Torvalds, Linus (2012-02-28), Google+, retrieved: 2025-07-21

So here's a plea: if you have anything to do with security in a distro, and think that my kids (replace "my kids" with "sales people on the road" if you think your main customers are businesses) need to have the root password to access some wireless network, or to be able to print out a paper, or to change the date-and-time settings, please just kill yourself now. The world will be a better place.

— Linus Torvalds

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "So here's a plea: if you have anything to do with security in a distro, and think that my kids (replace "my kids" with "sales people on the road" if you think your main customers are businesses) need to have the root password to access some wireless network, or to be able to print out a paper, or to change the date-and-time settings, please just kill yourself now. The world will be a better place." in the context of "Torvalds, Linus (2012-02-28), Google+, retrieved: 2025-07-21" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Linus Torvalds" (Quotes, 2010s, 2012) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Linus Torvalds

About Linus Torvalds

Linus Benedict Torvalds (born 28 December 1969) is a Finnish-American computer programmer, best known as the creator of the Linux kernel.