This is really a surprising fact, taking into account the almost complete absence of revenue from this tiny company, socialist overtones of open source movement in general and Linux in particular. Although I will mention some aspects of this in my chapter about Linus Torvalds, this phenomenon is generally beyond the scope of the book. I believe that both the open source phenomenon and the fascinating personalities driving it are a very interesting theme indeed. That's why I am writing this book. I hope that most people who write or use open source software will find this book useful, and that it will help them to form their own, more educated, opinion about the movement and its major players.
People are understandably curious about the lives of the authors of great software.
I believe we should know more than that. I do not think that there is much difference between open source and non-open source developers. I think some people are just born to be a great programmers, but it take years of practice to master the art and learn the necessary theory. In this sense, programming is pretty close to piano playing. One needs both talent and constant practice.