I would also include that he's furiously pragmatic. Which stands in contrast to other Free software personalities, who are often furiously idealistic.

The nature of the Father of Linux being, in essence, an enraged (often insightful) crusader is just a point of pride for a lot of people who know about him and like Linux.

He's straightforward.

And smart. This is an important ingredient.

As the originator of the OS and still working at a low level, it's nice to see him (A) care about the user experience all these year later and (B) cut through other people's bullshit the way a lot of us wish we could.