Linus Torvalds a happy camper with Nexus One

As you might know the Google Nexus One hasn’t been selling too well since its launch. Not because it is a bad phone or anything but the fact that it is only available online at the moment and not in stores where people can touch it. People don’t like buying blind and that is why I think the sales have been less than stellar but still have a lot of promise, especially now that celebrity voices in the computer world are piping up about their experiences with the Nexus One. I would not bet against the Nexus One yet.

Linus Torvalds the man that gave birth to the Linux kernel back in 1991 spoke of his experience with the Nexus One on his blog. In his “Happy Camper” post he explains why this is the first phone ever that carries his stamp of approval. He has been known to use only phones with Open Source operating systems. The Google Nexus One uses the Android Open Source operating system developed by Google. Linus goes on to explain how mobile phones are just a source for irritation for him.

“But I have to admit, the Nexus One is a winner. I wasn’t enthusiastic about buying a phone on the internet sight unseen, but the day it was reported that it finally had the pinch-to-zoom thing enabled, I decided to take the plunge. I’ve wanted to have a GPS unit for my car anyway, and I thought that google navigation might finally make a phone useful.

And it does. What a difference! I no longer feel like I’m dragging a phone with me “just in case” I would need to get in touch with somebody – now I’m having a useful (and admittedly pretty good-looking) gadget instead. The fact that you can use it as a phone too is kind of secondary.”