Linus Torvalds is a Finnish software engineer who is known for creating the Linux kernel and the git revision control system. He was born in 1969 in Helsinki, Finland and began programming at a young age. Torvalds studied computer science at the University of Helsinki, where he created Linux as an operating system kernel and announced its initial release in 1991. Today Linux is widely used and Torvalds continues to be involved in its development, though he has stepped back from a leadership role.