facebook rss twitter

Linus Torvalds has only one thing to say to NVIDIA, "F**K YOU"

by Alistair Lowe on 18 June 2012, 09:42

Tags: NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qabier

Add to My Vault: x

Just when we thought that NVIDIA was getting along better with the Linux community, Linus Torvalds, father of Linux and thus, to some extent, Android, decided that, rather than entice NVIDIA over to the Open Source side of the force, he'd instead condemn the firm for its terrible driver support in the most professional manner possible, by, during an interview and following a developer question, facing the camera, placing a single finger in the air and stating "NVIDIA, f**k you".

You can watch the interview for yourself on the above YouTube link, the magical moment can be found at around 49 minutes in.

Prior to his small outburst, Linus also stated that NVIDIA was "the single worst company we've ever dealt with." Agreeing with the interview's host, we have to nod our heads in thinking that Linus isn't exactly winning any friends and, hopefully for the Linux community out there, we'll see a positive response from NVIDIA and hopefully no childish lash-backs.

HEXUS Forums :: 14 Comments

Login with Forum Account

Don't have an account? Register today!
Posted by Steve - Mon 18 Jun 2012 10:15
I'm sure that on an individual level there are people in both NVIDIA and the Linux developer community that are in contact and get along, and that Linus isn't aiming his… finger… at any contributing individual from NVIDIA. Nah, he's going for the higher-ups ;)

Also, nobody should ever hire him to do PR, hilarious as that would be. Can you imagine the team that he and Ballmer would make?
Posted by kingpotnoodle - Mon 18 Jun 2012 10:19
This has always been a problem with Linux gaining mass acceptance, many evangelists are at best dull and at worst childish and prone to nerd-rage outbursts they should be ashamed of. Not the first such moment from Torvalds… you don't get this type of thing so much from MS/Apple and it ruins hard work the likes of Canonical and Red Hat do to make Linux mainstream and acceptable rather than something for mainstream-haters to protest with.
Posted by Steve - Mon 18 Jun 2012 10:26
I disagree. NVIDIA can take it on the chin. He didn't make it personal. There's a PR win to be had in this somewhere.

I've watched a video of Linus stand in front of a room full of hundreds of Google employees, wherein he tells them he doesn't trust them because they're all stupid. Being controversial seems to work in his favour.
Posted by teppic - Mon 18 Jun 2012 10:32
Linus Torvalds has always been direct, nobody is really bothered by it. You can't compare it really to CEOs of huge corporations because Linux itself is not a commercial product, and its direction isn't controlled by any one company. As for acceptance, the world pretty much runs on Linux now, even though it's generally not seen.
Posted by martian_aphid - Mon 18 Jun 2012 10:35
I guess he could fluff it up and say something like “I am disappointed with Nvidia” or something meager along those lines but I think it just shows he's genuinely angry with their behaviour and he feels he can express it as he chooses. If he had said the former they probably wouldn't have even taken any notice but with the attention his comments have gotten on the internet I don't think there's any risk of that happening now. Whether it will have a beneficial outcome is not so certain!

SEE NEWER »