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."

Comments

Funny

[KrispyKringle]

He's not stupid, but he really does come across as only interested in the technology. He admits it, of course, and far be it for me to hold that against someone. 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.

This isn't criticism. But I think to some degree, there are those who are ideological leaders--Lessig springs to mind; his philosophical and legal insight is incredible--and there are technological visionaries. But the two aren't necessarily the same.

Re:Funny

[kfg]

Which is why Linus allowed his arm to be twisted into releasing Linux under the GPL.

However little twisting it took you have to remember that it did take twisting.It wasn't his idea.

Moreover, what won him was a purely technological arguement. The GPL allowed generation of most code and the best code in the shortest time.That's all.

Without Linux BSD would almost surely be the dominant force in the Unix world, and many propriatary companies would prefer that it were.

History is, however, what history turned out to be. As it happens I think we're all the better for it. We have Linux under the GPl and BSD under the BSD license.

We have choice and the choice is ours. I rather think Linus likes it that way.

KFG

Linus is cool - Linux users aren't

[Anonymous Coward]

Linus is really cool. He is just a geek engineer interested in technology. This is _good news_.

However, I read over here that peolpe don't want to believe that Linus is only interested in the technology! They WANT to see only what they want to see: A HERO who will take down MS.

Linus is not that. He is an engineer. But people just want their hero... and then they get dissapointed when Linus adds bitkeeper or adds DRM to the kernel. Because these Linux users only see what they want to see.

Re:Linus is cool - Linux users aren't

[SaXisT4LiF]

But people just want their hero... and then they get dissapointed when Linus adds bitkeeper or adds DRM to the kernel. Because these Linux users only see what they want to see.

Possibly flamebait, but whatever...

I'm sorry, but the only thing linux users want to see is the source. If bitkeeper or DRM gets added to the kernel, it's completely within your right under the GPL to go into the source and remove it. That's the beauty of open source development.

People use Linux because (A) it works and (B) it gives them the assurance that if they want to change the way their system works they can.

End of line

Re:Mod parent up, mod moderator down

[Simonetta]

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

With all respect, this is bullshit!

The New York Times is the newspaper of record for the American empire. Words appear there in order to be read, by the citizens of the empire and its subjects.

They published it ... We're reading it.

The New York Times has never explained WHY they require a registration for reading from the net the articles that are available on every newstand and every library in the country. They just demand it.
Every demand from a corporate entity for personal information deserves an explanation of why this information is being collected and for what purposes it will be used. The fact that they are not charging for their web access only accentuates their need to be straightforward in regards to their demand for personal information from their readers.

(and yes, I do consider my name to be personal information, thank you)

Re:Look Man

[TheOldFart]

Ha! I guess if nothing else, this is a field I AM an expert on. My name above is what it is for a reason. See... I still have the drive, I still work long hours all night long but I do it because this is what keeps me going. I have no problems working with young engineers. They are mostly enthusiastic and that is mutually contagious. I have a special disdain for the marketing types who come and go like flies over a pile of shit. Those who don't have a clue what we produce but are responsible for selling it, transforming all you do into "numbers Wall Street will like" (completely disregarding the merits or what the people who will ultimately buy it want).

My love for technology is an alternative to how I see the world. A world no different than any other point in time. People still kill people because of religion and greed. What's the difference between the Taliban and those radicals Christian coalition types? In other words, I see the world as mostly utterly fucked with very few exceptions. When we specialize in certain aspects of science, we focus our attention into a different world away from the ugly reality out there.

Linus is an ideological leader no matter how you look at it. Even if he doesn't think that way or want it, he has no choice. In a funny way it reminds me of "Life of Brian". I can see him waking up one morning and opening the windows naked to a crowd of crazed followers clamoring for his words.

The problem with this crowd or any other is that there will always be those who want to use it for their own agendas and end up tainting the whole thing in the process (see "Fucked up world with exceptions" above).

What is even funnier is that we, more than any other group on the planet, control every aspect of everyone's life. The power we have as a group is greater than anything else. Nonetheless, we have no cohesion or goals. Just happy little shits doing whatever they tell us... A hear a lot of complain about jobs going out to India for instance. A recent interview with Scott McNeally was quite open (and extremely insulting in the process) about it. But what do we, as a group do? Sit with our collective thumbs stuck up our collective asses.

Blah... I'm mumbling...

Re:Downfall of MS

[solprovider]

All those Windows apps and arcane hardware devices everybody uses will magically vanquish within the next 12 months.

I did not say that all MSWindows PCs will disappear next year. I did not say that MS will disappear.

My belief is that the move away from MSOffice will hurt MS's profits very badly. With the accounting tricks MS uses, the loss of those profits will be enough to put the company in the red. The panic that MS is falling will increase the migration away from MS products, further hurting their revenues. And it continues until they disappear.

They will not disappear next year. The dividends are moving money from MS's accounts to Bill and Steve's pockets while helping keep the stock price up. But even after the dividends, they have more than $30,000,000,000. That is enough to keep the company alive for 2 years even if all revenues stopped, and the revenues will not stop next year. Hopefully MS can survive long enough (6 years) to fulfill its contract with the U.S. Army. Does declaring bankruptcy protect a company from the guys with guns? When their boss runs the bankruptcy court?

Other possibilities:
- Selling pieces of the company (assuming anybody wants them.)
- Finding a business model that does not depend on accounting tricks.
- Finding a business model that does not depend on controlling the standards.
- Finding a business model that does not depend on being a monopoly.
- Finding a business model that does not depend on having tons of cash.

Bill and Steve have never shown much ability running a business. They saw an opportunity, took advantage of it, and then ruthlessly defended their position. But every attempt to diversify their business has failed. Maybe the big change coming is that MS will hire a CEO or President who has some experience running a big business profitably.