Finland's Millennium Technology Prize is one of the largest and most prestigious awards a person in the technology field can receive; past winners include Tim Berniers-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, and a handful of really smart folks who have whipped up innovations ranging from dye-sensitized solar cells to "biomaterials for controlled drug release and tissue regeneration." One of the newest members of the exclusive club is responsible for something many Maximum PC-types swear by: Linux.
Linus Torvalds will be named one of this year's Millennium Technology Prize laureates, the Linux Foundation announced today. The actual ceremony won't take place until June 13th; the $1 million pot for the main prize is presented by the President of Finland. (Others winners split roughly $300,000 between them.) A Torvalds win would be poetic, since he was born in Finland and first announced Linux while studying at the University of Helsinki -- all of which is covered in the "Story of Linux" video above.
The Linux Foundation took the opportunity to toot the operating system's horn; Linux may be an afterthought on most desktops, but according to the Foundation…
…it powers the popular Android phones and eight out of 10 financial trades; it runs Amazon, Facebook, Google, Twitter and other major web networks. It is the dominant OS for supercomputers, supporting nine of 10 of these major systems, and is the preferable platform for cloud computing.
The honor couldn't go to a more deserving guy. Keep your fingers crossed for Linus!
Comments are closed on this article
JLloyd13
April 22, 2012 at 10:42am
i've always wondered why maximum PC never did more Linux stuff. distro reviews, using it in budget machines, etc. i was horrified when they showed the '340 dollar ultra-budget box' the whole thing could have been $240 with Linux.how can a magazine claiming to serve power users could leave out linux so often
Cy-Kill
April 23, 2012 at 1:28pm
They did do Linux, they had a magazine called Maximum Linux, until MS paid them some money, then not long after that there was an announcement that they were shutting down Maximum Linux.
TrollBot5000
April 20, 2012 at 11:01am
Well first things first Congrats to Linus. I'll have to drop him a line on G+ after this. To address the other comments...yeah of course maxpc is gonna report on microsoft related topics more than linux that should be expected but on the flip side to that coin this site could step it up ALOT as far as Linux coverage goes. Remember just because it's maximumpc doesnt mean it always has to be maximumwindows. I mean it's quite apparent to me that Maxpc does tend to come off as a winfanboi site. I know at the register and slashdot theres a good amount of linux coverage. Here not so much. It's kinda sad actually. Oh well. Linus himself said that the open source movement shouldn't be about being anti microsoft but just from their anti competitive nature and lets face it inferior products its hard not to have some disdain for the redmond borg. I can't count how many articles I've read on here where the comment section mentions linux as a logical alternative/solution to any windows headaches.
aarcane
April 19, 2012 at 12:09pm
You yourselves just made the claim "many Maximum PC-types swear by: Linux.".
Since we can accept your assertion as true, why have you repeatedly declined to post Linux Hardware Reviews, or even give mention to Linux as a solution to most problems anywhere, INCLUDING in server space?
ftldelay
April 20, 2012 at 6:31am
I'm mainly just a Windows user, but was still a subscriber to Maximum Linux. If it were still around, I'd still be getting it. Other Linux-only magazines have survived, so why couldn't ML? It does seem fishy to me - considering the previously reply here...
Cy-Kill
April 19, 2012 at 3:10pm
I have to agree, it's funny as soon as MPC got money from MS, they discontinued Maximum Linux not that long after that happened!
fry
April 19, 2012 at 11:02am
Well, there have only been 5 winners so far, so it's not like he's been ignored.
But I take your point. He's probably the world's most famous Finn outside of a few race car drivers and hockey players. In the tech world, he's a diety.
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