Five Things Linus Torvalds Has Learned About Managing Software Projects

Linus Torvalds needs no introduction in operating systems or open-source circles. He’s the creator, muse and chief developer of the Linux operating system. Torvalds started Linux while he was in college in 1991. Today, Linux is the foundation of multibillion-dollar companies including Oracle, Novell and Red Hat. It’s used on computers from small office servers and home office desktops to the New York Stock Exchange.

Torvalds does this by managing a self-selected team of over a thousand developers around the world, united only by a mailing list (the Linux Kernel Mailing List) and a source-code management system (Git). Torvalds herds Linux programming cats from multiple major companies, such as IBM, Intel and SGI, as well as the occasional stereotypical developer programming in a basement.

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