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Interview with Linus Torvalds from NYT Magazine

Posted by michael on from the geeks-need-dates dept.

aelfric35 writes "David Diamond drills Linus on topics from filesharing (sharing is good) to SCO (trying to claim paternity on his child) to his rivalry with Bill Gates (doesn't care enough to be a nemesis) in next week's New York Times Magazine."

8 of 368 comments (clear)

  1. Here is the text... by AmigaAvenger · · Score: 5, Informative
    what is the purpose of having registration on the NYT site anyway?? here is the text...

    You gave Linux, the operating system, to the world free, in effect jump-starting the open-source movement. Now this previously obscure company, SCO Group, claims ownership of some of the code and threatens to close the door on open source and Linux. I suppose it's to be expected that when you send your offspring out into the world, you have to be prepared for your kid to run with a crowd you don't approve of.

    Oh, Linux has grown up, and it's running with a crowd that I certainly never expected, like I.B.M. and Hewlett-Packard. That's not the issue. SCO is claiming parenthood of that child and now wants to make money off the earnings of that child. Even though SCO has refused to undergo the technical equivalent of DNA testing, and even though my (and other people's) DNA is probably all over Linux.

    So does this issue matter to you personally?

    I've tried to stay away from distractions. But especially since they have started threatening to send invoices to Linux users, it may eventually escalate to the point where I have to start taking legal steps.

    Is file-sharing, which has the recording industry so up in arms, the ''dark side'' of open-source attitudes?

    Sharing is certainly not bad in itself. In open source, we feel strongly that to really do something well, you have to get a lot of people involved. What the recording industry is so worried about is obviously something totally different -- the ''sharing'' of stuff that isn't yours to share in the first place.

    O.K. So what are your views on sharing music files?

    I don't actually think about it much; I listen to the radio if I listen to music. What I do find interesting is how the file-sharing thing ends up changing how people think about computers and copyright law. Some of it is a bit scary: just the fact that your question equated sharing with something bad is a pretty scary statement in itself. What also bothers me is the apparent dishonesty of especially the R.I.A.A., claiming that file-sharing is destroying their business and that they are losing billions of dollars on it. There's been a number of studies done, and it looks like the major reason for the dip in CD sales ends up being lack of interest in the music produced. And let's face it -- how many boy bands can you try to sell before your revenues start dipping?

    We've been getting hit with a lot of viruses and worms lately. What's your idea for ending the attacks?

    When you have people who hook up these machines that weren't designed for the Internet, and they don't even want to know about all the intricacies of network security, what can you expect? We get what we have now: a system that can be brought down by a teenager with too much time on his hands. Should we blame the teenager? Sure, we can point the finger at him and say, ''Bad boy!'' and slap him for it. Will that actually fix anything? No. The next geeky kid frustrated about not getting a date on Saturday night will come along and do the same thing without really understanding the consequences. So either we should make it a law that all geeks have dates -- I'd have supported such a law when I was a teenager -- or the blame is really on the companies who sell and install the systems that are quite that fragile.

    Since you moved to Silicon Valley from Finland in 1997, how has the region's aggressive approach to money-making affected you?

    Oh, how I hate that question. I've actually found the image of Silicon Valley as a hotbed of money-grubbing tech people to be pretty false, but maybe that's because the people I hang out with are all really engineers. They came here because this is where the action is. You go out for dinner, and all the tables are filled with engineers talking about things that won't be available to ''normal people'' for a few years. If ever.

    People position you as the nemesis to Bill Gates. He started Microsoft and you started Lin

  2. Re:Funny by The+Kow · · Score: 2, Informative

    But it strikes me as funny that someone who really seems to be limited, by choice, to the technology, would be looked to as a ideological leader, as well.

    When did he get elected to ideological leader status? Don't you have to take a stand to be a leader? Maybe I'm not versed enough in my Linus-lore, but I don't recall him ever making a big push to be 'heard' on anything very ideological in nature.

    This is both a critique and a request for more information, mind you - I am fully aware of the possibility that I simply might not have heard of times when Linus was looked to in such a manner.

    --
    Moo
  3. It's voila by SysKoll · · Score: 3, Informative
    you just do it better and viola', world domination.

    It's voila, you insensitive clod! Viola is a music instrument. Or an admission you viola-te spelling.

    --

    --
    Mad science! Robots! Underwear! Cute girls! Full comic online! http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/

  4. Re:Look Man by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative


    This is the ultimate dilemma for many; ambition versus the mating/nesting instinct.

    I solved mine by marrying a girl who could sell what I could create.

    Who says engineering types and marketing types don't mix??

  5. Re:Look Man by Greg+Lindahl · · Score: 2, Informative

    You have the quote wrong:

    Under Capitalism, man exploits Man.

    Under Communism, it's the other way around.

    Man != man.

  6. Re:Downfall of MS by fredrik70 · · Score: 3, Informative

    um, probably not, MS will go the same way as IBM, maybe a bit further down since they do not have the service bit to fall back on as IBM did. MS will be much less imortant in the future, but not extinct. Heck, maybe they even turn over to be part of the 'Good Guys' just as IBM did!

    --
    if (!signature) { throw std::runtime_error("No sig!"); }
  7. Re:Ah, you have love Linus ... by arkanes · · Score: 2, Informative
    Well, if you're going to do serious Windows development, you have to spend money. I'd recommend the Intel compiler if you've got the 700 bucks - it's argument compatible with GCC, so you can just drop it in and your current build scripts (should) work.

    The main problem is that mingw32s API headers aren't up to date and in places are broken, and, at least in my experience, it can't handle the Microsoft-isms in the official SDK headers. Try the Borland C++ command line compiler, if you can.

    If these are NT based machines (maybe 9x too, I'm not sure), theres an API for recieveing file/directory change notifications, without polling.

    Also, real Windows development you need to compile & run on Windows - cross compiling doesn't really cut it except for trivial stuff - holds true for any cross platform development, really.

    Low level modem comm does suck ass, especially if it's not high enough level for you to use stuff like TAPI.

  8. Re:*sigh* by bukharin · · Score: 2, Informative

    When I see things like this [snip David Diamond's gushing question] I'm reminded how clueless 'journalists' are.

    Yeah, what would David Diamond know about Linus and Linux? After all, he only co-authored Linus's book