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Linus Moves To OSDL, Will Work On Kernel Full-Time
worldwideweber writes "With the announcement of the release of the 2.5.72 version of the Linux kernel came the news that Linus Torvalds will be leaving Transmeta for OSDL to work on the linux kernel full-time. The email calls this a leave of absence for about one year." Update: 06/17 17:19 GMT by T : As many readers have pointed out, the length of Linus' leave is not actually specified in this email.
Will this mean we get kernel releases daily? Like in the old times? Will we have 3.0.0 this xmas? I'm soo exited!!!!
My god.
You actually *paid* for the privelidge of being the idiot who FPs an article?
You really need to get out more (says the person who's been visiting every five minutes to see this story come out of the future).
From: Linus Torvalds
/how/ freely Transmeta has let me do Linux work. My email address will
;) press-release about this tomorrow morning, but I just
To: Kernel Mailing List
Subject: Linux v2.5.72 and a move to OSDL
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2003 21:35:09 -0700 (PDT)
Ok, I waited too long for 2.5.71, so here's a more timely 2.5.72
release.
It's extra timely largely because the hash list poisoning found some
problems in the RPC code, making NFS break. Trond found and fixed the
breakage, so 2.5.72 should work fine in an NFS environment too. Let's
see if the list poisoning shows any other dodgy list users. Knock wood.
Also, Arnaldo has cleaned up a lot of the networking code to use the
generic hash lists, instead of the old ad-hoc net-specific list walking
code. That code has been tested pretty well, but please holler if you
see something.
Changelog for other details appended.
The other big news - well, for me personally, anyway - is that I've
decided to take a leave-of-absense after 6+ years at Transmeta to
actually work full-time on the kernel.
Transmeta has always been very good at letting me spend even an
inordinate amount of time on Linux, but as a result I've been feeling a
little guilty at just how little "real work" I got done lately. To fix
that, I'll instead be working at OSDL, finally actually doing Linux as
my main job.
[ I do not expect a huge amount of change as a result, testament to just
change to "torvalds@osdl.org" effective July 1st, but everybody is
trying to make the transfer as smooth as possible, so we'll make sure
that there will be sufficient address overlap etc to not cause any
problems ]
OSDL and Transmeta will have a joint official (read: "boring". You
should have seen the bio - that didn't make it - that I suggested for
myself for it
wanted to say thanks to Transmeta. It has been a special place to work
for, and hello to OSDL that I hope will be the same.
Snif. I'm actually all teary-eyed.
Linus
- tom -
Has he got his clearance certificate from SCO?
Have the Chinese agreed to 'release' him from Transmeta?
(this last one hurts a bit)...
while extolling the Linux kernel, we used to say:
Hey, MS spends $5bn in R&D for a lousy OS. A single chappie named Linus maintains the entire Linux kernel in his spare time! Can't say that any more...
Anyways, all the best!
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Trying not to be overly cynical here is a bit difficult. When Transmeta needed publicity they hired Linus which gave them un-rivaled, and often uncritical, coverage in the US which certainly will have helped in fund-raising. The initial visions and hype have not lived up to their expectations, and especially in the low power end of the market where ARM processors continue to dominate.
Now that Transmeta are trying to move into a more corporate sphere there is less demand for a posterboy like Linus.
Its great that Linus is dedicated to the Linux kernel full time, but how much of this is leaving through dedication (for a year) and how much is a result of disappointment at Transmeta not living up to its hype.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
...as he is just about to hand over maintenance of 2.5/2.6 to Andrew Morton. So maybe he actually hopes to do some hacking again, instead of just integrating other peoples' work. Cool!
OSDN, The parent of Slashdot, has filed a lawsuit against Linus today for cut-and-pasting the first three letters of OSDN.
CmdrTaco was quoted and saying "Linus and this Shift-Insert stuff is getting WAY out of control".
Linus was unavailable to paste in a reply.
1. Work on open source projects .com startup; startup tanks
2. No profit
3. Get jealous; go to
4. No profit
5. Return to open source projects
6. No profit
i guess that Linus was too expensive for Transmeta. I don't doubt, that he's worth all the money he earns, but Transeta employs him mostly for PR reasons (that's why they left him so much freedom). But you have to have some sales to support PR. I already wondered for some time, if it pays off for Transmeta financially.
But Linus is so popular, i don't think he will ever encounter serious employment problems.
For my part, i thank Transmeta for employing Linus. As i don't own any shares, i had the profit from Linus' work without any cost.
Bye, Martin
His itinerary includes a brief stop-over in Utah, during which time he will hunt down Darl McBride and maul his body beyond recognition. His court defense will be temporary sanity and David Boies will merrily defend him to acquittal.
Can I bum a sig? I left mine at the office.
There's a leak in the Linus kernel, someone please post a patch.
