Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2000/01/19/linux_guru_set_to_topple/

Linux guru set to topple Intel

Watch out Chipzilla, Torvalds is after you

By Pete Sherriff

Posted in On-Prem, 19th January 2000 12:24 GMT

Not content with winning the 1999 Formula 1 World Championship and reducing Microsoft to a mere shadow of its former self, Linus Torvalds now has his sights set firmly on putting Intel out of business. Torvalds, along with the terribly rich financier George Soros and the even terribly richer Paul Allen of Microsoft, will unveil Transmeta's new Crusoe CPU in California later today. According to Transmeta's Web site, it has "re-thought the microprocessor to create a whole new world of mobility" -- so it'll have wheels, then. Is the market ready for a freeware CPU? It's all very well for a network of nerds to constantly 'improve' an operating system which is only used by nerds, but would you trust a PC powered by a nerd-designed chip? Torvald's lachrymose identical twin, Mika Hakkinen, was unavailable for comment at press time. ®