Vista 'over-hyped' says Linux creator

Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux operating system (OS), has hit out Microsoft’s Vista claiming that it is over-hyped and not all that revolutionary.

Linus was talking at the recent linux.conf.au event in Sydney where he, unsurprisingly, took a few shots at the new Microsoft OS, by claiming its bloated hardware requirements may actually help drive the popularity of Linux.

“I don't actually think that something like Vista will change how people work that much,” Torvalds said in a chat with Computerworld. “I think it, to some degree, has been over-hyped as being something completely new and I don't actually think it is.”

He added: “One of the things we will probably notice is the hardware requirements for Vista are obviously much higher, and that could end up helping Linux just because people notice that you can run Linux on machines and have it work very well even if that same machine couldn't run Vista at all.”

He did, however, admit that cracking the desktop market was by far the hardest Linux challenge of all and talked up numerous new opportunities in the embedded sector and mobile phones.

Microsoft’s chairman Bill Gates is not averse to slagging off his rivals, ‘rubbishing’ a rival games console last week.

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