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Linus on All Sorts of Stuff
Linux Times.Net writes "
Linus Torvalds
tells of some other programming venues than the Linux kernel, predicts a shadowy outcome for GNU/Hurd, gives some advice to anyone wanting to undertake a large software project and updates us on the latest in kernel development in this email interview by Preston St. Pierre. "
He can't really see into the future and say with any certainty that Linux is going to "win out" other any other operating system. There's no reason why Windows or a BSD variant won't become more entrenched. There's no reason why Linux won't go through a "shadowy fate" either, if we think about. There's no doubt that it's a nice niche for some applications in that it's got faster turnover and is more stable than other, more convential operating systems.
Nonetheless, the hardware support of even the latest Linux distributions is inferior to that of Windows or even Mac OS X, and it's difficult to see how this is going to change when manufacturers continue to make their drivers closed-source and binary so that they only work with one kernel version, one distro, one libc.
In a way, its immense flexibility is a bad thing. Open source is a nice thing, and has the potential to take over - just look at Firefox. But Linux is just too monolithic and slow-to-change to be easy to toss onto a new PC and get up and running with. There's a proliferation of different versions, all incompatible, making ease-of-use impossible to attain.
In summation, Linus is noble for releasing so much hard work to the public for all to enjoy. But unfortunately, not all of us are capable of enjoying it.
My thoughts exactly. 640kb should be enough for everyone.
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