Linus Torvalds—Created and maintained Linux kernel and Git as open source projects for over 30 years
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.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knowledge Access & Information Freedom | +toward | secondary | +0.50 |
| Open Internet & Web Freedom | +toward | secondary | +0.50 |
| Open Source | +toward | primary | +1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | +0.787 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (critical ×2) × confidence (0.59)
Evidence (1 signal)
Linux kernel released under GPL license, becoming the foundation of modern open source infrastructure
Linus Torvalds created Linux in 1991 and released it under the GPL open source license. Linux now powers over 90% of the world's top supercomputers, most web servers, and all Android devices.