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Linus Interviewed
a9db0 writes "There is a somewhat low-content interview with Linus here in the Seattle Times about his move to Portland. It does have a couple of Linus classic one-liners."
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I wonder how many votes Linus will get in this US presidential election...
Treehugger? Treehugger... Treehugger!
I don't think the lawsuits have necessarily made a huge direct difference, but I do think that it has made a lot more people realize that maybe Microsoft wasn't the "American Dream" after all, but just another greedy company that might be better off with some competition. And that probably has opened a few doors.
I think Microsoft has a PR problem. Largely deservedly, I would say.
http://www.busyweather.com/
Once again, I would like to thank the article submitter (as well as the Slashdot editor) who posted this story for giving us NO background information on who this Linus guy is. Are we all expected to instantly recognize every Joe Schmoe that has an interview posted online?
Next time, a little background info would be helpful people!
A. Better design and actually caring about them. Having the guts to really fixing fundamental design mistakes, rather than trying to work around them.
Sunny
Be my Friend
It's only spelled "Linus."
It's pronounced "Luxury Yacht."
Here is an article with more detail about Torvald's move to Portland.
http://www.busyweather.com/
May we all realize this much some day.
Is there any way an AC can mod Linus + gajillion Insightful for that quote? If so, allow me.
Every time I read one of Linus' interviews I come away with the same impression...Linus sound like a really great guy! He sounds down-to-earth and practical. He doesn't sound greedy, manipulative or controlling. He sounds friendly and seems to have a great sense of humor. Basically, Linus sounds like a reverse image of Microsoft. Go Linu[s|x]!!!
Under the slashdot story which points to a Linus Torvalds interview there is an advertisement for Windows 2003 server and it's telling me that it's 17% cheaper to run!
Get your Unix fortune now!
But we got Jedi recognised as an official religion by writing it on the census paper.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2757067.stm
Maybe if you score out one of the existing candidates and write Linus on it instead...
Deleted
That said, people in the US have been brainwashed to pronouce the name "leye-nus" for over 50 years by the comic strip "Peanuts". I never knew there WAS any other way to pronouce that name until after I got into Linux and heard Linus pronounce his name.
I assume most Finnish people pronounce it the way he does.
It's just based on how you pronouce the name "Linus" by default.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
you must be new here. Linus has done some amazing things
Really? From what I understand, he merely started a now ~15 y/o approximate clone of a pre-existing OS that is still not ready for widespread adoption on desktop systems (despite what many would have you believe).
And yes, I use Linux.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
From Linus himself: http://www.paul.sladen.org/pronunciation/
I (as a Portlander) for one welcome our new Finish overlord.
-jim
Is that somehow his fault? Hell, read his original announcement on Usenet. He started it as a hobby. Now it runs on practically any architecture I've ever heard of, and then some. There are millions of people around the world developing for it. And one of the biggest corporations in the world sees it as competition.
I'd say that's pretty amazing.
Who doesn't like free music?
Me too. There's a touch of Douglas Adams about it... "The spaceship fleet hung in the air in precisely the way a ton of bricks doesn't."
Anti-GPL arguments tend to boil down to one issue--if the code were truly "free," then you ought to be able to do anything you want with it, including slipping the original authors a deuce and taking the code and making it proprietary.
The GPL isn't designed to protect the code, it's designed to protect the community that wrote the code.
Slashdot: Where people pretend to be twice as smart as they really are by behaving like children.
" ...whether or not he frequents Slashdot."
I do, but only for the goatse links.
Love,
Linus
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
source to backup claim?
#!/bin/sh
echo "there are indeed 2 million folks developing for linux"
there you go. i.. umm.. developed that source, so make it 2000001 folks.
I think you are dismissing things too easily. The fact that the stuff under
The stuff stored under $HOME is mostly data, not executable (except for scripts, which are easy to doublecheck). If I find out I have been hacked or virused, I just shrug, tar up
Viruses aren't a problem because they can only hit stuff in
Linus has moved to Portland, OR, which is a fine thing, and as others have noted, that puts him amusingly close to Redmond, WA.
