Linus Torvalds is now a happy Nexus One owner, pinch to zoom put him over the edge

Linux originator Linus Torvalds isn't really big on these "phone" things, but he's finally caved to his Nexus One lust. In a recent blog post he explains how the G1 never did it for him, despite his love of the "concept" of having a Linux-based phone. He finds phones in general irritating, and cellphones "an opportunity to be irritated wherever you are," but the Nexus One's offer of car-friendly GPS navigation got him thinking he'd have a good excuse to bring it with him places, and the recent announcement of pinch-to-zoom capabilities somehow put him over the edge. He still says the phone part is "kind of secondary," but we sure he'll eventually be won over to the dark side and be just as annoying as the rest of us phone talkers at restaurants.

[iroq d mullet Posted Feb 8th 2010 2:54PM]

@majortom
you must not have heard of the Blackberry Pearl Flip phone, mijo.

[aleis Posted Feb 8th 2010 2:50PM]

wow!
now he will be on the forums! ;)

[glamajamma Posted Feb 8th 2010 2:59PM]

A little off topic, but thanks Linus for 10 years of a virus free desktop.

[Elad Posted Feb 8th 2010 3:00PM]

This means that at the very least, good things are gonna come for android. He's gonna be frustratesd by the slowness and other annoyances like the rest of us and maybe fix them!

[Nitesh Posted Feb 8th 2010 3:01PM]

Best thing he ever did was flashing a thumbs up outside a Windows 7 booth.


Well, best thing after developing Linux and all.

[Tenkiyohou Posted Feb 8th 2010 3:02PM]

Omg enough of this Android/Nexus One vs iPhone anymosity BS. Proponents of both sides are morons. I'm typing this on an iPhone but I'm still dying for a Nexus One and I got a G1 at launch. Can't we just like gadgets for the fun of playing with them? Isn't that what blogs like this are all about? To just enjoy?

So enjoy the gadgets and play.

[werty1432k Posted Feb 8th 2010 3:02PM]

Link to his name is broken

[lightforce Posted Feb 8th 2010 3:06PM]

Best Phone Ever

[chilko Posted Feb 8th 2010 3:09PM]

the real question is why he didn't choose nokia n900 which is a real linux phone

[coolbho3000 Posted Feb 8th 2010 4:49PM]

@(Unverified) Yeah. Everyone knows the Nexus One runs on top of fake Linux.

[recharged95 Posted Feb 8th 2010 3:18PM]

I wonder why he choose the N1 over the N900, I mean Mameo, Linux, QT, Ovi, memory, Mozilla browser, etc.. just scream F/OSS compared to the N1 (and the N900 supports Flash...).

Unless.... Hmm....

[ChazClout Posted Feb 8th 2010 3:34PM]

@recharged95
"...but the day it was reported that it finally had the pinch-to-zoom thing enabled, I decided to take the plunge."

He wanted multitouch it seems.

[MacAnkka Posted Feb 8th 2010 3:43PM]

@recharged95
N900 is for those who like to tweak, tune and otherwise fool around with their phones. This isn't a bash against N900, I personally like tweaking and tuning, but not everyone does.

Maybe he just wanted a phone that was as easy and smooth to use as possible, but still had cool features. Just because he created the Linux kernel, and still maintains it, doesn't mean that he likes to tweak and tune his computer/phone OS all the time.

[Eternity Posted Feb 8th 2010 3:48PM]

@MacAnkka Ummm gee idono....he's the frickin daddy of Linux. He sounds like one of those to "tweakers" to me.

[McPOW Posted Feb 8th 2010 5:33PM]

@recharged95 Because he likes it more.

[tux2005 Posted Feb 8th 2010 6:10PM]

@Eternity
In the comments on his blog he responded to the N900, someone else in his family has it but he liked the N1. Pigeon-holing Linus as a tweaker isn't quite right, he has stood on both sides of that fence (KDE vs Gnome and the TiVo issue would be examples of both). He has said he's not much of a phone geek though so the N900 wouldn't be that great of a fit, Nokia have said they don't really see the N900 so much as a smartphone but more as a portable computer that can also make calls.

[genomecop Posted Feb 8th 2010 3:47PM]

I love my Nexus One..my wife is secondary.

[robindahoods Posted Feb 8th 2010 4:19PM]

@genomecop

i hope your wife doesnt see your comment

[Dante of the Inferno Posted Feb 8th 2010 4:01PM]

Congrats on getting a Google Phone, Linus. Now get Steve Ballmer to sign it, and you're good to go.

[robindahoods Posted Feb 8th 2010 4:16PM]

Thank you very much. Linus Torvalds is one of those people i look up to. although i dont plan on studying kernel development...

[nickux Posted Feb 8th 2010 4:41PM]

I would've pegged Linus as an N900 kind of guy.

[cdf74dc9 Posted Feb 8th 2010 4:48PM]

I'm still having alot of question about the Nexus b4 I make my mind. Does the browser support CSS3, AJAX, jQuery 1.4, Active X, is Flash just a cripple version of the real thing? In short, if it can display everything a normal browser (Firefox/Chrome) can than that'll be a nice treat.

[robindahoods Posted Feb 8th 2010 5:07PM]

@cdf74dc9

well dont threat. If you have an ipod touch or iphone, you notice that the browser is actually quite good. Yes it supports ajax. Activex not sure. Css3 most likely. The nexus one uses the same web rendering engine as the ipod touch and iphone. So however good the Internet is there, It will most likely look the same on the nexus one. WebOs uses the same engine as well.

[fort Posted Feb 8th 2010 5:06PM]

HUM, Engadget.... Over to the darkside? hum

[snowglyder Posted Feb 8th 2010 5:09PM]

I hope he got one for free. Maybe as a little "thank you" from Google...

[jinushaun Posted Feb 8th 2010 5:33PM]

And Google said people didn't want multi-touch... Yeah right!

[Dan Fruzzetti Posted Feb 9th 2010 12:19PM]

As always, I agree with Linus. I think the biggest irritation about phones, though, is all the waiting. I just got this Samsung Galaxy which is really a great phone except for waiting. I wait for everything: camera, phone calls, hell I even wait to descend into the menus.

I want someone to make me a phone specifically designed to have ZERO WAITING FOR ANYTHING.

Then I'll be happy.