Slashdot Mirror
Linus Torvalds Moving to the Silicon Forest
Evilive writes "According to KATU News, Linus Torvalds and family will be moving to Portland, Oregon so he can oversee the Open Source Development Labs. Torvalds says he and his family will make the move after his children finish school next week. Sayeth Linus: 'The plan was to try to acclimatize and have time to grow webbed feet (although I'm told there are implants available) by moving during the summer.'"
It's common knowledge in the Northwest that Portland is the Silicon Forest because much of Intel's R&D and fabrication occurs in the Portland Metro area. Portland also has Xerox (was Tektronix printer division) and Tektronix.
Obviously Jello wasn't talking aout Portland Oregon. Portland is a very progressive, liberal town and I'm not sure when the last time I saw a "hick" around here was.
Assisted suicide? -- Portland
Gay marriage? -- Portland
Legalized marijuana? -- Portland
Yeah. Really intolerant hicks here.
His comments, however, fit some more remote places in the state - but what state isn't like that outside of its metropolitian centers?
Amen. I've had people try to talk me into moving elsewhere, but I love the average Portland weather. I love that we aren't wrapped up in professional sports. I love that we're typically progessive and open-minded. I love that we have more breweries than any other city in the world, more coffee shops than any other city and more book stores than any other city as well as more strip-clubs per-capita than any other city. I also love that we have great educational facilities like Reed College and the famous OHSU. I love that we're a short drive from the beach and skiing at Mt. Hood. We have great mass transit.
There are probably better places to live, but none feel as "right" to me as Portland and I don't think I'd ever move. The weather is predictable and winter is pretty much like summer, temperature wise. Most other cities don't have quite the mix that Portland does. They have one or two great things, but you have to sacrifice others. Not in Portland!
reply 1:
reply 2:
Nice travel-guide-related website: Lonely Planet
events calendar
Powell's history page [comment regarding my relationship with them through my excellent former employer deleted]
If that's not bookish enough, try Reed. "Reedy" is a fitting name for most of the students.
public gardens If you're at all interested in nice gardens to walk through, the International Rose Test Garden is a great place to walk around.
If you have more time, the Japanese Garden is pretty must the only garden outside Japan considered to be "real" (the Mt. Fuji-stand-in doesn't hurt, either)
At some point, if you drink alcohol, or even just eat, you might end up visiting one of these. They've converted a lot of old schools, etc. into pubs along with the usual locations.
You probably won't want to go out there if you don't have much time on your trip, but see if you can recognize this hotel from the picture. [It's this one, Slashdotters]
The Columbia River Highway runs east of Portland, and includes some nice scenery of Multnomah Falls and the Gorge area.
Out west is Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock.
Oh, tying almost everything in town is the MAX, the light rail service. Gues
Get off my launchpad!
Most of California is based on a semi-arid desert. So it's brown and dry most of the time. Even in San Francisco, where I live, you can see that in the hills around the bay. Now Portland, yes, you get more rain, but that's why it feels like a giant garden. The only minus I can say about Portland is that during the summer, humidity can be higher than in the Bay Area. But honestly, if I could trade places (and stay employed) with a person in Portland, I would do so instantly.
Ducks and other aquatic fowl which can still fly have webbed feet for aquatic propulsion.
Tux notwithstanding, real penguins have clawed feet (the better to walk on ice and rocks), as they swim with their wings.
www.eFax.com are spammers
No, I meant the Junior Parade, which is grade 8 and under. I live a few blocks from the parade route, and saw LOTS of. Much lower key - if one gets inspired, one can jump in and join the parade pretty much at will (which is what my son's preschool class did).
Another plus for Portland - we have an Air America affiliate.
And you don't have to pump your own gas.
Or pay sales tax.
And if you live in a Qwest area, you can get 1500/968 DSL for $50/month.
And it's a real hub for video technology companies.
My video compression blog
I live down in Eugene, but visit Portland quite often. OMSI is a great science center, with an IMAX theater and a large area for kids to play. There's a top-notch zoo and Children's museum.
It does have it's big city problems, however. Traffic can be pretty bad and I managed to get assaulted there once. Eugene has most of the big city amenities without the big city problems.
After my passport and birth certificate were stolen from my mailbox there, someone tried to use my passport as ID at a bank to cash a phony check. He fled, but left my passport there, so the cops came and had me go down to the bank to confirm that it wasn't really me who was trying to cash the bad check. The cop who took me down there said that he'd been a cop in various places, including Chicago, St. Louis, etc., and he swore that he'd never seen more white trash than in Portland.
