I would have loved to ask him if he maybe wishes (or regrets) that he'd been more entrepreneurial and raked in billions on some project. Certainly he has the technical talent for it.
I recall reading that when he received the MacArthur prize, he was happy about the money award and said it would go toward his children's college tuition. I had been thinking that he made enough money that that would not have been a problem even worth thinking about for Linus; but apparently not -- he's rich, but not insanely rich.
Someone asked him what he did with the millenium prize money. He explained that it was actually quite a lot of money and apart from paying taxes on it he's pretty much sitting on it. His explanation was that he doesn't care much about money, and part of that is that he doesn't like worrying about it, and that prize was enough that he no longer has to worry about money.
I can't speak for Linus but I'm guessing the answer would be "no". I remember him saying at some other talk that he loved that he didn't have to worry about "business crap".
Besides a big reason for Linux success was that it was available for no cost. If he had just developed some other commercial Unix we would probably all be using BSD or Hurd right now.
I recall reading that when he received the MacArthur prize, he was happy about the money award and said it would go toward his children's college tuition. I had been thinking that he made enough money that that would not have been a problem even worth thinking about for Linus; but apparently not -- he's rich, but not insanely rich.