Linus Torvalds is one of two laureates for a valuable and prestigious prize that recognizes technological innovation that assist and enrich people's everyday lives today as well as in the future.

There is no Noble Prize for Technology; instead since 2004 the Millennium Technology Prize, with a prize fund of 1.1 million euros, has been awarded every second year by the Technology Academy of Finland. The first winner was Sir Tim Berners Lee for bringing us the World Wide Web and Linus Torvalds is now recognized for his creation of the open source operating system, Linux. 

The press release states:

The free availability of Linux on the Web swiftly caused a chain-reaction leading to further development and fine-tuning worth the equivalent of 73,000 man-years. Today millions use computers, smartphones and digital video recorders like Tivo run on Linux. Linus Torvald’s achievements have had a great impact on shared software development, networking and the openness of the web, making it accessible for millions, if not billions.

The other 2012 laureate is Dr. Shinya Yamanaka for Stem Cell Research and both of them will be honoured during Millennium Technology Week in June when the final winner, will be announced.

Commenting on becoming a laureate for the prize Linus Torvalds said:

“Software is too important in the modern world not to be developed through open sources. The real impact of Linux is as a way to allow people and companies to build on top of it to do their own thing. We’re finally getting to the point where “data is just data”, and we don’t have all these insane special communications channels for different forms of data.”

More Information

Technology Academy Finland

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