Ironically... the perp used my identity to register a vehicle, so I received the title to a truck in the mail one day! Heh, I still have that. They also got a drivers license under my name, but was I allowed to see the picture of this person? HELL NO. Talk about protecting criminals and victimizing innocent people!
Anyway... I wish him luck, but pity him too.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
Breasts i'd imagine...
Other people have posted comments similar to yours. You just had fewer replies so I thought this would be a good place to post this.
Judging by your UID (which is really the only thing I have to go on besides your comment), I'd say you haven't been "around" the community that long. Believe it or not, Slashdot , although a Geek news site in general, used to post mostly news about Linux and the Linux community. Also, you might be interested to know, the Linux "community" was actually a "community" in the true sense of the word. People used to actually know each other and events that occured in members personal lives were discussed much like you might discuss things that happen in the lives of your family or friends or co-workers.
Over the years, the Slashdot user base has grown substantially and many users aren't familiar with the personal spirit that used to pervade typical discussions. Although this may not be "Stuff that matters" to you, it is still of interest to those of us that have followed Linux and Linus since the early years.
Ahem... Listen up.
s ubsidiary of TSMC)
Vancouver, WA(8 miles north of portland) is nearly always regarded as a distant suburb of Portland. So, with Portland and Vancouver combined, you have:
Intel
Xerox
Tektronix
Sharp
WaferTech(
Shin-Etsu Hondotai-America(subsidiary of Shin-Etsu Chemical, largest silicon wafer manufacturer in the world)
Kyocera
Fujitsu
LSI Logic
Linear
I'm sure I'm missing many others.
There is a reason we have the name 'Silicon Forest'.
You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
We're having a naked midnight bike ride. When given the choice the Association of Brewers holds its annual conference here because the members consider Portland the best beer city in the US. local wireless group has hundreds of free hotspots scattered about. Highest per capita rates of bookstores, movies screens and coffee houses in the US. Snow only every other year at the most. Easy to get out into the countryside when you need to be away from urban living.
There's more to it than this.
The weather is just toooooo dreary...
:)
He's a Finn, for heaven's sake. I think he'll manage somehow.
Anyway, I wish him a warm welcome to my home state. Some odd bits of advice on settling in:
* For tires and suspension work, go to Les Schwab.
* Try Black Tiger from Coffee People... in a milkshake.
* Cinema 21.
* The Rimsky-Korsakoffee House, on SE 12th just North of Belmont in Portland, for a quiet dessert with atmosphere. (And the Sylvia Beach Hotel in Newport for a holiday; same owner, different quirks.)
* Visit a McMennamin's hotel for lunch or dinner... walk around the place and check out the artwork. The beer's pretty good, too, but there's plenty that's better 'round here.
* Fareless Square.
* Don't swim in any river that Intel has named a chip for. Seriously. It's not their fault, but I mean it.
* Three Square Grill
* Local strawberries are in season right now.
Just holler if you need anything.
With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter. -- William Lloyd
Lots of stuff goes on in Portland, we're just too shy to toot our horns like that showoff California. Plus we are highly diversified, without single companies or industries dominating.
Lots of video companies have big divisions here, like Grass Valley, Sharp Labs, InFocus, FLIR, Planar Systems, Tektronix, PixelWorks. Intel, Fujitsu and all those chip companies do a lot of design and fabrication here. We're the athletic shoe capital of the world, with both Nike and Adidas America here. That means a lot of local ad agency work. And my neighborhood is positively infested with shoe designers. Really, there must be six shoe designers who live within five blocks of my house.
And if you're into knives, we're one of the knife manufacture capitals. Leatherman is based here, as are myriad others.
We don't have nearly the startup culture of California, though. People who live in Portland tend to be here for the lifestyle - we're one of the few places in the USA which has made an effective attempt to limit urban sprawl. We have a lot of dense neighborhoods with SIDEWALKS. Nothing like taking the kids for a stroll around the block, which might take two hours visiting all the neighbors. But the beach and the mountains are each only about 80 minutes away, and almost everywhere in the city is within a mile or so of a park.
Not a great place to strike it rich, but it's a wonderful place to balance doing interesting work and having a rich life outside of work.
My video compression blog
Linus is actually moving to Beaverton, a largish edge city that borders Portland on the West.
It's a pretty spread-out place. There's an old, kind of abbreviated downtown in the SW portion; mostly it's strip malls, industrial / office parks, and residential areas ranging from condo-racks to nice suburban tracts.
There are some very nice wilderness parks nestled in there too. The Metro planning board keeps strict urban growth boundaries, so you can find working farms just a few miles to the SW.
