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Linus Makes Business Week's Best Managers List
andhar writes "Linus Torvalds has made Business Week Magazine's 2004 list of Best Managers, where he finds himself in the company of luminaries such as Hector Ruiz (AMD), John Henry (Boston Red Sox) and Steven Spielberg (Dreamworks SKG).
The article lauds the influence of Linux on the server market and drops the names of such heavyweights as IBM, Dell, HP and Intel as Linux supporters.
Linus is quoted, calling all you kernel coders a herd of cats."
"Linus ate at McDonalds!" "Linus uses 2 ply toilet paper!" etc etc. Why not make a section devoted strictly to Linus (linus.slashdot.org) for the fawning and drooling and leave the Linux section to all things about Linux proper? That and some other minor changes would allow the readership to disable stories about what movie Linus watched over the weekend and other fluff if they wanted.
Unless, of course, you're all too busy designing more ugly colour schemes.
This is a great article. I read it most of it last night. Goes through good managers, WHY they are good, how they turned around the company(Xerox as an example) and talks about bad managers and WHY they are bad, mistakes they've made, etc.
This article should be read over and over again by the countries PHB. But I know they won't listen.
Check out the pic of Linus, I think he's in a CORNfield or something LOL
Right up there with "Most Ethical Lawyer."
I think that managing a bunch of know-it-alls is a lot harder than managing people who are just there for a paycheck.
Might as well made the list. He's adorned by many people and scored by everybody else.
He's worked hard with a score of other people (who did not make the list) to make a nice operating system for anybody to use and modify. Before 2.4, it seemed many companies like Microsoft poo poohed the idea of how an open source operating system was going to work, and now that it has, they feel a little threatened. With the success of his kernel, I give him proper kudos.
Oh, it is kind of funny. I do not see Darl McBride on the list. Just kind of interesting.
Some call me Howie Feltersnatch
I can't believe Steve Jobs didn't win best manager of the year--
...they must be holding out for best manager of the century.
Try cat juggling instead!
Like SCO, Infinium Labs, are doing...
A manager of a group that reads slashdot all day and still get things done.
That is impressive.
I guess that's the best title for what he does, but his position doesn't really fit the "manager" role to a T..
He's not anyones boss, he can't "fire" a kernel hacker, or direct them, he can just decide to accept or not accept patches.
That lack of "direction" is somewhat of a problem, noone knows where linux is headed. It seems to be veering away from the desktop to the server room, and locked down incarnations like TiVo.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Linus' picture actually made the cover of the magazine (along with 4 others)! Click on the "photo essays" graphic at the top of the article and then look at the magazine cover on the right hand side. The second person from the right looks like Linus to me. Awesome. I wonder who the other people are on the cover - I can't quite make them out.
Many people that have not gone to school have done good things...but if one sought a job sighting management skills, they are quickly turned down for lack of the so called degrees!
This is despite the clear evidence that the so called educated managers have done more havoc than good. Just look at the companies that have folded up!
I think that this issue of "Must have an MBA, LLB etc, etc.." was created purely for financial purposes by educational institutions. All people doing crap at their jobs here are very educauted. One wonders what their education helps anyway.
Disclaimer: I run a fairly successful finacial business on the internet, but have zero training in this. I use my common sense.
Note that Richard Branson (of the Virgin Group), does not have the educational papers that one would think he has. But he is very successful to the extent that he keeps British Airways managers on their toes.
Linus is quoted, calling all you kernel coders a herd of cats.
From the article
Torvalds has quipped that his job is a lot like "herding cats."
"Herding cats" is meant to be an oxymoron. Cats operate in small, tight-knit prides and not large herds; they are strong-willed and typically follow their own program. Linus was just trying to convey the difficulty of managing a large group of programmers who all have their own, unique reasons for doing what they do. As is demonstrated time and time again here at /., most nerds have trouble seeing the other side of an argument (read: we always think we're right). This brings about the cat metaphor.
For those who don't RTFA, this might be taken out of context as an insult to kernel contributors. Just wanted to clear that up.
RTFA and cite your sources or prepare to get pwnd
Frank Dunn Nortel
I'm not sure why the CEO of SCO is not in that list, since SCO's earnings on most products are diminishing.Graig Conway Peoplesoft
Sanjay Kumar Computer Associates International
#include "a_life.h"
The iPod is flying high right now, but what will it be like in 1 year with larger capacity, easier-to-use music players for less than half the cost out there? Machines not hogtied to the obscure non-standard AAC format?
Linus: 2004 Business Week list of best managers.
RMS: "involuntarily self-promoted into management"(!!!)
Alan Cox: Left Linux kernel development to get a MBA
He's not anyones boss, he can't "fire" a kernel hacker, or direct them, he can just decide to accept or not accept patches.
But wait... when people are asked to name the managers we like best, we DON'T name administrators (which is the hire/fire abilities you describe and the financial ones implicit in that), we name our LEADERS. Linus made the list because of his leadership skills in accomplishing a task (herding cats, I guess) and the scope of control he must manage there; not for his budgetary or administrative skills.
The fact that linux sees more use outside of the states as opposed to within the states makes no difference to you, I assume? Why does an american have to be the linux maintainer? re-read your post and then think about how it sounds to non americans.
People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
He's not anyones boss, he can't "fire" a kernel hacker, or direct them, he can just decide to accept or not accept patches.
And how is that power not explicitly hiring or firing? Basically, choosing to accept patches from someone for a while is the same as hiring - just as shutting someone out of the process is exactly like a firing.
Indeed this is hiring/firing at its most pure, for just as the person derives no financial loss from a "firing", so too does Linus have nothing to GAIN by a firing beyond the quality of the product - no bottom line to trim, just quality to oversee. That makes firing (or not firing) far more meaningful than one that is intertwined on both sides with financial implications, and potential lawsuits.
As for direction, the true indicator of being a good manager is that many people are willing to trust whatever vision he has in this regard.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
As usual in business culture, all credit for the company's work is given to executives. See for example this blurb about AMD CEO Héctor Ruiz: "Nevertheless, the soft-spoken executive has put AMD in the black for the first time since 2000. He's giving larger competitor Intel Corp. (INTC ) fits with AMD's hot-selling Opteron server and Athlon 64 desktop chips, and he has set the agenda for next-generation PC designs." It almost seems that he's the only employee in the company doing any work. No mention of the engineers who, you know, actually designed the products AMD is selling so successfully.