>or a guy like Linus Torvalds doing the vast majority of his work from his native Finland and deciding in his 40s only a few years ago to move to the US.
Torvalds emigrated to the US in his 20s.
(Wikipedia says that 2 of his daughters were born in the US, which means that the daughter that was born in 1998 was born in the US. Another way of putting an upper bound on when he emigrated is to look at when he started working at Transmeta, which Wikipedia say was in February 1997, which is more than "a few years ago". Torvalds himself was born in late 1969.)
Torvalds emigrated to the US in his 20s.
(Wikipedia says that 2 of his daughters were born in the US, which means that the daughter that was born in 1998 was born in the US. Another way of putting an upper bound on when he emigrated is to look at when he started working at Transmeta, which Wikipedia say was in February 1997, which is more than "a few years ago". Torvalds himself was born in late 1969.)