Linus Torvalds gives a tour of his home office

I know right? More screen real estate doesn't translate into productivity every time. I was aghast (and subsequently enlightened) when I heard Rob Pike saying he uses a 11" Macbook Air. That was actually the same computer I had at the time and definitely contributed to not worrying about throwing money at a larger screen.

thomasahle• 12 years ago

Then again, Rib Pike probably doesn't work in eclipse.

wsc981• 12 years ago

In this article[0] Rob talks a bit about his setup.

[0] http://rob.pike.usesthis.com

Retr0spectrum• 12 years ago

I was also surprised. I guess you can only really look at one monitor at a time, and switching workspaces with keyboard shortcuts can be about as fast as turning your head.

notduncansmith4• 12 years ago

Even better with MacBook: four-finger swipe to the side, done.

amarraja• 12 years ago

Aaron Swartz offered an interesting insight into this on The Setup [1]

I don't have any extra displays. When I was little, I'd read Adam Engst talk about how great a second monitor was and lust after one, but never could bring myself to buy one. When I went to work for Condé Nast they gave us all nice big external Dell monitors and I found that I just couldn't get in the habit of using two screens. Everyone talks about how great it is to have more screen real estate, but apparently for what I do it doesn't really matter. I spend nearly all of my time on the computer staring at a block of text of one sort or another (emails, web pages, code) and no matter how big my screen is, I can't read more than a couple words at a time. Everything else on the screen is mostly a distraction. But maybe I'd feel differently if I wasn't so nearsighted.

I've found working on just my 15" laptop leads to much less procrastination (sometimes).

[1] http://aaron.swartz.usesthis.com/

rohit89• 12 years ago

In my case, an extra display is a huge help when I need to refer to a doc/spec/tutorial etc.

nawitus• 12 years ago

I've noticed that two monitors are helpful in web development. I typically have the browser on one monitor and the IDE on another.

clarry• 12 years ago

I also find having lots of stuff open distracting. One screen and virtual desktops so the browser, irc and other crap can be kept off the code view really helps me focus. Colour noise also distracts me, and browsers really are good at throwing a lot of it at you. When I'm coding, my display is effectively monochrome with dark grey terminals and lighter grey text with a warm reddish orange cast.

As far as coding goes, living in a monastery with a laggy internet connection, using a slow netbook with 11" screen was one of my most productive times.

k-mcgrady• 12 years ago

Interesting. I've always worked from a laptop (first a 13" now a 15"). I got to use a 27" Apple display earlier this year for 1 week. I found it hard to get used to. With a bigger display keeping the light from reflecting off it was more difficult, I had to move the mouse so much further to do things, and I physical had to move my head to view the different areas of the screen (whereas with the laptop I can just move my eyes). Happy to be back with the laptop.

notduncansmith4• 12 years ago

I've a similar zen in moving from a 2-monitor desktop setup to working off my 13" MacBook Air. It's been a huge benefit to my productivity. I make heavy use of Spaces, so when I'm engrossed in a task, it's all I'm doing. I'm also pretty ruthless about closing windows/tabs and quitting apps, so I typically don't have that much stuff running at any given time. My overall stress level day-to-day has gone down significantly, and I attribute a large part of that to the amount of clutter I've removed from my average context of operation.

Untit1ed• 12 years ago

Generally I find that two monitors is useful so I can have a browser or android emulator open in one and the code open in another and easily switch between them... I'm guessing Linus doesn't do a lot of UI development so it doesn't really matter for him.

jakejake• 12 years ago

Same here - I like having my IDE full screen on my main monitor and my browser or emulator on the other.

I recently had the brilliant idea to try three monitors, figuring that if two are good then three would be better. This only lasted about a week, though. I found it just to be way too much mouse movement (yes, I use a mouse, get over it!) going all the way from monitor #1 to monitor #3.

So my observation is that monitors are like martinis, one isn't enough and three is too many.

yoodenvranx• 12 years ago

I used to have two monitors but then I discovered Xmonad and lrealized that virtual desktops for me are much better than a second monitor. The biggest pkus is that i have the monitor right in front of me and don't have to turn my head to the side.

tekacs2• 12 years ago

I used xmonad s.t. each screen had its own virtual desktop (until I got fed up of its slowness and Haskell's cabal package management).

At least in my case, my screens are usually very centered and I sit far back enough that I never turn my head. shrug

yaph2• 12 years ago

I was offered a 2nd monitor several times and refused because you put less strain on your neck when you look straight ahead. I imagine this could even be more of a problem with a walking desk. Apart from that, more incoming signals don't make you work better.

kleiba• 12 years ago

If I get the choice, I prefer one large monitor over two smaller ones, simply for the reason that you can put windows in the center of your visual space. Besides, for some reason windows often seem to pop up unexpectedly on the wrong screen for me, whenever I use two screens.

stinos3• 12 years ago

On the other hand: given the major drawbacks of a sedentary lifestyle, I wouldn't be surprised if having multiple monitors and switching between them, which makes your neck move, would actually be better then keeping your neck still the whole time. Worth investigating..

TazeTSchnitzel• 12 years ago

Who needs debuggers when you have OpenGrok and printf()? ;)

dm2• 12 years ago

It looks like he probably has the monitor on his desk available to connect to that computer also, but they won't both fit on the standing desk.

I have three 24 inch monitors connected to my desktop computer.

The middle one is where I do 99% of my work.

