quoted from http://liw.iki.fi/liw/texts/linux-anecdotes.html
Linux Anecdotes
A look at the history of Linux, as seen by a long time Linux user. The talk is a series of anecdotes, shy of technical details, and sprinkled with personal memories.
27 April 1998
This talk was given at the 1998 Linux Expo.
Who I am and why I am here
I seem to have acquired a little bit of reputation in the Linux community, despite my efforts in to stay quiet and invisible, so that I don't get so many questions from people having trouble with Linux.
Part of my reputation is that I know Linux pretty well. That part is based on the time when I and Linus Torvalds—I assume you know Linus—shared an office at the University of Helsinki. In reality, I don't know Linux all that well. For example, my one stab at kernel programming resulted in a bug that took three years to track down and fix, and even then it was done by someone hacking OS/2. I'm referring to the sprintf function inside the kernel.