Linus Torvalds has very recently stated that spam filtering -- right in the kernel -- is now a slated feature for Linux 2.6.
My journal has hot
Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
Now, let's not all sell our Transmetta stock at the same time...
Kudos to Transmeta for hiring Linus in the first place ( even if they did transport him to the USA in reach of overlitigious bastards such as The SCO Group ) and supporting his work on Linux for so many years.
Is this related to Transmeta wanting to distance themselves from Linux until the SCO bull$hit is resolved? Hopefully it will be quick, but I can't help but wonder what kind of ace SCO is holding in reserve. Even if they don't really have an ace, businesses seem to be preparing themselves for the possibility that SCO may win a partial victory.
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. - Mark Twain
A year's leave also just happens to give him time where he could be an expert witness or consultant in certain legal matters.
Excuse my ignorance but what is List Poisoning?
I feel like I should know this but I don't.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
There's something about these two changes I find amusing. I admit I have no idea what they mean, which is probably why:
Daniel Ritz:
o [PCMCIA] fix yenta unload oops
David S. Miller:
o [TCP]: Use proper time_*() comparisons on jiffies
Old dominion soccer league (first google hit for odsl)
Linus has joined the shapeshifters!
(Or do i watch too much star trek? )
OSDL is dedicated to enabling Linux and Linux-based applications for data center and carrier-class deployment. We provide the crucial hardware for testing and development at this level, giving open source developers around the world the resources needed to bring Linux further into telecommunications and the enterprise. We are an independently governed, non-profit organization supported by 21 industry leaders.
Sounds cool
wtf is a leave of absence???
Basically he didnt quit outright, I guess he wants to keep his options open. Good thinking in this job market Linus. I mean, who would want to hire the originator of the Linux kernel?
That letter is awesome. It's great to have a real, honest, genuine human-being to rally behind.
This is the greatest things about open-source: the people. People who are willing to donate so much time and effort to the benefit of everyone on earth as opposed to people who want to screw over the world so they can make themselves rich.
We're much better off than those cheering on phony, cut-throat business men who run and jump around a stage like monkies to the tune of Gloria Estefan.
Why bother.
First reaction to a moron who can't remember FOUR letters when making a lame google reference!
OSDL!!!! not ODSL!!!!!!
When I worked on the kernel, my conscience was bruised. I must purge the poison from my body. I will not be able to work at Transmeta ... for about three months.
I submitted this a few hours ago (always a bridesmaid, *snif*), along with two links not in the story above. One was to the NY Times story about it. The other was to this story which just came out at Wired . . .a brief interview with Linus about his efforts to stand apart from political issues surrounding Open Source, which refers to the
discussion here on Slashdot
about his opinions on incorporating DRM into the Linux kernel (among other things).
mind you, he might be using an transmeta XP laptop
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
From the nytimes article, about OSDL:
The organization was created with an investment of $20 million from I.B.M., Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Computer Associates, NEC and Fujitsu.
What no SCO?
I'll do it for cheesy poofs.
Nice troll. I'll answer anyway.
1) Who knows? XFree86 draws my windows just fine. 3d is plenty fast using Nvidia drivers. 90% of desktops users won't care what's going on "under the hood".
2) See 1. Prolly does need a clean up, but I'd say the same about Windows registry. LFS gives good reasons for locations, and there's also good reasons to retain Unix-ness.
3) Bollocks. Development is astronomically fast.
4) Usability is being addressed by both KDE and Gnome. Again, how much maintaining does the average user actually do? As far as software management goes, if RedCarpet or Up2Date is too hard, I honestly don't know how much easier it would need to be.
OK, big mistake to make. (it is called dislectic or something like that, not moron)
The real funny part is that seaching for odsl gives osdl.org as 3th result. A lot of linkers have made this error!
Finally the SCO suit is showing some effect! Linux's leader is abdicating and fleeing the scene. Exactly as the nazis left Germany and took up hiding in South America.
I guess that this means we can all get back to conducting serious business based on SCO Unix - the bread and butter of many a development company.
(In 20 years time we'll probably see Torvalds daughter marrying the Swedish king!)
A troll recently advised me to get a real job - Like Linus.
While we are posting stories about people changing jobs...
Just last week I started a new job after a long and tedious four and a half year tenure at my former job. In this new job I'll finally get to work on things other than fighting fires. I'm very excited. Just thought everyone would like to know.
--
"What do you want me to do? Whack a guy? Off a guy? Whack off a guy? Cause I'm married."
He should just sue SCO and live off the money... relaxing in a fabulous villa, doing a bit of kernel coding every now and then ;-)
That being said, linux will not go mainstream until my mother can use it. That won't happen until several things are resolved.
1) printer setup utilities SUCK
2) sound card setup utilities SUCK
3) Most other setup utilities suck (too a lesser degree) also.