I believe that this may provide a possible explanation for the recent eruption of a volcano (Mt. St. Helens) fairly close to the midpoint between Bill and Linus.
You're right. Let me write some basic info about Linus:
Linus Torvalds (born December 28, 1969) began the development of Linux, an operating system kernel, and today acts as the project coordinator. Inspired by the teaching system Minix (developed by Andrew Tanenbaum), he felt the need for a capable UNIX operating system that he could run on his home PC. Torvalds did the original development of the Linux kernel primarily in his own time and on his equipment. Torvalds was born in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, as the son of Nils and Anna Torvalds. Both of his parents were campus radicals at the University of Helsinki in the 1960s, his father a Communist who in the mid-1970s spent a year studying in Moscow. This caused embarrassment to Linus at the time since other children would tease him about his father's politics. His family belongs to the Swedish-speaking minority (roughly 6% of Finland's population). Torvalds was named after Linus Pauling. He attended the University of Helsinki from 1988 to 1996, graduating with a masters degree in computer science. Torvalds lived for many years in San Jose, California with his wife Tove (six-time Finnish national Karate champion), whom he first met in fall 1993, his cat Randi (short for Mithrandir, the Elvish name for Gandalf, a wizard in The Lord of the Rings), and his three daughters Patricia Miranda (born December 5, 1996), Daniela Yolanda (born April 16, 1998) and Celeste Amanda (born November 20, 2000). In June 2004, Linus purchased a home in Beaverton, Oregon and enrolled his children in school in that area. He worked for Transmeta Corporation from February 1997 until June 2003, and is now seconded to the Open Source Development Labs, a Beaverton, Oregon based software consortium. Linus and his family recently moved to Portland, Oregon in an effort to be closer to his employer. His personal mascot is a penguin nicknamed Tux, widely adopted by the Linux community as the mascot of Linux. Linus's law, a tenet inspired by Linus and coined by Eric S. Raymond in his paper The Cathedral and the Bazaar, is: "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow." A deep bug is one which is hard to find, and with many people looking for it, the hope (and so far most experience) is that no bug will be deep. Both men share an open source philosophy, which has been in part (and implicitly) based on this belief. Linus Torvalds Unlike many open source "evangelists", Torvalds keeps a low profile and generally refuses to comment on competing software products, such as Microsoft's commercially dominant Windows operating system. He is neutral enough to even have been criticized by the GNU project, specifically for having worked on proprietary software with Transmeta and for his use and alleged advocacy of Bitkeeper. Nevertheless, Torvalds has occasionally reacted with strong statements to what has been widely perceived as anti-Linux (and anti open source) FUD from proprietary software vendors like Microsoft or SCO. For example, in one e-mail reaction to statements by Microsoft Senior-VP Craig Mundie, who criticized open source software for being non innovative and destructive to intellectual property, Torvalds wrote: "I wonder if Mundie has ever heard of Sir Isaac Newton? He's not only famous for having set the foundations for classical mechanics (and the original theory of gravitation, which is what most people remember, along with the apple tree story), but he is also famous for how he acknowledged the achievement: If I have been able to see further, it was only because I stood on the shoulders of giants ... I'd rather listen to Newton than to Mundie. He may have been dead for almost
three hundred years, but despit
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
Maybe Linus is saying that as viruses start attacking Linux, he's willing to radically rethink
Correct at that point. It's not just permissions or any other one thing. When you have to react you try to get at the root of the problem as much as possible.
One advantage of Unix is that it is inherently multi-user. If it's just me on the computer, why should I be limited to just one identity? Seems I should be able to run a browser under its own identity and if it catches viruses and whatever, all it can mess up is itself. Adds a wee bit of a hassle in that I have an extra step anytime I want to lift something out of the browser, but has the distinct advantage that I'm in control, not the browser.
