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Linux Guru Alan Cox Takes A Year Off

Posted by timothy on from the hit-by-the-year-off-bus dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Linux guru Alan Cox is taking a year off from RedHat and kernel development to get his MBA. For years, Alan Cox has maintained the extremely stable 2.2 Linux kernel, and more or less been Linux creator Linus Torvalds' right hand man. Now it sounds like the 2.2 kernel is up for grabs to someone who is 'good at refusing patches and being ignored'..."

14 of 403 comments (clear)

  1. Wow! by stratjakt · · Score: -1, Troll

    Once SCO wins this lawsuit and everyone has to roll back to the 2.2 kernel, this will be a much bigger deal. You're going to need someone who can handle the stress, because 2.2 will once again become the current codebase. I'd imagine Linus would just take it over again.

    Hmm.. There's a thought. Maybe they know more about the legitimacy of the SCO case than they're letting on, perhaps he's stepping aside so Linus can move back in.

    Anyways, can't trust any of them if they aren't on the payroll. Eventually IBM will find a way to "own" linux, whether they buy it from SCO or, hell, they could just take it. What are ya gonna do about it, they're IBM.

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
    1. Re:Wow! by stratjakt · · Score: 0, Troll

      Ya think? Or is it that slashbots just cant handle another opinion.

      Yeah, conspiracy theories about the gumment and microsoft in league with the MPAA are all fine and good, but god forbid anyone cast a doubtful eye on the saints of the linux kernel.

      I have no doubt that many contributors would have no problem dumping proprietary code on Linus for inclusion, if for no other reason than to see their name in the source tarballs to stroke their own egos.

      Pull your head out of the sand and look around.

      --
      I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  2. Suggestion by AmoebafromSweden · · Score: 0, Troll

    Why dont you Americans vote for Alan Cox's MBA as a Governor of california.

  3. For a second I read... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    he was taking a year off to get an MCSE!!!

  4. Re:Naww!!! by gazbo · · Score: -1, Troll
    Slightly off-topic, but how come all of the Linux kernels are even numbers (as in 2.2, 2.4 and soon 2.6)? I've never seen an odd digit at the end.


    Is this a bug/feature in the "BitTorrent" source control system that I hear Linux uses?

  5. Re:A proposition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Awww aren't geeks so cute.

    Of course I'll marry you.

    -Melissa

  6. Re:Taking Over by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    You're an idiot.

  7. Anal Cox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    to be precise.

  8. MBA is for pussies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    The perfect thing to do for a kernel fag.

  9. I know this is supposed to be funny by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    But Word actually is the most useful document exchange format today, with so many tools being able to read and write it (even on Linux). Exchanging documents in Word format between users of, say, WordPerfect and Openoffice works much better than RTF or any other alternative.

    1. Re:I know this is supposed to be funny by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
      No, Word is the worst possible exchange format. It is proprietary to one corporation, it is a vector for script-based viruses, the tools that read it (other than Microsoft's products) cannot do so reliabily and predictably, and much of the world's population cannot and should not be expected to afford the MS Office software.

      Now this sounds pretty well-rehearsed. When will people start realizing that there are free tools to handle Word format, more and better tools than for any other "rich text" format.

      Plain text is nice for single paragraphs. Beyond that, you'll end up spending far too much time fiddling around to make a table line up, or restore some headings and simple formatting.

      PDF is basically write-only (please don't mention KWord's poor excuse for a PDF importer).

      So, like it or not, Word is the format of choice even in the free-software-world (maybe even more so than in the Microsoft world, where they have to worry about viruses).

    2. Re:I know this is supposed to be funny by Axe · · Score: 0, Troll
      Non-trivial documents should be done in LaTeX or Docbook, anyway, because they are much more robust and capable than Word.

      I am not a big MS Office fan, but it seems to me that you do not know Word capabilities. LaTeX and friends do not even come close. Yes, typesetting in LaTEx rules, and I still write scientific publications in it. For most of the daily routine work LaTeX suck rocks, with ugly slurping sound. Even when used with a WYSIWYG shell a-la Scientific WOrkplace (and yes - I can write Latex in EMACS without a manual)

      --
      <^>_<(ô ô)>_<^>
  10. BitTorrent is NOT a source control system by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    You're thinking of CSV. BitTorrent is a program Linux users use to share MP3s and DivX rips of anime flicks.

  11. Re:MBA?? AMERICA CENTRIC AGAIN!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    SLASHDOT did it again! Again I must tell you that you are AMERICA CENTRIC!!! WHAT THE FUCK DOES MBA MEAN???? Plain English please!

    Higher education really isn't your forte, is it?