The apps are really improving, but sysadmin for the typical home user requires way more time and thought than they are willing to put into it.
If my mom buys a new printer for her Windows machine, she plugs it in and uses it. If she was using linux, she would end up returning the printer.
So let's see, we could :
1) Scrap KDE and Gnome, put *all* the code into XFree itself, that way everyone is stuck with whatever "paradigms" you think up
2) Stick every single configuration file into one GIANT configuration file, which would be so big and monsterous that it would require a binary format, along with a special program to edit it and a bunch of API calls to modify it
3) Make 7-10 different versions of the OS, all built on essentially the same thing, but each requiring their own set of patches and updates
4) Launch a huge marketing campaign to brainwash people into thinking your product delivers a great "experience"
Well then you'd just have Windows.
In Soviet America the banks rob you!
USABILITY is the key for the desktop. Its not there.
Look at the driver model,look at the UI's. THEY BLOW GOATS!
Look at GIMP, since ppl say its good compared to Photoshop. BZZT nope. I got a crapola of photoshop files that GIMP cannot handle. SO i have to redo those? I dont think so.
Look at the UI, its seperate windows everywhere!! WTF!! Taskbar clutter hell!
NO Multiple Document Interfaces? Thats why photoshop is mainstream and not GIMP.
...posted on Slashdot, you ARE the alpha geek.
That is all.
-- Liberalism is a mental disorder.
I didn't make it clear enough in my original post that i knew i was being trolled?
Lay off that crack pipe sonny, and read my posts.
Right. As it stands, most of this stuff is "distro specific". It's a necessary evil (currently) as boot-time config varies between distros (this could be fixed).
Things like the CUPS web interface, are neat for an admin, but suck for Joe Homeuser. Well sort of... I understand that CUPS will have a standard GUI interface soon, but it's been a long time coming...
Having ALSA sound built into the kernel will help, but it shouldn't be as bad as it is - all that really happens is 'modprobe ' then set mixer levels... The trick is autodetecting the appropriate module based on PCI readable info. Another option is pull this into the kernel, and do it automagically.
I've found most distro config tools are pitched at an install-time level. Eg, setup once and go. X configuration is a classic - what a pig for a beginner. it's the kind of thing that should be built into nautilus, and modified with a right click (like windows... does the mac do this too, or is it still control panels?)
Problem is that much of this need better vendor support, and this will only come with time and market share.
Two words: command line. Until you can press a button in a pretty window it's not friendly enough for the masses.
I see in the email where he calls it a leave of absence. I don't see any indication of it being limited to one year.
Wossat then?
You're only jealous cos the little penguins are talking to me.
Who said about a single config file? How about XML, how about local per all in ONE single file format and standard (like app.exe.config XML format on .NET) Who said anything about the registry? You did, just you , only you and youre anti windows view.
7 - 10 diff versions of linux exist, theyre called distros, nice rewording to be anti windows yet again. One day you may actually hang yourself if you fall throught youre ass.
XFree renders fine yes, JUST fine, JUST JUST and no more. Stay in the stale stagnent "JUST FINE" lane if you want. We want INNOVATION and PROGRESS. Not "JUST FINE". What is the point if there is NOTHING to render? Where are the apps? Games et all. "Oh they will come".. WHEN? WHERE? FROM WHO? WHERE ARE THE PLANS?
I bet Linus' self-deprecating sense of humor shines in every single line.
Still, short of emailing him myself (yeah, right), I have no idea how to get hold of that bio, and I'm too lazy to think one up here and post it (in humor).
Anyone else seen it? C'mon, you know you want to
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Actually WIndows provides me with a better "experience" than linux can just now. You see, MS are evolving the UI, Linux isnt. Look at the leaps and bounds windows has made on usability. Linux is still in the windows 3.1 lane. You are an OS, claim to be a good desktop OS by some, well since those are the claims, you have to go head to head with windows on those issues, not run away from them. So far you run away.
You do realize that www.snopes.com is just one big put-on, right?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Sure.exe -MyLiNuX $runs /fine=but.dont%expect% #good usability /help me
Transmeta has always been very good at letting me spend even an inordinate amount of time on Linux, but as a result I've been feeling a little guilty at just how little "real work" I got done lately.
Just a little guilty? Boy, what a crappy employee. Really. It's one thing to work on projects in your spare time but to leech off your employer to do so is not right. I'm sure this will encourage other employers to support their employees' work on open source projects. I guess Transmeta didn't want the bad press associated with firing Torvalds...let's see if he goes back in a year. Will Transmeta even notice he's gone (except for part where they save money on his salary)?
You can also read Linus' post here.
Basically, it's when some God-knows-how-bored idiot starts to pursue a specific user as they post on /. solely with the intention of flaming their every post.
It's especially sad when you consider how much time it must take.
