What do Linus Torvalds and Nokia have in common? They’re both Finnish. And if you haven’t heard of Mr. Torvalds, that’s OK, but chances are you’re familiar with his work. He’s the guy who wrote Linux back in the early 1990s. Linus moved to America shortly after releasing the Linux kernel, and he’s been there ever since, though this week he’s back home to accept the Millennium Technology Prize. The Finnish business publication Taloussanomat sat down with Linus and asked him a few questions. He confessed that he hates mobile phones, however he’s currently using an Android device. The only thing he likes on his Android phone is the email experience. We’re going to assume he means Gmail. Linus also says that Nokia made a mistake by going with Microsoft’s Windows Phone, but he understands why they did it, pointing out that Stephen Elop, Nokia’s new CEO, was a former Microsoft employee. He’s also, unsurprisingly, not fond of Microsoft’s dominance in the information technology sector. According to him Windows has a large market share because people were forced to use it at work, and they’re too lazy to learn something new, so they end up buying a Windows PC.
Whether or not you agree with Linus isn’t relevant, everyone is entitled to their opinion. That being said, he isn’t the first high profile person to suggest that Nokia should have gone with Android instead of trying to prop up a platform that has low single digit market share. Now that can change of course, and we’re all eager to learn more details about Windows Phone 8, but it’s highly unlikely that Apple or Google are going to fumble things up to such a degree that Microsoft can swoop in and fix their current situation.
Stranger things have happened, so you never know.