Jeremy Andrews interviews Linux founder Linus Torvalds with a focus on Linux kernel development and Git.

“[Linux] was a personal project that grew not out of some big dream to create a new operating system,” Linus explains, “but literally grew kind of haphazardly from me initially just trying to learn the in-and-outs of my new PC hardware.”

Regarding creating Git and then handing it off to Junio Hamano to improve and maintain, Linus noted, “I don’t want to claim that programming is an art, because it really is mostly just about ‘good engineering’. I’m a big believer in Thomas Edison’s ‘one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration’ mantra: it’s almost all about the little details and the everyday grunt-work. But there is that occasional ‘inspiration’ part, that ‘good taste’ thing that is about more than just solving some problem – solving it cleanly and nicely and yes, even beautifully. And Junio had that ‘good taste’.“

Read more on the blog page here.