Linux founder Linus Torvalds defends Windows’ Blue Screens of Death

Linux creator Linus Torvalds has unexpectedly come to Microsoft’s defense over jokes about the Windows operating system’s infamous blue screen of death. The whole thing was first noticed by Foss from the IT department.

In a new video with Youtuber Linus Tech Tips, he explained that it’s unlikely that many crashes are due to software errors.

“I’m convinced that all the jokes about Windows being unstable and blue screens – I guess it’s not even a blue screen anymore – are largely not about software bugs. In fact, a large percentage of them are due to unreliable hardware,” Linus Torvalds said in the video.

Torvalds also claimed that it is important to have ECC memory in a computer because it makes it fundamentally more reliable, and that the lack of
ECC can cause serious memory problems. Torvalds also mentioned that gamers who overclock would accept an additional degree of unreliability.

The birth of Linux

Linus Torvalds first drew attention to his work on a new operating system in a newsgroup post on July 3, 1991. He then announced that he was indeed working on a free operating system in the comp.os.minix newsgroup on August 25 and 26, 1991. On September 17, 1991 (almost 33 years ago), the shell for Torvalds’ new operating system was functional – and the shell remains an essential component of any Linux system, alongside the kernel itself.

Torvalds then released the source code, which is still freely available to anyone interested. The first version number was 0.01.