Twitter And Linux: The Open Source Marriage Made In Heaven

Twitter has transformed how people around the world communicate, from the mass political uprisings of 2011’s Arab Spring to how we anoint celebrities and cultural decision makers. It does this partly because it is ubiquitous and fast. But how does it manage to send out over 400 million tweets a day? Not surprisingly, the service is powered not by a bloated, profit-driven technology, but rather by an open source system that has been painstakingly refined by people passionate about quality: Linux.

Twitter recently became a silver member of the Linux foundation, which helps the service maintain both its speed and incredible global reach. The membership is important on a more symbolic level, as well. While many companies compete in a race with each other to see which organization can earn the highest profits, companies like Twitter and Linux are still focused on creating the highest quality products and services with the end user in mind. This emphasis on creating an excellent tool, and not a flashy but cumbersome product, has earned Linux a reputation as one of the finest open source products in existence...