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Interview with Linus Torvalds from NYT Magazine

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."

15 of 368 comments (clear)

  1. i knew it by b17bmbr · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect.

    actually, he is right. you don't start out with the goal of destroying anyone. you just do it better and viola', world domination. of course that doesn't apply to microsoft. they didn't do it better, just marketed it better.

    --
    My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
  2. Re:Here is the text... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I've notified NYT that you've posted their copyrighted works illegally. I'm sure ./ will have to remove your post after they receive a cease and desist order. The registration is in place to protect the NYT's property, not for you to smile at while you circumvent it.

  3. Re:Funny by kfg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I thought it was pretty well understood that RMS is the "Free Software" ideological leader ( who as it happens is also a technological visionary ), ESR is the "Open Source(tm)" spokesperson for pragmatism (and also a technological visionary), and that Linus' rallying cry is, was and likely always shall be:

    "Show me the code."

    To the extent that he is the "ideological" leader of anyone I know it's always for his basic folksy refusal to be anyone's ideological leader. We like him. We don't "follow" him.

    Did I miss a meeting or a memo or something?

    KFG

  4. Look Man by Greyfox · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Technology is a fickle mistress. The minute you lose your focus on it, it starts to leave you. Most people just take what they want from it (A lot of money, usually) and then move on to focus on other things. I see a lot of aging programmers with families, content to do the least they can do without getting fired, until such time as their skills are no longer marketable.

    Some people want more from technology than a one night stand, more than the brief two or three year period where youthful enthusiasm overcomes the need for comfort in a lonely world. Sure the people who choose that road will mostly die cold and alone in a gutter somewhere, but by god they'll have ridden the lady technology for all she was worth! And, ultimately, isn't that as valid a path as anything else you could choose?

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

    1. Re:Look Man by kfg · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "I see a lot of aging programmers with families, content to do the least they can do without getting fired, until such time as their skills are no longer marketable."

      To be at least somewhat fair to at least some of these aging programers they have been taught to act like this by the companies they work for.

      Remember, most of older guys got into it for technology and the joy of it. There was no money in particular "back in the day." If you didn't do it for the love it there was no reason to do it all.

      Get kicked around, treated like shit, turned into a code monkey and generally be made to understand you're a disposable cog in the machine and it's easy to go through the motions, take the checks as long as they last and cover your own ass.

      As they say, no one else will.

      Most of these guys had young wives, young children and young mortgages before they learned the score and then got stuck.

      There are a few of us who have decided it's better to walk the razor's edge, and there is often a price to pay. Fabian Pascal even has trouble just writing and talking about technology these days, let alone getting "a good job" because of his absolute dedication to the technology, rather than buzzword compliant commercial products. RMS is, well. . .RMS. Thompson, Ritchie, Stroustop et al have given us Plan 9. . .and nobody seems to care.

      It ain't easy being gree. . .er, a geek.

      Although it isn't exactly the path I've chosen for myself I'm not inclined to over criticise those older guys just trying to make it to retirement in one piece.

      KFG

  5. Re:Here is the text... by Bored+Huge+Krill · · Score: 5, Insightful
    can somebody please explain to me why this was modded down? The post makes a perfectly correct, and fair point. I don't see any redundancy in pointing it out *each* and *every* time somebody pulls this crap.

    Please, people, you're giving us a bad name. I wince every time I hear somebody say something like "Linux people don't respect copyrights". I do. Please don't give anybody reasons to think otherwise. Posting copyrighted material here just because "registrations suck" is utterly, completely, inexcusable, and you should be ashamed of yourself if you think it's ok

    Krill

  6. Mod parent up, mod moderator down by jerryasher · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The registration is there because the NYTimes wants it there. The copyright is theirs.

    The GPL depends on copyright.

    Don't infringe on copyright. Fair use is not the reposting of the entire article, especially when the registration makes it plain the NYTimes does not want it reposted.

    And what is with the moderators modding that down?

    1. Re:Mod parent up, mod moderator down by Bored+Huge+Krill · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Wow.. your ability to mix concepts is truly frightening. Ford sells cars. You must pay Ford to purchase a car. To take a car and deny Ford the compensation is a crime. NYT sells newspapers. You can either purchase a paper for 25 cents (or whatever their daily costs) in order to personally dispose of your copy, or you can read a shared copy of it in a library for free. NEITHER of these mediums require a registration, nor should they. The library is not guilty of stealing (or conversion) by making a copy of the newspaper available for all readers. If you take the NYT article and pass it off as your own work, *THAT* is stealing. Re-posting is not (think library). No one has the right to demand your personal information as recompense for a service or product.

      bullshit. They have the right to ask whatever they want in return for your being able to read that which they produce at a non-zero cost.