Some of the office parks and complexes do have a "Silicon Valley" flavor, but are unsurprisingly a lot smaller. (I once worked in Oracle's Redwood Shores HQ, which kind of sets a high standard.)
I work in the far NW corner of Beaverton, in an area that really should be its own town because it's so far from the Post Office and town hall.
Traffic is usually not too bad, at least compared to Silicon Valley. Mass transit consists of lots of busses and a spiffy light rail line that goes to downtown Portland and the airport.
Stefan Jones
Not true. Nike is headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon (just outside of Portland, a "suburb" if you will) and has been since it was founded. Phil Knight is a native...
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/31/nike.html
Let's hope that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space 'Cause there's bugger-all down here on Earth.
>Does that mean there will be significantly fewer articles about Transmeta?
Actually, he left Transmeta... over a year ago, in order to concentrate more on his Linux kernel work.
http://lwn.net/Articles/36577/-- tabris
-
Bet nobody with modpoints will read this.
* Visit a McMennamin's hotel for lunch or dinner...
But don't expect good service or clean silverware.
Before amending this, full disclosure: the McMenamin brothers are my uncles.
That out of the way...
In general the service is quite good, we go to a few of their places fairly often and the food always comes pretty fast. Of course, there are always isolated incidents, but don't let that discourage anyone from trying the restaurants.
Yes, welcome, Linus!!!
If you need some help in getting oriented or someone to show you around, send me an email.
Living in Portland is far better than in NoCal. NoCal has too many cars and bad smog.
Here's useful info:
Portland has the largest bookstore in the world.
Portland borders on the confluence of the Willamette River and the Columbia River, one of the largest rivers in the world.
One of the 7 WindSurfing Wonders of the World is in the Columbia River Gorge, on the eastern edge of the Portland metropolitan area.
Portland has one of the largest and most successful dealers in contemporary art in the world. The gallery has a funny name, but shows the work of over 1,100 artists.
Portland has the largest park inside a city in the world. The park has over 74 miles of wilderness hiking trails and 5,124 acres.
Portland is the home of Pink Martini, a band that writes multi-cultural songs. One of Pink Martini's songs was once one of the most popular songs in France. You can listen to the music video.
It's a 55 minute drive from downtown Portland to the ski areas. "World Class Skiing in Your Own Backyard."
The K-12 Linux Project, in Portland, is one of the more successful projects for giving Linux to average users, who in this case are students.
On the other hand: Q. Why do hippies come to Portland? A. Because there are no jobs.
Many people don't like the months of rain every year. They say Portland is the perfect place for slugs and ducks. (However, the rain cleans the air.) Those with the correct philosophical orientation call it Liquid Sunshine.
As a current resident of Portland, and a proponent of *nix (except SCO ;-) ) it is good to have Linus here.
However, it seems the government in Portland/Multnomah county hates all companies. It is rated as one of the worst places to start a company. We've lost most of our high tech jobs.
Geez, Intel is here and this is the place where the Pentium cpu's are designed. I mean there was a lot going on here ten years ago.
A 9% INCOME TAX is just f*cking ridiculus. Of course we have no sales tax; it doesn't make up for the stupid income tax. The government leaders here make it so difficult to have a business here. We've got major problems here in Portland.
So many people here have this dream of a great quality of life, and we do have a great one. But we've gone out of balance. It seems like, that if you have a business then the attitude is "you don't deserve profit and your'e lucky we let you stay".
If cities were operating systems, then Portland would be Microsoft Windows, and Seattle would be Linux! Quite ironic, actually.
Sorry to rant.
> Linus is actually moving to Beaverton, a largish edge city that borders Portland on the West.
Wrong. According to a knowledgeable person who does IT support for the local schools (hi Eric!), he registered his kids in the Riverview school district. You may have heard about it because they run Linux there -- the head IT guy there is one of the names behind the K-12 Linux project. They also host the PLUG monthly Linux clinics (I wonder if we can get him to show up at one.)
And Riverview school district is located in an unincorporated part of Multnomah county between Portland & Lake Oswego -- quite a few miles from Beaverton. I figure that from this location he'll be able to avoid travelling 26 when he needs to be in the office. (And having driven the highways in the Bay Area & in LA, in years past 26 was worse than either: it combines traffic as heavy as a freeway in either of those places with a large number of drivers who either have no skill coping with traffic this heavy/pissed at all of the new arrivals. However, now that there's fewer people commuting, it's gotten much better.)
Geoff
I think I see a trend here. Maybe for them it really would be easier to muzzle the entire internet than to produce p
Phoenix AZ has a 16,000+ acre park inside the city limits. (for you Europeans, AFAIK, it's about the size of the Republic of San Marino in Italy)