I keep getting caught off-guard seeing current photos of Torvalds. He's just like...a guy.

And honestly I'd rather my mission-critical software be written by "just a guy" than by whoever Mr. Battlestation is down there on the bottom.

"It really doesn't look like much. And I have to say, the most interesting part in this picture, that people mostly react to, is the walking desk. It is the most interesting part in my office, and I'm not actually using it anymore."

— Linus Torvalds, The mind behind Linux

Why is this guy posing like he doesnt have the default windows background?

I had a friend ask for recommendations for prebuilts. I found one that was under budget and over spec for their needs and sent them the info. They ended up going with an overbudget one with arguably worse specs (they didn't really need the specs I was suggesting but bang for buck it made sense and was still under budget) because it had all the lights that the seller could shove in it. No real judgement if that's your style and you have the money, but it just upset me to have spent time doing research for them only to have them ignore all of that because they failed to mention that lights were important.

Not shown: a cubic meter of obscure developer boards and gadgets that hardware manufacturers randomly send to Torvalds to integrate into Linux.

Also his RAM is ECC.

Bottom needs a gamer chair to prove that he's a gamer. A gamer games 45% better with a gamer chair. That's why they're shaped 45% differently. Without a gamer chair, a gamer does not truly game. But it's very important that they see it.

Imagine have a nice custom setup and using the default Windows desktop. Weird flex...

I suspect the actual PC used is at least fairly powerful though. Like someone else said it's likely using ECC as its mission critial, so chances are it also has other expensive server parts inside. Not all powerful computers actually look like anything fancy at all. This post reminds me of things like the watercooling subreddit and the amount of effort and money they put into things like aesthetics, that don't actually improve performance at all. Even though the original point of watercooling was performance.

The guy in the lower pic looks like such a chud.

Bruhhh but my NFT's will be mooning soon!

Ew Windows 11

Torvalds could assemble a system by collecting old outdated electronic junk from a trash heap and make it work

Tech Bro needs to convince million dollar investors (or his wealthy parents) to finance his latest setup in order to install the latest Windows or Mac OS ... without money to buy new shiny things and proprietary software, he's totally lost

The tech bro is elxokas, a youtuber from Spain

a random consumer*

Its the treadmill.

The treadmill gives you infinite power.

Christ on a stick! As someone who builds computers for fun all I see is fan control modules and cables. So many cables. Cables as far as the eye can see!

It’s a bit like alt med quacks wearing a white lab coat and carrying a stethoscope while they prescribe magical water or wave coloured crystals at you.

But standing desks are awesome, I too would pick the top over the bottom setup