Bill Gates Finally Meets Linux Creator Linus Torvalds At Microsoft Exec's Dinner, Decades After Powering Rival Operating Systems

After decades of shaping the computing world from opposite sides of the operating system divide, Microsoft Corp. MSFT co-founder Bill Gates and Linux creator Linus Torvalds have finally met—at a private dinner hosted by a top Microsoft executive.

What Happened: The long-anticipated meeting took place at a dinner hosted by Mark Russinovich, Microsoft's Azure CTO and the creator of Sysinternals, last week, according to a LinkedIn post he shared.

Dave Cutler, Microsoft technical fellow and the lead developer behind Windows NT, was also present during the time, making the gathering a who's who of systems programming pioneers.

"No major kernel decisions were made," Russinovich joked in his post, referencing the historic rivalry between Windows and Linux.

Why It's Important: Despite being two of the most influential figures in tech, Gates and Torvalds had never met before the event.

Torvalds is credited with launching the open-source Linux kernel in 1991, which became a global operating system alternative to Microsoft Windows. Meanwhile, Gates famously drove Windows' dominance across personal and enterprise computing during the 1990s and early 2000s.

With a net worth of $175 billion, Gates is currently the fifth wealthiest individual in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Trovalds has a net worth of $50 million.

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