That was classic intercourse!
There are automated troll tools that do that sort of thing, so it doesn't necessarily mean you're a loser if you do it
I was actually joking/trolling. The sad thing is, it got modded "insightful".
In Soviet America the banks rob you!
This is hardly 'distancing' themselves from linux.
Okay... I'll do the stupid things first, then you shy people follow.
[Zappa]
I was reading wired and they were talking about how after people leave their jobs after being interviewed in Wired. Barry Diller left Vivendi right after he was interviewed, and some other that I can remember because I left the issue at home. This was in the letters to the editor section for anyone that has a copy. One of the editors guessed that since Linus was getting interviewed in this months article, he was going to leave. He said something to the point of " anyone looking for a decent Unix programmer" in reference to Linus. Somebody should have the damn article.
So, is he going to open source the 'Secret Recipe'
Linux Creator Linus Torvalds Joins OSDL
First OSDL Fellow Will Devote Himself Exclusively to Linux Development
BEAVERTON, OR, and SANTA CLARA, CA, June 17, 2003 â" OSDL, a non-profit, global consortium of leading technology companies dedicated to accelerating the adoption of Linux, and Transmeta Corporation (Nasdaq: TMTA), the leader in efficient computing, today announced that Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, will join OSDL as the first OSDL Fellow.
As an OSDL fellow, Linus will work exclusively on leading the development of Linux, the open source software that he created in 1991 as a university student in Finland. Torvalds will dedicate himself now full-time to guiding a distributed team of thousands of Linux developers around the world. At OSDL, he will have hands-on access to its state-of-the-art computing resources and test facility. He will also help set priorities and direction for the Lab's different industry initiatives.
"It feels a bit strange to finally officially work on what I've been doing for the last twelve years, but with the upcoming 2.6.x release it makes sense to be able to concentrate fully on Linux," Torvalds said. "OSDL is the perfect setting for vendor-independent and neutral Linux development."
Here's the press release alluded to in Linus' email. Still no mention of his leave being limited to one year.
Linux Creator Linus Torvalds Joins OSDL
First OSDL Fellow Will Devote Himself Exclusively to Linux Development
BEAVERTON, OR, and SANTA CLARA, CA, June 17, 2003 â" OSDL, a non-profit, global consortium of leading technology companies dedicated to accelerating the adoption of Linux, and Transmeta Corporation (Nasdaq: TMTA), the leader in efficient computing, today announced that Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, will join OSDL as the first OSDL Fellow.
As an OSDL fellow, Linus will work exclusively on leading the development of Linux, the open source software that he created in 1991 as a university student in Finland. Torvalds will dedicate himself now full-time to guiding a distributed team of thousands of Linux developers around the world. At OSDL, he will have hands-on access to its state-of-the-art computing resources and test facility. He will also help set priorities and direction for the Lab's different industry initiatives.
"It feels a bit strange to finally officially work on what I've been doing for the last twelve years, but with the upcoming 2.6.x release it makes sense to be able to concentrate fully on Linux," Torvalds said. "OSDL is the perfect setting for vendor-independent and neutral Linux development."
Founded in 2000, OSDL has data centers in Portland, Oregon and Yokohama, Japan used by Linux developers around the world. With investment backing from Computer Associates, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, IBM, Intel, NEC and others, the lab sponsors key industry projects, including industry initiatives to enhance Linux for use in corporate data centers (Data Center Linux) and in telecommunications networks (Carrier Grade Linux). OSDL is increasingly being recognized as the center-of-gravity for the Linux industry: an important and independent central body that invests in the growth and innovation of Linux for the benefit of customers.
"OSDL is a leading Linux-industry advocate with the single-minded focus of accelerating its use throughout the enterprise," said Stuart Cohen, OSDL CEO. "Linus' decision to join us is a confirmation of the importance of our mission. OSDL is the only organization where Linux developers, customers and vendors can all participate as equals. The addition of Linus' perspective and guidance to the Lab will enhance our value to all three of these groups."
Linux is the fastest-growing operating system in the world. Revenue for Linux-based servers grew 62% in 2002, while overall sales of servers dropped 8%, according to Gartner Dataquest, a market research company. By 2007, Gartner predicts that Linux may grab 15% of the worldwide market.
"Linus Torvalds adds tremendous credibility to OSDL's efforts to drive the evolution of Linux forward into enterprise computing and carrier environments," said George Weiss, vice president and research director for the research firm Gartner. "The computing market is still questioning how far and how fast Linux can go as an enterprise-ready platform. With Linus at OSDL, many will be looking for leadership from the lab for answers to those questions."
