He's a slippery fish. I remember when I was at Linuxcare, in the middle of the dot com boom, and all the Linux companies would have just fallen all over themselves to hire him, but he never went for any of them, which I think ended up being an excellent choice.

Didn't Linus work for Transmeta for most of the boom?

Yep, applying his intimate knowledge of the 80386 PC architecture to the design of the Crusoe's external ISA. I don't think he did any Linux-related work for them at all.

Yeah, but I can't believe that all those companies didn't make him some very tempting offers.

I think Linus refused to work for any Linux company since it would create a conflict of interest for him and give the company an advantage. Now through the Linux Foundation he can work for all the Linux companies at the same time.

and... I really hope Linus is not in need for a work, otherwise there is something wrong in the open source world.

Speaking of which, how does Linus pay rent? Speaking engagements? Or is RH or someone paying him as a good will gesture?

I think he also received a buttload of stock from Redhat? as a thank you for pushing the OS forward. I'm researching where I heard this from now (anyone have a link?)

Ahh here it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds

"Red Hat and VA Linux, both leading developers of Linux-based software, presented Torvalds with stock options in gratitude for his creation.[13] In 1999, both companies went public and Torvalds' net worth shot up to roughly $20 million.[14][15]"

He works for the Linux Foundation, Jim Zemlin is his "boss".

It wasn't just the linux companies, most every company in silicon valley at the time was attempting to find a reason to get him on their payroll.

He could probably have taken his pick of any tech company anywhere in the world.

I think a git company would want Junio more than Linus.