The left one is where I usually have a YouTube or Netflix video up distracting me.

The right one is where I drag a window over for 20 seconds while I rearrange stuff. Most of the time it's 100% empty.

My brain is certainly a single-core processor.

TL,DR: One is surprisingly sufficient.

socialist_coder• 12 years ago

Another productive night owl succumbs to the gravity of the nuclear family. Funny that it even happens to people like Linus.

tekacs2• 12 years ago

Since we only get one life to live, might well be worth getting to try out a few different lifestyles throughout it? After years of night productivity, maybe one wants to try something new? :)

neilunadkat12• 12 years ago

He seems so nice in person.. Looking at the way he rips people apart when they write bad code, this Linus is lovable..

sumedh• 12 years ago

He seems like a goofy old man, I was expecting a meaner, pissed off version.

Udo• 12 years ago

Old, seriously? The guy is in his mid-forties and you make him sound like he lives in a retirement home.

forgottenpass• 12 years ago

Stop reading the clickbait. If everything that has happened in your office was posted online, you could probably be made to look like a much worse monster.

vacri2• 12 years ago

Every single time one of those has been posted here on HN, there's been ignored backstory to the outburst. Usually there's a fair amount of polite conversation before it, then he gets frustrated and vents. If you actually poke around at what he says day-to-day, it's really not the way he is - it's just clickbait articles that paint him that way, being sure to present him out of context.

duncanawoods• 12 years ago

I liked that, what a nice guy. This is the dilbert he has framed on his wall:

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1999-03-29/

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1999-03-30/

drivingmenuts• 12 years ago

He looked like he was barely restraining himself from killing the cameraman.

That is not a guy who's comfortable on camera.

sampo• 12 years ago

About that sword at the end: Finland (and Sweden) have this old tradition that PhD's have a hat and a sword [1] as part of the academic dress [2].

[1] http://www.lut.fi/documents/10633/139156/opiskelu-tohtoriohj...

[2] http://www.helsinki.fi/filtdkpromootio2010/_Y5I6060.JPG

maximumoverload• 12 years ago

This seems to be the original Linux Foundation video, with way more views. (But exactly the same content.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSgUPqygAww

icpmacdo• 12 years ago

Thanks for posting this the links to the Greg Kroah-Hartman workspace were not on the original link.

seanewest• 12 years ago

Notes:

  -uses the web browser for email
  -uses standing desk with treadmill
  -old desk is very dirty
  -doesn't like light in his room

metaobject3• 12 years ago

I'd say his old desk is messy, not dirty.

smorrow• 12 years ago

Airduster is one way to take off the dirt without having to take off the books and whatever.

stinos3• 12 years ago

- he's a bit too fat

Maybe the desk will get rid of that though

QuantumChaos• 12 years ago

he looks healthy and beautiful to me.

Touche• 12 years ago

Appeared to be using Gnome 3 as well.

martco• 12 years ago

  - wears sandals with socks

zo1• 12 years ago

It's a European thing. And actually very comfortable if you can get those little things between your toes while your socks are on.

dimitar• 12 years ago

yes, at home. This is a good way to save on heating bills.

arocks• 12 years ago

Which is surprisingly practical and comfortable in warm places.

lukasm• 12 years ago

My God Linus is Polish.

wj2• 12 years ago

-uses terminal windows with white backgrounds

notduncansmith4• 12 years ago

I noticed this as well. It's funny, usually my first reaction to seeing someone with a white editor background is "noob".

Havoc• 12 years ago

Exactly. Everyone knows that black background with bright green text improves hacking skills by 23%.

donniezazen2• 12 years ago

I have always found it pretty interesting that he has the most uninteresting setups.

jokoon2• 12 years ago

well yeah, that's the minimalist "KISS" spirit... I guess when you're so much dedicated to what you do, you don't really have time or will to care about details.

heybrandons• 12 years ago

-walks at 1mph for optimal browser closing

sswezey• 12 years ago

It's nice to see someone as important as Linus just act so normal, as if he didn't create some of the most important software in the world. I really like that he doesn't espouse minimalist, nitty-gritty Linux distros, but rather just likes stuff that works.

e40• 12 years ago

I was surprised he doesn't use Emacs instead of a terminal.

ChikkaChiChi• 12 years ago

The laptop on his desk is his Pixel. Still IMO the best piece laptop ever made.

I still wish it was dual-bootbable.

jokoon2• 12 years ago

I would trademark "dual-bootbable" right now if I were you

mattattaque• 12 years ago

He came and spoke at my university a couple months back. He was a really nice personable guy, especially considering how many people wanted to chat with him. It was very surreal being so close to someone acting so normal with the realization that he created so much of what you use everyday. The entire CS department felt like they'd just seen God.

mmphosis• 12 years ago

I couldn't agree more about the old "garbage" lying around.

tempestn• 12 years ago

The stack of hard drives definitely got a chuckle out of me. Which of us hasn't, at some point, had an old hard drive or two sitting around for exactly that reason? You don't want to wipe the old drive until you've got the new one up and running, and at that point there are more interesting things to do, and the old drive isn't even connected anymore and... meh, add it to the stack.

davidgerard• 12 years ago

I used to put a cp -rp of the old drive onto the new drive. I think I have three or four drives deep by now, back to my ancient 386 running Windows 95.

zhng• 12 years ago

for some reason people keep sending me penguins

i would be careful. there could be cameras in there.

Linus Torvalds gives a tour of his home office

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