sabbatical to 'get assistance on how to understand people's emotions' and adopted the Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct for the Linux kernel project.

Development of Git began on April 3, 2005 after BitKeeper revoked free access. Torvalds built Git in roughly 5 days and released it in April 2005 under GPL-2.0. By 2022, nearly 95% of developers used Git as their primary version control system. Git became self-hosting on April 7, and managed kernel 2.6.12 release by June 16.

Linus Torvalds created the Linux kernel in 1991 and Git version control in 2005, both under open source licenses. Linux powers the majority of the world's servers, smartphones (Android), and supercomputers. Git became the dominant version control system. Torvalds has maintained both as open source since their inception, contributing to the foundation of modern open source infrastructure.