Linus Torvalds, Fellow / ODSL

“Linus is having a lot of success building the best operating system in the world, and he has been able to achieve that while crossing the chasm to mainstream adoption,” says Stuart Cohen, CEO of Open Source Development Labs. “He hasn&'t gotten distracted.”

Torvalds, the Finnish software engineer who was hired two years ago by OSDL, also attends technical meetings, speaks at the Linux Kernel Summit and serves on the board of the Linux Mark Institute. But he spends most of his time focused on the kernel, Cohen says.

One controversy erupted in Australia earlier this year over the Linux Mark Institute&'s licensing requirements for using the Linux trademark, which Torvalds owns. Responding to criticism that he was trying to seek personal gain, Torvalds reiterated that he does not earn one cent from the institute&'s royalties, and his role is to enforce and protect the trademark so Linux can remain free and accessible to all.

Torvalds&' second-in-command at the Beaverton, Ore.-based OSDL, Andrew Morton, says rather humbly that the “Gates and Ballmer” duo of the Linux industry simply aim to please customers—without the million-dollar paycheck and $50 billion in stock.

“Linus and I concentrate on helping those companies who depend on Linux to get the features that they develop for their customers merged into the public kernel and hence into distributions in a timely manner and in a way that is consistent with the overall kernel design, consensus and quality targets,” Morton says. “Based upon feedback, I believe that we&'re being successful in that.”