When Linux gets attacked, you get responses from several levels. You do not have to wait for official patches. If the official sources are still asleep you'll find something at least marginally effective on Slashdot. Some of the early stuff may do more damage than good, but in the heat of battle you are considerably better off if you can choose your own optimum in the space between "must do something now" and "best to wait for the official patch". The situation may resemble the Keystone Kops, but it is effective and there is a high probability that at the end something does actually get fixed instead of some kinda-sorta workaround.
Some folks still think that *nix is inherently virus proof
Technically, *nix is vulnerable, but there will be enough response and effective enough response that the malware won't get much of anywhere. A simple count of vulnerabilities is a poor indicator of the success of exploiting those vulnerabilities.
I can't remember exactly but some time between 95 and 97 I was installing Linux and I was a true newbie to *nix back then. I had some major prob with the install and I wrought Linus a rather scathing Email. A few weeks later I got the best bitch slap of my life.
/..
I wish I saved that Email is was so elegant and worded so perfectly that I became a Linux / Linus Zealot (it was not a nice responce from Linus).
This interview just reminds me that I need to be more Linus like in my day to day life (I'm a bit hot tempered) and really think when I talk, or act Email, or post to
I'd Tell you all my secrets but I lie about my past
Correction: He created an implementation of an existing standard, which already had several other implementations, and took it to a new architecture, improved it (with lots of others), expanding it's abilities and hardware support.
"merely" indeed, troll.
"Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." - A.B.
Hey there!
If Linux isn't ready for the desktop, how did my otherwise computer illiterate ex-girlfriend start using it for web/email/AIM/wordproc? How do people who come over my house know how to use the 'weird' machine? How is it a more pleasant desktop experience than XP for most people who try it out on a managed (read: not the 'everything installed' default system)?
Linux is ABSOLUTELY ready for the desktop, but like any new OS, you need someone who knows what they're doing to show it (and tailor it) to each individual newbie. Average folks weren't BORN with the Windows way of doing things already in their heads. The lack of Linux on the desktop is the result of several factors:
1. Not large enough expert userbase to provide 'neighborhood support'.
2. No marketing to the home market.
3. Total disregard/denial of desktop viability by admins and managers afraid of an OS that isn't their current bread-and-butter.
4. People like you.
In any case, Linus is as responsible for Linux GUI usability as You or I, that being 'not at all'. You can't blame a kernel hacker for the faults of the designers of the windowing environment, toolkits, and desktops.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
The success of Linux has a lot to do with Linus Torvalds absolute lack of pride, except when it came to the code in his kernel tree. No pride, except where others have - by thier own opinions and devices - granted him authority.
Linus has never attempted to exert authority over anything related to Linux except the code tree that he maintains. Dammit, he is even willing to listen to others when it comes to that.
IOW, he has lead by example, never by coersion or force. He has made tough choices (the VM wars is an example) and recanted when necessary. He has settled flame wars, turned his back on very powerful alies (namely, IB-fucking-M, in the aforementioned VM wars), and still had the humilty to change his mind - when presented compelling evidence why he should change his mind - and continue on like he was right all along to listen to others.
That suspiciously smakcs of democracy. That, IMVHO, is someone to look up to.
I pray that God continues to be with him.
Soko
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
Linux has been named after Linus Torvalds.
:)
Linus Torvalds has been named after Linus Carl Pauling.
Now, besides pronunciation issues (you should ask Pauling's family how they called their late wonderboy!), it's enlightening to observe:
Linus Carl Pauling (LCP) is the only man who won two Nobel prizes in two totally unrelated fields: chemistry (1954 - discoveries on chemical bond's nature) and peace (1962 - battle to ban nuclear experiments). He also won the Lenin prize and the Gandhi prize.
LCP died in San Francisco in 1994. The same year Linus released Linux 1.0.
LCP directed (since 1936) the "Gates and Crellin" labs, in Pasadena, CA. Not too distant from where Linus first went working in US (Transmeta). And the name of the labs... Ah, the irony.
LCP was born in... yep, you got that... Portland, OR, 1901. Where our kernel benevolent dictator lives right now.
Isn't Karma doing wonders?