What tech titans Linus Torvalds and Bill Gates talked about in their first meeting

Boy, do I wish I had been at this dinner. For decades, Microsoft and Linux fought like cats and dogs. However, while the conflict has cooled down, and Microsoft loves Linux these days, the two leaders, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Linux creator Linus Torvalds, had never met… until now.

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Mark Russinovich, Microsoft Azure CTO, decided it would be neat if he could somehow get the pair and Dave Cutler, the man who led the development of VAX/VMS and Windows NT, together for a meal. And so it was, as he wrote: “I had the thrill of a lifetime, hosting dinner for Bill Gates, Linus Torvalds, and David Cutler. Linus had never met Bill, and Dave had never met Linus. No major kernel decisions were made, but maybe next dinner.” 

Hey, Mark, next time, drop me an invite, too. You know how to reach me. 

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At the meal, Russinovich brought together pioneers of both the open-source and proprietary software movements. Gates, whose vision and leadership transformed Microsoft into a global powerhouse, is synonymous with the rise of commercial proprietary software. Torvalds, by contrast, first through Linux and then Git, became the champion of open source. 

For the first few decades, they and their conflicting views on software would clash endlessly with each other. While Windows still rules the desktop, over the years, Linux has become the internet’s backbone, powering everything from servers and supercomputers to smartphones and consumer electronics.

During the last decade, while Microsoft hasn’t given up its proprietary ways on the desktop, it has embraced Linux and open-source technologies. For example, Microsoft now contributes to the Linux kernel, has acquired GitHub, and Linux has been the top operating system running on Azure for many years. 

While I wasn’t a fly on the wall, Torvalds and I emailed about their get-together afterwards, and he told me what this gathering of all-time tech greats discussed.

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First, “Dinner was actually very pleasant.” But, sorry folks, “The discussions were almost entirely unrelated to any operating systems or software engineering, although we did have some with Dave Cutler.”

So, instead of, say, throwing rolls at each other over whose operating system was better, Torvlads said, “Bill got animated talking about his philanthropy in Africa, and about nuclear power (both the small sodium fission efforts and fusion companies he is involved with).” That company is TerraPower, a nuclear reactor design and development company he co-founded in 2008.

On Torvalds’ part, he brought a present to the gathering. “I gave everybody crappy guitar pedals, since building those is my current hobby, and none of them play guitar so it doesn’t matter if they are bad or not.”

Guitar pedals? There’s a story here, too. For Christmas and his late December birthday, Torvalds often gets LEGO kits. Lately, he’s been wanting some more challenging projects, so “in addition to the LEGO builds, this year I also ended up doing a number of guitar pedal kit builds (‘LEGO for grown-ups with a soldering iron’). Not because I play guitar, but because I enjoy the tinkering, and the guitar pedals actually do something and are the right kind of ‘not very complex, but not some 5-minute 555 LED blinking thing.'”

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Back to the dinner, Torvalds told me: “Funny comment of the day: Me asking Bill if he plays guitar, and he says, ‘No, but I know some people who do. Bono.'”

What were Torvalds’ final thoughts on the meal and the get-together? “Food was good, company was good, and the Microsoft and Linux rivalries are long past.” 

I know that last part will bug some people. We both hear regularly from folks who still see Microsoft vs. Linux as akin to a holy war. But if Torvalds can make peace, so can the rest of us. After all, Linux won. 😉