KernelTrap Interview With Rusty Russell

Jeremy Andrews writes "KernelTrap has interviewed Rusty Russell, a humorous and productive contributer to Linux Kernel development. Author of ipchains, netfilter/iptables, futexes, per-cpu counters, hot pluggable CPU support, and the new in-kernel module loading code, Rusty's efforts have had a significant impact on the upcoming 2.6 kernel. For a humorous sample of Rusty's wit, one only needs to look at his email signature which reads, 'Anyone who quotes me in their sig is an idiot. -- Rusty Russell.'" Rusty is a great guy, and this is a worthwhile read.

Comments

Plagarist!

[Anonymous Coward]

Author of ipchains, netfilter/iptables, futexes, per-cpu counters, hot pluggable CPU support, and the new in-kernel module loading code

We all know SCO/Caldera did that!

... and the most important thing about Rusty

[Dan Aloni]

Leader of the Kstrdup Core Team!

diff -urpN --exclude TAGS -X
+/home/rusty/devel/kernel/kernel-patches/curre nt-dontdiff --minimal
+linux-2.6.0-test5-bk2/MAINTAINERS
+wo rking-2.6.0-test5-bk2-modules_txt_kconfig1/MAINTAI NERS
--- linux-2.6.0-test5-bk2/MAINTAINERS 2003-09-09 10:34:22.000000000 +1000
+++ working-2.6.0-test5-bk2-modules_txt_kconfig1/MAINT AINERS 2003-09-12
+14:15:42.000000000 +1000
@@ -1102,6 +1102,13 @@ W: http://nfs.sourceforge.net/
W: http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~neilb/patches/linux-d evel/
S: Maintained

+KSTRDUP
+P: Kstrdup Core Team
+M: kstrdup-core@ozlabs.org
+L: kstrdup@linux.kernel.org
+W: http://kstrdup.sourceforge.net/
+S: Supported
+
LANMEDIA WAN CARD DRIVER
P: Andrew Stanley-Jones
M: asj@lanmedia.com

Rusty

[Timesprout]

JA: Digging through old lkml archives, I see that your first name is Paul. Is Rusty a nickname?

no I was left out in the rain as a child

Re:Hot pluggable CPU support

[stratjakt]

Yuk yuk yuk..

We work with these things all the time. You can yank CPUs while its running and it won't even hiccup. You can open the side of the case and take a whiz in it, and the machine will keep chugging. Cool stuff.

They apparently have permission to modify Windows source to make that stuff work, but linux support would be nice.

Re:Confess now, was it you?

[grub]

Found it.

I am leet. (Score:-1, Troll)
by CmdrTaco (1) on Thursday February 18, @11:28AM (#000012)

Ph34r me, punka55es. I am leet and will go medieval on j00r
a5535 if you fux0r wiff m3.

Taco

--
"Hacking Linux is cool."
-Rustee Rustle

The Key

[japhmi]

JA: When I interviewed Andrew Morton I definitely got the feeling that you've impressed at least him. :)

Rusty Russell: That's such an amazing compliment, because I aspire be more like Andrew.

That's what makes a good community, people who inspire, impress and encourage each-other. I've noticed that the 'big name' hackers tend to be ones who want to inspire people, not shoot them down.

personal highlights

[0x12d3]

I wrote lots of little things here and there: an example is the compressed loopback module I wrote as a throwaway project in 1999. I found out recently that it's the basis of Knoppix, which is an incredibly impressive project. I could never have done that: is that cool or what?

Impressive little "throwaway project"!!

...Right in the spirit in which he closed the interview:

JA: Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Rusty Russell: I love that noone needs my permission to take my code and do something cool with it, and someone else can do the same with that code. I love that an "end user" is usually only a few hours work away from being an active documenter, bugreporter, web-mistress or coder in most projects.

As a result, I despise anything which artificially raises barriers to entry for programmers and users. Everything from stupid software patents, to bad user interfaces, cabalesque knowledge and crummy code. These quotes highlighted the interview for me but the whole thing was great.