Older news but certainly worth a mention!
The Millennium Technology Prize is the largest technology prize in the world and it is awarded once every two years by Technology Academy Finland. The Awarded is given for life-enhancing technological innovation. Linux kernel creator Linus Torvalds and Dr. Shinya Yamanaka won the Millennium Technology Prize, the prominent award for technological innovation for 2012.
Linus Torvalds
Linus Torvalds is best known for creation of a new open source operating system Linux kernel. It is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software. Linux is far more than just a server operating system. In fact, it’s running in quite a few more places and powers devices such as smart mobile phones, home routers / switches, server, DVR, tablet device and much more. The Linux kernel has received contributions from thousands of programmers and companies around the world. According to David A. Wheeler’s calculations it could cost approximately 3 billion USD (about 2.2 billion EUR) to redevelop the Linux kernel. He also created the revision control system Git. From the press release: