Earlier quoted context omitted.
According to Wikipedia, Linux was developed around his second year in university. That would suggest that he did not have a degree during its development and had a formal education, at that time, roughly equivalent to the average university dropout. I think that still supports the parent's claim, even if it is a little misleading as written.
Linux 0.0.1 was not a sophisticated piece of code.
While I'm sure that is true, I'm sure he also learned a lot of lessons from writing that code, which goes against the idea suggested earlier that such things are only learned in the interest of formality. What it really highlights, though, is that anyone can jump in and start writing an OS (or whatever else you want to learn about). You don't need a degree to do that and people without them do.