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LinuxCon Brazil: Q&A with Linus and Andrew

Posted Sep 1, 2010 5:53 UTC (Wed) by busman (subscriber, #7333)
In reply to: LinuxCon Brazil: Q&A with Linus and Andrew by marcH
Parent article: LinuxCon Brazil: Q&A with Linus and Andrew

> I've read somewhere he was brought up in a Swedish-speaking part of Finland.

Linux was brought up in Helsinki (Finnish capital) and while being officially a bilingual city (all street signs are in finnish and swedish) only ~7% of the population speaks swedish as their mother tongue. So it hardly qualifies as a "swedish-speaking part of Finland" ;)

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Posted Sep 1, 2010 12:58 UTC (Wed) by BenHutchings (subscriber, #37955) [Link]

I'm thankful for those Swedish signs as they're a lot easier to decipher for those of us who know English and German.

LinuxCon Brazil: Q&A with Linus and Andrew

Posted Sep 9, 2010 14:17 UTC (Thu) by engla (guest, #47454) [Link]

And this is maybe Linus' point. Swedish has a closer relasionship to big western languages, such as english, and finnish is way more obscure (is said to be impossible to master if you are not born in a finnish-speaking family). A finnish-speaking linux kernel mailing list would truly be impossible for outsiders to understand.

LinuxCon Brazil: Q&A with Linus and Andrew

Posted Sep 9, 2010 14:15 UTC (Thu) by engla (guest, #47454) [Link]

Helsinki is an area where you are likely to find swedish-speaking finns; unlike inland Finland. See map: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Svenskfinland_municipal...