Portland, Oregon is now the home base for one Linus Torvalds, founder of the Linux kernel and still an active member of its development. In a very interesting interview with CNN, Linus discusses his part in Linux development, how he sees it interacting with the market today, and the future of Linux and open source in general. He remains pretty grounded, and doesn't give Linux credit in founding many of the things that have since been based upon it. His comment on Linux being used because it is just an "alternative to Microsoft" was almost humorous:
Well that is, I think, played up more than it necessarily needs to be. Because there is a very vocal side to this which is the whole anti Microsoft thing. I think it makes a better story than is necessarily true in real life.
It's definitely and interesting interview, but it is largely non-technical. Give it a read.