Torvalds will join OSDL on leave from Transmeta Corporation, where he is currently a Transmeta Fellow. Transmeta is an OSDL member and worked with OSDL on the transition. "Linus has made substantial technological contributions as a member of our development team here at Transmeta," said Matthew R. Perry, president and CEO, Transmeta Corporation. "Transmeta appreciates and fully supports Linus' strong interest in devoting his attention and energy to certain emerging industry-wide Open Source initiatives at OSDL."
About OSDL
Founded in 2000, OSDL is dedicated to accelerating the growth and adoption of Linux in the enterprise. Supported by a global consortium of IT industry leaders, OSDL provides state-of the-art computi
[..]Apache, Mozilla, KDE...are moving at a break neck pace.
Let me guess, you weren't here before 1.0?
Yeah, I would also insist that something is cool when I spend wayyy to much money for it.
Newswire:
Cmdr Taco is taking an extended four-year leave of absence from Slashdot and will be going to the University of Michigan to learn Journalism. He'll also be taking courses in reality, spelling, housekeeping, grammar, shopping, ethics, marital skills and parenting, just in case he ever grows up, in which case he'll need minimal competency in all of these areas of human interaction.
Maybe, but at least with Linux she doesn't get a paperclip trying to patronise her...
You, frankly, are why I am FOR abortions. You are simply too stupid to breed. Any progeny you might have would simply end up on welfare cranking out more useless copies!
Right,. this is Slashdot. Not Losers-try-to-justify-why-they-use-crap-by-any-mea ns-necessary-or-like-they're-getting-paid-for-it. Maybe you should go to M$ and offer your PR arsehole (bigmouth) to them for free (like you do here).
"NO Multiple Document Interfaces? Thats why photoshop is mainstream and not GIMP."
Nothing to do with photoshop having several years head start, millions of dollars of development money and being the product of a company that owns several related patents then?
Reminds me of the near near miss paradox or the short dwarf pleonasm.
Parent article isn't interesting, insightsfull, informative or even remotely true.
Linus has never said he'd hand over anything to Andrew Morton. And for the hacking part, he's been doing lots of actual code hacking on several parts of the kernel lately (as always). Parent isn't "Interesting" or anything like that. It's just "wrong".
now i don't have to feel guilty about buying a pentium-m notebook as opposed to waiting for transmeta to finally deliver the astro!
Transmeta makes hardware, not software. There's not a single chance for SCO to sue them.
Half Time
Since I'm ignorant enough not to know what OSDL stands for, and lazy enough that I don't feel like searching for it, I'm just going to make something up. Here are my top 5 so far:
1. Open Source Developer Land
2. Oprah's Singular Dance Legends
3. Oops, Stallman Dissed Linus
4. O'Reilly Still Dignifies Linux
5. Official Simpsons Disco Library
(I suspect I'm on to something with #2...)
And the number of Linux purposed Transmeta systems out there ? Or Server based systems ? Transmeta is aiming at the notebook market where Linux is pretty much unheard of, then at the lower-scale where again the majority of systems are not Linux.
I have no doubt the guy is brilliant, but isn't it a bit strange given the markets Transmeta aimed at that they wanted lots of Linux development.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
How many of us can honestly say that we're doing what we love to do? And not just "working at an appropriately geek/tech job" either. I mean, this guy started a project as a hobby, people found value in it, and now he gets a salary to maintain it as he sees fit. When you look at history, even people like Michaelangelo who got to do what they liked doing, and got paid to do it, still had to work on someone else's project. "Michaelangelo, paint this ceiling, something in a biblical motif." Even top athletes get told who to play and when. Not many people have, or have ever had, as sweet a deal as Linus. I have several projects, as well as other non-geeky hobbies, that I scarcely have time for. I wish I could get paid to work on them. Heck, I'd settle for simply having more time for them without pay.
Constitutionally Correct
Yes, OSDL did have Caldera/SCO money. Caldera joined OSDL early on, and later let their membership expire sometime after the name change to SCO. So SCO has funded Linux kernel development projects through OSDL. Larry
I snorted gunk all over my monitor.
I hope they don't make Linus & Family move to Beaverton...
Unless I'm missing something, it seems like an obvious thing to do (and something that's done as standard in many other linked list implementations).
The conspiracy side of me thinks that this might be a preemptive move to try to keep Transmeta off the radar of SCO lawyers.
... but hey, you never know.
This is _pure_ paranoid speculation on my part
RFC2119
Nice to get slammed with "think before you post" by someone too dense to get the joke!
Huh? RedCarpet is not command-line based.
Engineering and the Ultimate
"NO Multiple Document Interfaces? Thats why photoshop is mainstream and not GIMP."
Are you aware that Photoshop having the MDI interface is actually a giant kludge dating back from porting it from a Mac? The Macintosh interface does not work like that. In fact, almost all developers are moving _away_ from MDI because it sucks so bad.
