Linus Benedict Torvalds (/ ˈliːnəs ˈtɔːrvɔːldz / ⓘ LEE-nəs TOR-vawldz, [2] Finland Swedish: [ˈliːnʉs ˈtuːrvɑlds] ⓘ; born 28 December 1969) is a Finnish and American software engineer who is the creator and lead developer of the Linux kernel. He also created the distributed version control system Git.