Surprisingly, Torvalds proved himself to be a
charming, affable speaker. Possessing only a slight
Swedish accent, Torvalds surprised audience members
with his quick, self-effacing wit.Although Linus Torvalds is Finnish, his
mother tongue
is Swedish. "The Rampantly Unofficial Linus FAQ" offers
a brief explanation: Finland has a significant (about
6%) Swedish-speaking minority population. They call
themselves "finlandssvensk" or "finlandssvenskar" and
consider themselves Finns; many of their families have
lived in Finland for centuries. Swedish is one of
Finland's two official languages.
http://tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/linus/
Even more surprising, says Raymond, was Torvalds'
equal willingness to take potshots at other prominent
hackers, including the most prominent hacker of all,
Richard Stallman. By the end of the conference,
Torvalds' half-hacker, half-slacker manner was winning
over older and younger conference-goers alike.
"It was a pivotal moment," recalls Raymond. "Before
1996, Richard was the only credible claimant to being
the ideological leader of the entire culture.
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