      You have the right to refuse to accept their terms, should you so choose.

      You absolutely, positively, definitely, do not have the right to refuse their terms but think it is ok to read it anyway

      Krill

  7. Re:Linus has a great bottom line by EvilTwinSkippy · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Sages do not display themselves, therefore they are illuminated.
    They do not define themselves, therefore they are distinguished.
    They do not make claims, therefore they are credited.
    They do not boast, therefore they advance.
    Since, indeed, they do not compete, the world cannot compete with them.

    Loa Tsu, Chapter 22, The Tao Te Ching
    --
    "Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
    --Dr.W.Edwards Deming
  8. Re:Microsoft/Technology... by code_echelon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "People over-simplify and say .NET is Java, for example. It's really not - it's much more. But it's not a completely unique idea."

    Please explain how .NET is much more than Java. As a programmer they are two different architectures and .NET is different than Java, the statement .NET is more or better is false and quite honestly comes from asking a pointless question that has no relevance. They are different and both have different advantages over the other.

    "What gets me is that this guy has the sheer _balls_ to write a Unix clone"

    Linux is definately more than a UNIX clone and has shown to be so in the last few years. Linus, including others, also wrote much of the code from scratch. Most clones are direct copies of the original. Tell all the distros out there that there nothing more than Unix clones and that all there work has been for nothing as it is nothing but a Unix clone.

    Lastly he never said they were incomptent or that they were stupid, he said that he was not interested in what they are currently working on. He works with the Linux Kernel and has not set out to destroy Microsoft, he has no need to be interested in what they are doing. Frankly most people are tired of hearing about M$, the majority of the news you here about them is how they are behind in security updates and new viruses are out using vulnerabilitis in the OS that a twelve year old learned to exploit before they did.

  9. Re:Linus to World: by wasabii · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You forget though, he wrote a unix clone FROM SCRATCH! Think of the innovative things inside Linux and the Unix world. Massive effecient clustering. Multiple types of clustering. 4 different schedulers for the kernel. Heck, just look at OpenMosix!

    Linux is a hot bed of new ideas and technology. But, being open, it tends to attact that.

  10. EXACTLY! by 0x0d0a · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The solution is not to steal links, not to screw over users, but simply to *disallow links to sites that require registration*. It's really simple. Slashdot editors do that as a matter of policy, with a *single* exception -- the NYT and NYT-related resources. The rationale is that they started linking to the NYT before their "no registration" policy came into place. I could never figure that out, and find it incredibly frusterating. I'd like to see a poll -- "Should we allow NYT links?" without a CowboyNeal option.

  11. Re:Here is the text... by mcrbids · · Score: 4, Insightful

    what is the purpose of having registration on the NYT site anyway??

    By requiring a login/pw, NYT gets a "copyright protection device" and therefore gives them the additional weight of the DMCA against anybody who copies their material.

    You sir, are in fact of law, providing a "Copyright Protection Circumvention Device" actionable under the DMCA by posting this on /. - did you think of that?

    --
    I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
  12. Re:Downfall of MS by Spackler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Bill and Steve have never shown much ability running a business.

    Ummm, wow. Dude, I'm not crazy about them either. However, if you think that becoming the richest guy in America, and your company has 40 Billion in the bank indicates someone without "ability running a business", you are an idiot. You don't have to like him, and you don't have to like his tactics. However, the end results are EXACTLY what running a business is about. Grow up.

  13. Re:Downfall of MS by snilloc · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I've sampled OOo in it's 1.x and 1.1pre versions, and I have to say I'm disappointed.

    It doesn't even perform as well as MSOffice 97. I tried to make some charts with the Spreadsheet program and found it totally inadequate for my needs. I was originally looking for a free alternative to Office97 (the version I happen to own). I find the Excel97 graphics to be pretty shitty, but OOo's were worse, and less customizable. Playing with the defaults for 15 minutes in Excel got me reasonably close to what I want. OOo just can't do it.

    Oh yeah, and It's much slower.

    OOo probably does a lot of stuff well, but until I can make a kick-ass presentation from its components like I can with MS, OOo won't fly in Big Offices everywhere.

    (Does anybody know of a free program or suite that can make good charts? Something along the lines of Harvard Graphics98 for windows would be super, but I haven't even found anything as good as Office 97.)