Richard Guggenheim, honorary council of Finland, was present to accept the award for Torvalds. In his presentation, Phil Hughes, president of Specialized Systems Consultants and publisher of Linux Journal, discussed why Linus should receive this award for the most innovative software product of 1994. Lots of software was designed in 1995. I see the key here as being innovative.
Innovation can consist of development of a new type of product.
While Linux is another Unix-like system, its development has been done in a totally unique fashion. Linus started the development effort but managed to continue his work in such an open manner that it made possible and even encouraged others to get involved in the effort. Thousands of individuals have contributed to the effort to make Linux what it is today but Linus gets credit for the innovation. Torvalds is a student at the University of Helsinki in Finland. Richard Guggenheim accepts the award for Linus Torvalds from Jonathan Erickson.