Projects
Linux
Git
The Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to describe the operating system, which has led to some controversy.
It is primarily used for software development, but it can be used to keep track of changes in any files. As a distributed revision control system it is aimed at speed, data integrity, and support for distributed, non-linear workflows.
| Year | Award | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | IEEE Computer Pioneer Award | On April 23, 2014, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers named Torvalds as the 2014 recipient of the IEEE Computer Society's Computer Pioneer Award. The Computer Pioneer Award was established in 1981 by the IEEE Computer Society Board of Governors to recognize and honor the vision of those whose efforts resulted in the creation and continued vitality of the computer industry. The award is presented to outstanding individuals whose main contribution to the concepts and development of the computer field was made at least 15 years earlier.[49] |
| 2012 | Internet Hall of Fame | On April 23, 2012, at Internet Society's Global INET conference in Geneva, Switzerland, Torvalds was one of the inaugural inductees into the Internet Hall of Fame, one of ten in the Innovators category and thirty-three overall inductees.[50] |
| 2012 | Millennium Technology Prize | On April 20, 2012, Torvalds was declared one of two winners of that year's Millennium Technology Prize,[51] along with Shinya Yamanaka.[52] The honor is widely described as technology's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. |
| 2010 | C&C Prize | He was awarded the C&C Prize by the NEC Corporation in 2010 for "contributions to the advancement of the information technology industry, education, research, and the improvement of our lives".[53] |
| 2008 | Hall of Fellows | In 2008, he was inducted into the Hall of Fellows of the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, "for the creation of the Linux kernel and the management of open source development of the widely used Linux operating system."[54][55] |
| 2005 | Vollum Award | In August 2005, Torvalds received the Vollum Award from Reed College.[56] |
| 2001 | Takeda Award | In 2001, he shared the Takeda Award for Social/Economic Well-Being with Richard Stallman and Ken Sakamura. |
| 2000 | Lovelace Medal | In 2000, he was awarded the Lovelace Medal from the British Computer Society.[57] |
| 1998 | EFF Pioneer Award | In 1998, Torvalds received an EFF Pioneer Award.[58] |
| 1997 | Academic Honors | In 1997, Torvalds received his master's degree (Laudatur Grade) from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Helsinki. Two years later he received honorary doctor status at Stockholm University,
and in 2000, he received the same honor from his alma mater.[59]
University of Helsinki has named an auditorium after Torvalds and his computer is on display at the Department of Computer Science. |
| 1996 | 9793 Torvalds (Asteroid) | In 1996, the asteroid 9793 Torvalds was named after him. In 2003, the naming of the asteroid moon Linus was motivated in part by the fact that the discoverer was an enthusiastic Linux user. Although the naming proposal referred to the mythological Linus, son of the muse Calliope and the inventor of melody and rhythm, the name was also meant to honor Linus Torvalds, and Linus van Pelt, a character in the Peanuts comic strip.[60] |
| 1995 | Running Linux on AlphaStation | In the period 1994–1999 Torvalds developed versions of Linux on early AlphaServer systems made available to him by the engineering department of Digital Equipment Corporation. Compaq software engineers developed special Linux kernel modules.[61] Linux distributions that ran on AlphaServer systems were Red Hat 7.2.[62] and Gentoo Linux. |