What comes to mind when you hear the name Linus Torvalds? Of course, the question is more than rhetorical. You know, Linux kernel—lines of C code, endless mailing list debates, and… well, a character who does not always adhere to the most polite forms of communication.
But here’s the thing: not everything in Torvalds’ world revolves around Linux. Like anyone else, he’s got side interests. And while they’re still pretty technical, they’ve got nothing to do with operating systems. Instead, think circuit boards, soldering irons. The result? An electric guitar pedal. Bet you didn’t see that one coming.
For those of you who haven’t really had much to do with electric guitars, a pedal is a small electronic device that guitarists place between their instrument and amplifier to change the sound in different ways. You press it with your foot while playing, and depending on the circuit inside, it can add effects like distortion, echo, reverb, or make the tone brighter or darker.
And while playing guitar is a pretty common hobby among tech folks, that’s not really Torvalds’ style. So don’t picture him in a band T-shirt, cranking out Metallica riffs. Nope—his take on it leans more toward the technical side of electronics.
A bit of background: earlier this year, when Linux kernel 6.13 RC7 was announced on the mailing lists, Torvalds mentioned this side project. Even though it’s more of a hobby, the reveal still caught a lot of people off guard.
But in addition to the LEGO builds, this year I also ended up doing a number of guitar pedal kit builds (“LEGO for grown-ups with a soldering iron”). Not because I play guitar, but because I enjoy the tinkering, and the guitar pedals actually do something and are the right kind of “not very complex, but not some 5-minute 555 LED blinking thing”.
So, yesterday, Torvalds finally published a new GitHub repo containing the schematics and code. And while the project is more of a lighthearted experiment, within just a few hours, it had already pulled in nearly 200 stars, been forked four times, and even picked up a pull request fixing a little markdown error. As you can guess, the surge of interest, of course, stems largely from the fact that Torvalds himself is behind it.
The repository makes it clear this isn’t meant to be a finished product. Torvalds describes the work as an experiment, a way for him to explore circuit design rather than deliver a usable audio device.
Looking through the repo, you’ll find notes on op-amps, JFETs, and other building blocks used in guitar pedal circuits. It’s not a complete design, more like sketches of ideas and tests he’s been running.
But at the end of the day, this little side hobby—though we should be careful with that word, since one of Torvalds’ other “hobbies” ended up rewriting global tech history—feels like a real breath of fresh air. It gives us a glimpse of a side of Torvalds that most people don’t usually see.
Here’s hoping it goes well, and who knows—maybe one day we’ll hear a guitar distortion out there with a heavy-metal penguin proudly stamped on it.
