Linus Torvalds Receives 2012 Millennium Technology Prize
Linus Torvalds has been chosen as one of the two recipients of the prestigious 2012 Millennium Technology Prize.
The award is presented every other year by the by the Technology Academy Finland, which is maintained by the Finnish industry and the government in Finland.
Introduced in 2004, the Millennium Technology Prize is the largest technology award in existence and some say it is the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for certain technological achievements. The total award is about $1.3 million, which is divided between the laureates.
Torvalds is honored for creating the Linux operating systems and making it available free of charge. In a statement the Technology Academy Finland said that development of Linux to date is equal to the investment of 73,000 man-years and has touched the lives of "millions, if not billions" of people.
Next to Torvalds, Shinya Yamanaka will be awarded with the Prize for his achievement to develop an induced pluripotent stem cells for medical research that do not rely on the use of embryonic stem cells.
The award ceremony will take place in Helsinki, Finland, on June 13.
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Douglas Perry was a freelance writer for Tom's Hardware covering semiconductors, storage technology, quantum computing, and processor power delivery. He has authored several books and is currently an editor for The Oregonian/OregonLive.
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rolled Not going to lie...while i think Linus Torvalds deserves to be honored for his accomplishments, for him to win the same prize as the developer of iPS cells is near laughable...Reply -
Marco925 frozonichmmm.... more like few dozensYou know that Linux is the base of ALL android smartphones out there? -1 For you!Reply -
starcraftmazter frozonichmmm.... more like few dozensReply
In all likelihood, those iPS cells were developed on linux machines. You can not even comprehend the levels of technological and social progress GNU/Linux has brought about. -
bison88 Even though I'm not a Linux (sold my soul to GUI point-n-click everything years ago), there are certain people that you have to always give respect to whether you love 'em or hate 'em. Linus Torvalds is definitely up there with Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and many others and saying otherwise just shows ignorance.Reply