Success Quote by Steve Wozniak

Wozniak’s line flatters Linux users in the oldest way tech culture knows: by turning a software preference into a personality test. “All the best people” is deliberately sweeping, a clubhouse phrase that sidesteps benchmarks and goes straight for belonging. It’s not meant to be empirically true; it’s meant to feel true to anyone who’s ever compiled a kernel at 2 a.m. and enjoyed it.

The subtext is status. Linux has long signaled a certain self-conception: curious, stubborn, allergic to lock-in, willing to trade convenience for control. Woz, famously the genial engineer-hero of early Apple, is blessing that identity from a place of mythic credibility. Coming from a co-founder of the company most associated with polished, closed ecosystems, the compliment carries a wry edge: it’s an insider acknowledging the romance of the outsider. That tension is the point.

Context matters, too. “Best people” isn’t just about technical chops; it’s about ethos. Linux stands in for a broader open-source morality play - transparency, collaboration, permissionless tinkering - even when the real world is messier (corporate-backed distros, enterprise subscriptions, Linux inside everything you don’t notice). Wozniak’s phrasing compresses decades of tribal debate into a single wink: you can love elegant consumer products and still admire the scrappy infrastructure that powers the internet.

It works because it’s less an argument than a social signal: a playful anointing of the people who choose tools as a form of principle.