Both Torvalds and Gates are nerds… Gates decided to monetize it and Torvalds decided to give it away.

But without Microsoft’s “PC on every desktop” vision for the '90s, we may not have seen such an increased demand for server infrastructure which is all running the Linux kernel now.

Arguably Torvalds’ strategy had a greater impact than Gates because now many of us carry his kernel in our pocket. But I think both needed each other to get where we are today.

Doctors face a similar obstacle before they can practice: medical school and residency. They literally have to jump from zero to hero before the first real paycheck.

Things may evolve this way for senior software developers with a high rate of dropout.