Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds, historic photo: the creators of Windows and Linux together for the first time

Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux , and Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft , were photographed together for the first time at a dinner hosted by Microsoft Azure CTO Mark Russinovich.

This historic image, shared on LinkedIn , depicts two computing giants whose opposing philosophies — open source software freedom versus proprietary control — have defined decades of Linux-Windows rivalry.

The meeting, which was also attended by David Cutler, the architect of Windows NT, testifies to an easing of old tensions.

Microsoft, which once called Linux a “cancer,” has embraced open source under the leadership of Satya Nadella, joining the Linux Foundation in 2016, and integrating Linux into Azure.

Torvalds , known for his biting criticism (such as calling Windows "crap"), and Gates , a champion of commercial software, had never met, even though they both shaped the digital age.

Social media went wild with amazement and irony : some joked that it was a fake created by AI, while others hailed the photo as the end of a “cold war”.

Torvalds called the dinner “enjoyable,” focusing more on philanthropy and nuclear energy than kernels.