Torvalds Makes Cameo in Final Linux Foundation "World without Linux" Video

The “World without Linux” video series from the Linux Foundation has wrapped up with a final episode featuring copious amounts of geeky puns, as well as a cartoon version of Linux kernel creator Linus Torvalds. Here’s what it’s all about.

The video is set in a restaurant called Free Burger — the subject of recurring references from earlier episodes — that was founded in 1991. Its employees work “just for fun” and give their product away for free.

That’s a metaphor, of course, for the Linux kernel, which Torvalds released to the world in 1991 and which he wrote “just for fun,” in his words.

The video is packed with plenty of other geeky references. The Free Burger menu includes items like “kernel fries” (“just like regular fries, only monolithic”) “Helsinki drinky” (presumably an allusion to Torvalds’s hometown), “cherry berry binary” and, of course, “raspberry pie.”

Perhaps the most interesting bit about this final video’s message is that it emphasizes that the Linux kernel code — insofar as it is represented by the Free Burger products — is free as in beer but not free as in freedom. Although the video mentions the collaborative nature of the products’ sourcing, it doesn’t drive home the shareability that, along with being free of cost, sets Linux and most other open source software apart from proprietary code.

Maybe that’s because it’s harder to communicate the merits of code sharing in a two-minute YouTube clip than it is to drive home the value of a product that is given away for free. But it is a notable point of focus, especially since the early history of Linux suggests that Torvalds was originally motivated more by a desire to write cost-free code than by the sharing ideology of the Free Software Foundation.

But that’s just our interpretation. Take a look at the video yourself if you haven’t already:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE4WeUNFX2g

To watch the series as a whole, check out the Linux Foundation’s website.