Q&A with Guido van Rossum

I am a software developer. I am Dutch, and started my career in Amsterdam while I was studying math at the University of Amsterdam. I am mostly known as the creator of Python, a reasonably successful programming language. I created Python while working for CWI in Amsterdam. The success of the language got me a string of job offers, and since 1995 I live and work in the US, currently for Dropbox in San Francisco, where I design and implement APIs so developers outside the company can use Dropbox's services.

From Wikipedia: "In the Python community, Van Rossum is known as a "Benevolent Dictator For Life". So in Dropbox you've got another great nickname?

They sometimes call me the perfect troll. But mostly they just call me Guido.

Why did you quit your job in Google?

There wasn't a singe reason – I'd been at Google for seven years, the project I was working on seemed to be changing directions, and Dropbox offered me interesting new challenges at a much smaller, much younger company that was built almost entirely on Python. (Yes, the Dropbox client is written in Python and so are the Dropbox servers.)

As I can see developers and designers prefers Dropbox as a cloud. In your opinion why Dropbox is the best file storage service?

Heh. File storage doesn't even begin to cover it! We do photos (with Albums and auto upload from your phone), fast previews of many file types, and of course rich APIs for developers. But the reason so many people love Dropbox is that it is so simple to use – it just works, and the Dropbox engineers take care of all the details.

What hardware do you use for your work?

I use a MacBook Air with 8 GB of RAM and a big-ass Apple monitor.

Where does your work inspiration come from?

Oddly enough, most of my inspiration comes from my work. I love to program, so I always have ideas for making the life of programmers better.