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Torvalds Becomes an American Citizen

netbuzz writes "Having brought his open-source work and family to the United States from Finland some time ago, Linus Torvalds has marked an important personal milestone by attaining US citizenship. A casual remark on the Linux kernel mailing list about registering to vote led to the community being in on the news. Torvalds has acknowledged being a bit of a procrastinator on this move, writing in a 2008 blog post: 'Yeah, yeah, we should probably have done the citizenship thing a long time ago, since we've been here long enough (and two of the kids are US citizens by virtue of being born here), but anybody who has had dealings with the INS will likely want to avoid any more of them, and maybe things have gotten better with a new name and changes, but nothing has really made me feel like I really need that paperwork headache again.' In that post he also expresses dislike for the American style of politics in which he will now be able to participate directly."

3 of 654 comments (clear)

  1. huh by nomadic · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    In that post he also expresses dislike for the American style of politics in which he will now be able to participate directly.

    Then move back to Finland.

  2. Re:WOAH WOAH WOAH by jedidiah · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    > I realize you are being sarcastic but I would like to point out that he was
    > here legally to begin with. Weird isn't it how some people can actually navigate
    > the Byzantine immigration process instead of just sneaking across the boarder?

    You don't "navigate the Byzantine immigration process", you hire a lawyer.

    If you personally had to deal with the Migra, you would probably remain undocumented.

    It's not trivial. It's also not cheap. It's not cheap if you are a well paid geek; forget about being a normal working stiff like your poor gringo cousins.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  3. Criticism not allowed by PietjeJantje · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Since critics are not allowed in this thread, I'm gonna post them in one single comment to be labeled as "troll" for everybody's convenience:

    - The "citizenship as an afterthought" is an insult to Americans and to people fighting for citizenship.
    - He immigrated to a country involved into various dirty wars with a corrupted corporate government, which is debatable except for the fact he came from a country which by fact is involved in less wars and has less corrupted government, for commercial reasons I suppose, and thus is morally corrupted.
    - He states he dislikes all kinds of American things, which shows a lack of respect for his new host, stating he will fix him from within like a true citizen etc., which will turn out to be yada yada, but I expect his mansions and cars to become bigger though.
    - Linux still has not penetrated on the desktop, which clearly is betrayal.