4 Linus Torvalds Quotes on Ethics

Linus Torvalds quotes on ethics

21. I'm a bastard. I have absolutely no clue why people can ever think otherwise. Yet they do. People think I'm a nice guy, and the fact is that I'm a scheming, conniving bastard who doesn't care for any hurt feelings or lost hours of work, if it just results in what I consider to be a better system. And I'm not just saying that. I'm really not a very nice person. I can say 'I don't care' with a straight face, and really mean it.

28. Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect.

45. For example, the GPLv2 in no way limits your use of the software. If you're a mad scientist, you can use GPLv2'd software for your evil plans to take over the world ('Sharks with lasers on their heads!!'), and the GPLv2 just says that you have to give source code back. And that's OK by me. I like sharks with lasers. I just want the mad scientists of the world to pay me back in kind. I made source code available to them, they have to make their changes to it available to me. After that, they can fry me with their shark-mounted lasers all they want.

72. Let's put it this way: if you need to ask a lawyer whether what you do is 'right' or not, you are morally corrupt. Let's not go there. We don't base our morality on law.