Photoshop is not popular _because_ of MDI, it's popular despite it. However, since that's now the standard, people have trouble thinking about how the easiest and most efficient way of working with their apps might be, and just complain because it isn't just like Photoshop. No it's not. It's better.
It also doesn't clutter your task bar if you use a decent one. My task bar has all GIMP windows grouped together in a single one, which I can click on to bring up a menu of GIMP windows.
So what if you have Photoshop files that GIMP can't handle? What does that have to do with usability? That has to do with _upgradability_, not usability.
Engineering and the Ultimate
this article...
Bleh!
Does this mean he's moving to Portland, Oregon?
According to NY times:
/. programmer is a promonent progammer!
Prominent Programmer Will Leave TransmetaProminent?
prominent ?? PROMINENT???
more like Legendary! . For Christ's sake!
Prominent my foot! Hell, every other
If that's not an understatement I dont' know what is!
Oh, and I have no idea what you're talking about with sound card setup, my sblive is always detected automatically, and has been since mandrake 9. If I change the sound card, during bootup it detects the hardware change, and changes the driver. I'm not sure about the more obscure sound cards, since I don't buy them.
Also, windows printer installation isn't as easy as you say; you can't just plugin the printer and have it just work. You still have to install drivers (well, I use HP printers and I have to do that, I don't know about other brands).
This Cringely quote (from this article) always struck me as strange:
Now I know why. In this post Linus said: Now I know why. Linus was working at transmeta because he was a god of the i386, not the god of Linux.All data is speech. All speech is Free.
Now that Transmeta are trying to move into a more corporate sphere
by this you really mean what i put in the subject. duh. Linus made huge contributions to Transmeta over the years; ask anyone who works there. No surprise that he wants to work on the kernel for real now.
I didn't read the OSDN charter, but could the move allow IBM, HP, etc. to provide legal support in case SCO sues Linus directly? They are OSDN members. Transmetas pockets are certainly not deep enough and Linus isn't filthy rich. Perhaps the offer was made now because SCO has not yet filed such a suit but now seems intent on it. I don't know, would switching jobs after the suit would have legal ramifications?
Somehow I don't think this is just any sabbatical.
Is one year off enough time for Linus to audit the kernel and replace any contentious code?
(I'm thinking that little $3 billion lawsuit that SCO has hanging over IBM...)
AlphaSys fantasizes about Linux stripping off the size 14 Mr Mackey underwear from AlphaSys inadequate boney sexless body. He see Linus peeling off those Mackey undergarments and making a comment; "Yah, I don't see your pee pee, is that a pubic hair or your weenie?"
Then AlphaSys takes 40 Viagra to make the Mister Tinkie stand out for Linus. Lovingly, Linus starts to.....scraaaaaaaaaaaaaaacth.
Hey, AlphaSys, Linus isn't a fucking fag like you.
Huh?
;)
Spending time writing software to troll people without having to put any effort into it *doesn't make you a loser*?
Looks like I'm in the wrong career
Linus, don't power out 2.6 too quick. But, congratulations on making Linux your full time job. A long overdue proof of Linux's popularity.
1. You suck.
2. Many people could not give a damn about Linux going "mainstream". If anything is going to bring about more "suckiness", that's it.
Every few months I decide to try Linux again (I use Win98SE now), because I know that I'm using an OS that will eventually be unsupported. I hope for something at least as good as Win 95, or maybe better like Win 98, and every time I walk away wondering "Why did I just try Linux again, didn't I learn my lesson last time?" I vainly try different distros, hoping one gets it right. Mandrake seems to be the closest for X/KDE. Debian seems to be the best if X is not involved.
/linux, so there would be /linux/bin, /linux/etc, /linux/proc, instead of a million things branching off the root directory.
/bin or /usr/bin directories? Each app should have its own directory for easy removal.. although "Program Files" is cumbersome, it is the right idea.. How about /apps or /prog? Speaking of easy removal, Add/Remove programs, (well, "Remove programs", because I never add with it) is a great concept. Either have the program self contained in its own directory, or if that's impossible, have a record kept of changes to the system, so that those changes can be undone later.
Here are my main beefs, some are with Linux, but most are with XFree86/KDE:
1) There seems to be a standard way to do drivers, as kernel patches.. but then no one seems to use it, either that, or it's way too complicated. Why do I need to load special video drivers (and others) just for running XFree86 or KDE? Shouldn't have those have already loaded as a kernel patch and be ready to go?
2) I really like the way Windows handles hardware. It automatically detects new hardware on boot, then you can choose to either configure it then, or wait until later and do it in the device manager. It would still be fine if I had to run an app to detect new hardware (as in Windows, Add New Hardware, where it searches), that would speed up the boot process. After I have a piece of hardware installed, I can change drivers, see if it has conflicts, etc.. and this is for almost every device in the system! If something is not working, it's easy to tell that, too. This should probably be a non-X app, as it should pertain only to the Linux kernel, true?
