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Torvalds Dubbed Most Influential Executive of 2004
quamaretto writes "CRN has named Linus Torvalds the most influential executive of 2004, in the magazine's feature list of the top 25 executives of the year. For perspective, he is followed by Sam Palmisano of IBM and Steve Balmer of Microsoft. The coverage of Torvalds is 5 pages, including pictures, a written article, and a lot of interview material. Topics are business centric, including SCO, OSDL, and Torvald's personality in development and management."
I think it's ironic that a normal guy who doesn't have millions in the bank (as far as I know of course, please prove me wrong if neccesary) is seen as more influental than those IBM and MS bigshots.
:)
Funny
This is the sig that says NI (again)
What influence? He didn't create an Open Source movement. He founded no companies and the official kernel is used only as a guideline for distros. On his own, Linux would not have become the corporate success that it is on its way to becomming, that is thanks to IBM, Suse, Red Hat et al. If someone doesn't like what he does, they create their own patchset. So what influence does Linus have. He's said that binary drivers are wrong, but that hasn't stopped anyone from asking for them and using them, except those that already agreeded with him, so where is this influence?
Don't get me wrong, I have respect for what hes done and that hes been able to do it, its far more then I can ever see myself being able to do and he deserves every praise for that, but most influencial executive? Thats really streching it.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
The point is that, as a single individual, he has astounding control over that one thing: Linux. And that one thing, Linux, has an astounding amount of influence in the world right now.
Linux is essential to IBM's current marketing strategy. That means Linus has influence on IBM's marketing and marketshare. Linux is MicroSoft's top threat. That mean's Linus is influential in the competing with one of the top companies in the world.
Cities and countries are talking about switching over to Linux (and I don't mean just open-source software in general). That mean's Linus is influential with many governments.
Novell has a lot riding on Linux. That mean's Linus is influential with the future of Novell. RedHat, Apache, MySQL, KDE, Mandrake, and many other organizations and communities have their intrests tightly tied with Linux's results. That means Linus is influential with those organizations.
Groups like Debian base some of their decisions on what does and does not go into Linus's kernel tree, which means Linus is influential with everyone who is a part of those groups.
Although his influence in any one place is small, Linus has a very large influence overall.
Niche. Niche. Niche. Irrelevant. Irrelevant. etc. Face it, Apple makes great innovative products, but the company has only a marginal influence on the industry as a whole. I know you really really want to think otherwise, but Apple is a niche company. It has a sizeable and profitable niche, but a niche nonetheless.
"I guess you could call the belief in sharing of knowledge a 'philosophy,' but I just think it's a fact. It's what differentiates science from alchemy or witchcraft." --Linus Torvalds (2004)
UBU
Exactly the same as he did in 03, 02, 01, etc., namely just acted as a controlling figurehead to the rest of the Linux community such that all those who contribute to Linux maintain a single focus.
Linux's penetration into the corporate environment is far more extensive than you actually believe it is - remember, there is no need to put a "Designed for Linux" sticker on every box that runs it and I'd be very surprised if you didn't own a car, handheld device, set-top box, etc. that didn't run Linux.
I myself work for a telecomms company and Linux powers our flagship telephony server products that power businesses with 10,000+ extension offices and huge call centres.
Very soon, we are going into the "carrier-grade" telephony market with Linux-based servers, previously an area occupied almost exclusively by HP-UX.
You also need to be aware that HP-UX and Solaris have been traditionally linked to very powerful, high-performance hardware platforms from HP and Sun to drive backbone Internet applications like Sendmail, Apache, BIND, etc. Linux runs all of these also with the added advantage that clustering and server farms provide equal power and resilience on much cheaper hardware.
Just because Linus doesn't stand up on stage with sweaty armpits shouting "Developers" over and over again, don't diss him - he has demonstrated that it is perfectly possible to lead from the back.
You should be more concerned that Carly "Angel Of Death" Fiorina comes in at number 7...
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Afaik he has a nice sportcar (BMW?) and a villa in California. I don't think he's a poor fellow according to my definiton of rich.
WE DON'T NEED NO BLOG CONTROL.
Linux is influential, with ramifications through-out the whole computer software industry and probably beyond. I don't think anyone is questioning that, so we move to the second part, Linus' personal influence over Linux.
While Linus may not have control the way MS and Apple does over their software, from an external point of view Linus stands completely unchallenged. Linux is, like it or not, in most peoples' mind personified by Linus. Whatever he says or does with the kernel is considered an influential decision of where Linux is going.
And if you don't think Linux is the big talker, there's a lot of power in understatement. Like this quote: "Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect." Sounds as if he's a giant that accidentally stepped on an ant.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
"But when most people think about what an "executive" is, running a company, or being high up in the managerial food chain in terms of running a company, that is what most people think of."
Is that why Sales and Marketing drones always give themselves a title with "executive" in it ?
e.g. Key Account Executive.
and usually where, I come from, executive when applied to a bus, means only that it has a toilet in.
e.g Smith's Executive Travel
which usually contains a load of drunken footy fans.
No but, yeah but, no but...
Full-blown nanotech will be here in less than 20 years. It is not going to creep up on you: it'll be here all of a sudden. Once one assembler is created, it'll be less than a year that an organization takes it upon themselves to provide a "replicator" to every human on the planet. (I don't particularly like Star Trek myself, but everyone knows what a "replicator" is; it's become like kleenex or xerox.)
There goes the food problem.
How is history any possible indicator of what's going to happen as we approach and pass through the singularity? How many singularities have we gone through in recorded history? (My guess is none but feel free to surprise me.)
OSS itself features highly in Christine Peterson's talks and works; the Foresight Institute is aptly named. As we start designing nanocritters, we're going to want the ability to share them. Putting them under the GPL or similar open-source license would ensure that others can benefit from them, add to them, and share them with others.
Anyone can build an STL (scanning tunnelling microscope) for about $300. Although this moves atoms around slowly, you just need to move enough to make an "arm" to help you move more, and then the arm builds a couple more arms, exponentially, until you have a box that looks like Rincewind's sapient pearwood luggage turned inside out.
Yes, it's currently a pipe dream. So were space flight and huge explosions at one point.
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.