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."

Comments

Election 2004

[MikeCapone]

I wonder how many votes Linus will get in this US presidential election...

Re:Election 2004

[JThundley]

Linus would never get the numbers as long as there's a CowboyNeal option!

Re:Election 2004

[nofx_3]

Even better yet is some good old fashioned Gov. VS Gov. deathmatch wrestling in The Running Man (A terrifc movie for those who haven't seen it). There is actually a scene where Schwarzenegger (Gov CA) and Jesse Ventura (Gov MN) duke it out. They can also be seen together in Predator. These are some classic political moments.

-kaplanfx

But, how do you really feel?

[erick99]

He doesn't beat around the bush about Microsoft.

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.

Horrible Writeup

[Roofus]

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!

Highlights

[shirai]

For those who don't want to RTFA, here are some highlights from Linus:

• Now, many of the volunteers end up getting paid, and maybe they can't be called "volunteers" any more if somebody ends up being silly enough to pay them for something they'd have done for free anyway.
  
  
• In real open source, you have the right to control your own destiny. When you play with it, mommy isn't going to tell you what you can and can not do, and not going to take your toy away from you when she thinks you are done. You're an adult, and you can make your own choices. That is when you get engaged.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Q. How can Linux avoid the security problems that have affected Windows?
  
  A. Better design and actually caring about them. Having the guts to really fixing fundamental design mistakes, rather than trying to work around them.
  

Re:Highlights

[GoofyBoy]

The American Dream is for me and my childern to have a better life.

I wouldn't go as far as to say that it includes other people. Do you dream of what some guy across the city childern future is?

To say that everyone should have a better future isn't the American Dream, its more, IMHO, of the Communist Dream.

More detail

[erick99]

Here is an article with more detail about Torvald's move to Portland.

Low content? Huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

...but I'm very happy doing it, and I feel I do something meaningful. What more can I ask for?

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.

Re:Low content? Huh?

[einhverfr]

Is there any way an AC can mod Linus + gajillion Insightful for that quote?

Are you *really* Alan Cox?

Sounds like a great guy!

[SSonnentag]

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]!!!

Funny (at least to me)...

[ImaLamer]

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!

Obligatory LOTR Reference

[Nova Express]

Actually. Linus had to move to Portland in order to get closer to Redmond. Only in the place it was forged can he destroy the One OS, and liberate the free peoples from the shadow of the Dark Lord...

Re:Proneenciation?

[JambisJubilee]

From Linus himself: http://www.paul.sladen.org/pronunciation/

Re:Portland

[j1m 5n0w]

From the article:

Q. Why did you choose to live in Portland, and what's your impression so far of the Northwest? One person told me you moved there because it looks like Finland. Is that true?

A. Well, the Northwest is certainly more like Finland in the sense that California is not like Finland.

But, no, I don't think that was the reason. Although part of it was definitely that we thought that Portland was more "livable," being smaller and less busy than Silicon Valley. Whether that is because I grew up in Finland, I don't know.

And being from Finland, the horror tales of constant rain didn't scare me as much as they do the native Californians.

I (as a Portlander) for one welcome our new Finish overlord.

-jim

Re:I find this quote more interesting

[GreyWolf3000]

Your comparison is incorrect. The GPL prevents you from taking the code and leaving the community with it, not restricting your use while being "part of it."

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.

Re:They missed the most important question...

[grcumb]

" ...whether or not he frequents Slashdot."

I do, but only for the goatse links.

Love,

Linus

Some background

[Pan T. Hose]

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.

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

some time between 95-97 I got the best bitch slap

[adaminnj]

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 /..

The Karma of it all...

[syylk]

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? :)