3) I wish compiling everything wasn't such a pain, but I guess this is really the fault of people not sticking to the ANSI C standard. I still can't get my Turtle Beach Montego sound card to work in Linux because the drivers won't compile. I enjoy how in Windows I have a precompiled set of files sitting on a CD that I can load by pointing them at an INF.. completely brainless, this is good.
4) All the system software applications should be under one directory, say,
5) Why is it that all apps decide they need to install in the
6) KDE freezes up constantly and hard locks my whole system. I've been told that this is a hardware problem. If so, why does Windows not crash out like this? I'd avoid KDE altogether as it seems bloated and slow, but it's the only way I'm not stuck in Windows 3.1 land, otherwise I don't get decent scrollbars, a task bar, application menu, quicklaunch, or desktop. I wish I could use some decent fonts, though. Importing Windows fonts only seems to do TTF, which is half of the fonts. Tried to turn off font smoothing, but there were two different font configuration boxes, only one allowed to disable smoothing.
7) Which brings me to my next gripe.. there isn't a set place for all configuration programs. Where is the Control Panel? Mac has it, Windows has it. I suspect that the system is built upon multiple layers that all expect their own configuration. It isn't just Linux and X, but its, Linux, X, KDE, and probably a few other things that I don't even know about running. Tried changing my screen resolution.. the app claimed it was changed, but reality was elsewhere. Also, config apps seem to expect 1024x768 or more. This seems fairly brain damaged. Stick with the "safe mode" standard of 6
1) printer setup utilities SUCK
Man! You aren't kidding!! When I got a new printer for my SuSE box, I had to PLUG IT IN, START MY PC, AND LOG IN!!!
It was horrible! Took me almost a full minute! So much for USB being fast...
....posted about DRM in CDs/DVDs than about Linus coming back to Linux.
I went to battle MC Escher but drew a blank
I plug in and out a printer, a hard drive, a camera, and a CD READ/WRITE on the front USB Port on my ME running eMachine without turning off or rebooting anything.
I could plug the CD into the back parallel port and one USB device into the back USB Port and only hot swap when I wanted to plug in the camera, but I'll probably just buy a USB Hub and not have to manually plug/unplug... but thats next month.
Wow. I've never before seen anybody list the things that Linux needs to go mainstream! This is certainly a turning-point for Linux. Programmers will flock to your side to implement your vision. Your comments will be written into the history books. I don't know why the 10s of 1000s of Linux developers haven't realised before this day; Linux would dominate the market if only we had a soundcard setup utility! Brilliant. You are truly the smartest person that ever lived.
It's nice to see that Linus is getting a bit more riled up about SCO now that SCO has started taking personal potshots at him. In a recent Cnet article:
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PGP Key ID 0xCB8FF658
As for being on the desktop, well, it will. It's only a matter of time.
No. I use Linux ~70% of the time for development. With a couple of XTerms and vi it cannot be beaten for writing C code. I have used it since Slackware 2.0.3x days. But I am absolutely certain of one thing; Linux is not going to make it on the desktop. At least not with GNOME or KDE. Those desktops are very shallow. There is ZERO integration. MS has COM, OLE, a clipboard that actually works, etc. Everything works together *enough* to use and built *integrated* desktop applications. Linux is not going to the desktop mainstream. Deal with it.
Go ahead and mod me down now.
E
Marxist evolution is just N generations away!
By the way, why the personal attack?
All the system software applications should be under one directory, say, /linux, so there would be /linux/bin, /linux/etc, /linux/proc, instead of a million things branching off the root directory.
/linux, real smart....
And this would simplify things how? Instead of having everything branching from root you have it all branching from
Because it's not about smart. It's about doing the work. That's why Linus is revered. It's not because he's smart. If anything, Linus is only a little above-average in the smarts department. What makes Linus special is that he gets things done. He doesn't lecture or boss people around. He just does it.
Because the "what Linux needs" post is both worthless and arrogant. Worthless because it achieves nothing. Arrogant because it presumes that people can't spot the bleeding obvious. Lots of people know what Linux needs. Strangely they also disagree on the specifics. So what matters is working code; nobody needs yet another list of "what Linux needs".
Short version: nobody likes a back seat driver.
>Linus is only a little above-average in the smarts department.
No, he's damn smart. How many people do you know that can write decent kernel code?
Cheers
Stor
"Yeah well there's a lot of stuff that should be, but isn't"
That what i said, I am not a moron. (And not native english)
100s of people. Literally.
As I said, I think Linus *is* smart, but he's not Tanenbaum smart, or Aho smart, or Sutherland smart. He's smart in that he's way smarter than I'll ever be, but he's not so smart that I'd go "wow, he is smart". There are very few people who are pure genius. Linus is more of a do-er than a think-er. That's not an insult. In a way, it's the best form of compliment.
