VERDICT: LINUS TORVALDS TAKES THE GOAT CROWN! Knuth Stuck in Second Place

Sit down, dears, and put the kettle on, because the young people have been shouting about who the greatest programmer of all time is, and they have reached a verdict faster than my sourdough rises. Trading opened less than a day ago, and the crowd has already crowned Linus Torvalds. Every developer apparently has a hill to die on. I only have a hill I'd rather not climb with my knees.

Now, what is the argument really about? Five names are on the ballot, and the brief gives us a few facts for four of them. According to Wikipedia, Dennis Ritchie created the C language and, with Ken Thompson, co-created Unix. The pair received the 1983 Turing Award for it. Brian Kernighan told The New York Times that the tools Ritchie built, and their direct descendants, run pretty much everything today. That is a grandmother's whole kitchen right there.

Margaret Hamilton, Wikipedia says, directed the Software Engineering Division at the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory and led the on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo Guidance Computer. That is software that went to the Moon. My casserole has never left the county. And the winner? Wikipedia says Torvalds has led the Linux kernel since 1991, started the version control system Git in 2005, and won the 2012 Millennium Technology Prize.

So what does the crowd say? On Morfi, the opinion market where real people back their views with money, Linus Torvalds leads at 30% consensus. Donald Knuth follows at 19%. That is conviction, not a headcount: it is how firmly the crowd holds its view, not the share of people. So far 25 traders have put $79,058 behind their opinions. Also on the ballot: 3 other sides.

Here is my opinion, and you may keep your hands off my wooden spoon. I think the crowd picked the person whose work they touch every day, the way you pick the grandchild who calls most often. Torvalds built something that lives in phones, servers and who knows what else, and then handed out the recipe for free. That is generous. Still, I will say quietly that Ritchie and Hamilton laid the table he is eating at. Greatest is a feeling, not a benchmark, and my feeling has a soft spot for the Moon.

What should you watch next? Whether Knuth can close the gap now that the first excitement has settled, and whether the Ritchie and Hamilton fans wake up and start rattling their pots. Early verdicts are like first pancakes, and sometimes they get thrown out. If you think the crowd has burned this one, join the market on Morfi and put your conviction where your keyboard is.