What just happened? Given that there was a time when Microsoft called Linux a "cancer," it's little surprise that the Redmond firm's co-founder and long-time boss Bill Gates had never met Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel. But that changed recently when the two attended a dinner, and it appears to have gone well.
Microsoft chief technical officer Mark Russinovich posted evidence of the historic dinner in a LinkedIn post. Dave Cutler, the legendary programmer and lead architect of the Windows NT kernel, was also present, completing this meeting of tech titans.
Russinovich jokingly wrote that while there were no major kernel decisions made, there's always the next dinner.
Things have come a long way over the last quarter of a century. In a June 1, 2001 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, then-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer didn't hold back his feelings on open-source software threatening Microsoft's dominance. He famously said "Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches."
Ballmer had softened his view by 2016, saying that he believed his comment was correct at the time, but adding that the open-source threat was now "in the rearview mirror." He also praised Microsoft's embrace of open-source since Satya Nadella took over in 2014, including Linux's use in Azure, open-sourcing .NET, and contributing to the Linux Foundation.
Related reading: Biggest Rivalries in Computing History
Torvalds has always had a reputation for speaking his mind and hurling expletives at those who don't live up to his expectations. In 2013, kernel developer Sarah (now Sage) Sharp called him out for "advocating for physical intimidation and violence." In 2012, he famously told Nvidia "fu*k you" and gave the firm the middle finger on camera. He also blasted Intel over its "garbage" Spectre patches. In 2018, he apologized for years of "unprofessional rants."
But Torvalds will still express his displeasure at anything that annoys him, such as having to make kernel changes to address faulty hardware (Intel's processors), or the current state of AI technology, which he said was 90% marketing and 10% factual reality. Most recently, Torvalds complained about "random turd files" in Linux 6.15-rc1 directories.
Linus Torvalds says AI will change the world but it is currently 90% marketing and 10% reality, and it will take another 5 years for it to become clear what AI is really useful for pic.twitter.com/6knFEfJbqf
– Tsarathustra (@tsarnick) October 21, 2024
This isn't the first time Torvalds has broken bread with Microsoft. He was photographed hanging around, smiling, laughing, and chatting with the Microsoft team at their booth at LinuxCon in 2016. During that time, he was commonly quoted as saying "If Microsoft ever does applications for Linux it means I've won."