I honestly don't think Linus would be offended if he read my post (not that he would). He's such a pragmatic personality - a quality that I deeply admire - that he would probably agree that he isn't a genius. He's simply somebody that gets off his butt and does the work. That's as rare a quality as genius.
PS: ever noticed that great computer scientists are referenced by their family name, but great open source developers are referenced by their first?
So do it. Stop posting worthless words, and write the code to solve the problems YOU see in linux.
I am writing code. You are the one telling everybody "what Linux needs".
Put your money where your mouth is, or shut your trap.
1) They load automatically for me.. you have to manually load them? The only drivers I've seen that require anything like that are the proprietary nvidia ones - just add them to your rc script for auto-loaded modules or the distribution equivalent.
2) Mandrake has something like that, but it's been a while since I've used it.
3) No idea, really - tell me the kernel version and throw me a link to the sound card driver source and I may have a better answer.
4) I disagree, really - that just changes things and I don't see the advanatage.
5) It's possible, but it breaks a lot of unix expectations, and it's a pain from the command line (all those binary directories to search, security hazards associated with that, etc). It's a package management issue. Gentoo with portage handles it reasonably well. RPM can do it somewhat, I believe. Debian should be ok too. If you can stick at least mainly to packaged apps (and for Gentoo, at least, there are quite a lot, and I've been pretty much able to except for some strange little developement tools like an assembly-oriented debugger) it should be ok.
6) You could see if it happens with other desktop environments, I suppose. I get X11 crashes occasionally too, and they're a pain.
7) KDE has a control panel. If you've not tried KDE 3.1, I recommend it. It runs ok on my pII 300 / 64 ram (but I usually use blackbox - it is a pretty low-spec box). Mandrake also has a control panel, which you may find useful.
8) Hmm. It doesn't really bother me, and Mac apps / especially Windows apps aren't always consistant by quite a long shot. KDE and Gnome apps tend to be fairly consistant.
9) Yes. Use kdm (or xdm). You can configure it to log you into X11 automatically when the computer starts. This is doable through Mandrake's control center.
10) MS-DOS is a pretty simple system. Kernel panics during boot make a fair deal of sense - I'd rather have a kernel panic than end up with damaged hardware or a corrupted filesystem because the OS was confused.
You probably want a rescue disk. The Mandrake cd may be used for this. So can most other linux cds you may have laying around. Just find a way to get a shell, and you're fine if you can fix it from the command line. If you want a graphical way, something like knoppix may be interesting, but I've not tried it.
No offense, but have you really looked at Mandrake much? When I used it last summer, there were *desktop icons* for things like the Mandrake control center, and new hardware was automatically detected on every boot.
Assuming that wasn't a troll, I hope that this helps you.
I don't know if you'll read this Nathan as it's a pretty old thread now but I do agree with you somewhat. There are certainly plenty of people he gets advice from (Al Viro springs to mind) when problems become really tough.
;) You'd need to be a pretty darn competant programmer.
;)
However I have been suprised by Linus' broad range of abilities inside and outside of Kernel coding. For instance, most of the time he has an uncanny ability to know when to keep his mouth shut and when to speak, an issue a lot of us have real problems with. Perhaps it's just his moderate personality shining through there but to me it shows a very strong competance.
Also designing stuff for Transmeta wouldn't have been a walk in the park
Perhaps we're splitting hairs. I just didn't think that calling him simply "above average" was accurate: he's *well* above average in my opinion
Cheers mate,
Stor
"Yeah well there's a lot of stuff that should be, but isn't"
Slashdot notifies me of replies with an email, so it doesn't matter how old the thread is.
I'm also impressed by his political skills. A great number of luminaries in computer science seem to have all the social graces of a bad fart. Linux, on the other hand, seems to get respect from nearly everyone. This is a skill in and of itself. I think it's not so much his moderate personality - he can be damn abrasive when he wants to be - as much as his strong emphasis on quality and his perceived fairness when making difficult decisions. Those are admirable qualities in a project leader.
I don't know exactly what he did for Transmeta but even to odds it wasn't chip design! It's more likely he worked on the code-morphing engine or had a role in testing x86 compatibility.
Well, as I said, I didn't mean to *insult* his intelligence. He's definitely smarter than the average bear. What I was getting at is that Linus isn't "smart" in the same way that Sutherland is smart or Thompson is smart. There's a special kind of genius required to think up new ideas or forge new paths in computer science. Linus "merely" built a POSIX compatible kernel; now admittedly that's quite an achievement but you might be surprised how many people can do that.
If you want me to be more blunt; I don't think you'll find Linus is remembered in the same way that Djikstra is remembered. Linus will have his place in the history books because he was a fair leader, a great coder, a focal point for free software development, but not because he was a brainiac.