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CNN Sits Down With Linus Torvalds
just_another_sean writes "Calling him 'reclusive' and the 'leader of the Open Source Revolution' CNN has an interview with Linus Torvalds. From the article: "I actually only work with a few handfuls so I tend to directly interact with maybe 10 - 20 people and they in turn interact with other people. So depending on how you count, if you count just the core people, 20 -50 people. If you count everybody who's involved; five thousand people -- and you can really put the number anywhere in between... Almost, pretty much all, real work is done over e-mail so it doesn't matter where people are."
Travelling all over the world, I wish I was a hermit!
He is just working on Linux kernel, there are thousands of other open source projects. I wouldn't call him OSS leader :)
Pixel image editor - http://www.kanzelsberger.com
That's kinda odd that it would take them so long to interview Linus. How long after Microsoft made it's day did they interview Bill? or Steve? It is definately due, and kudos to Linus!
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
Seeking or preferring seclusion or isolation.
Does this describe Linus?
Linus looks more and more like a penguin as he gets older?
Stallman: I'm going to f***ing kill CNN. It's GNU/Linux damn it!
*Chair goes flying across room*
All it takes to throw the entire open source revolution into chaos and disarray is one well aimed chair-throw.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
The maddening crowd seems to be too intellectually limited to understand that their need for heroes, saints and sinners is about as interesting as reading a popularization of a first year anthropology text book.
Not to mention the hours lost mugging for CNN that could have been spent productively.
just my loose change
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
Seems like he would be a perfect candidate
The revolution is called Open Source. And its leader? Linus Torvalds
RMS rolls in his... beard.
I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
KLS: I understand, but let's say your mom or my mom, they're surfing the Internet but maybe they're not surfing with Firefox just yet or they don't really know what Linux is just yet.
This went unchallenged... you would have thought that she would be one of the first people to know about linux (even if she never will understand it and proabably still needs him to install a printer - as all mothers do)
*''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
I believe the proper term would be "icon."
Developers: We can use your help.
Sounds like it to me:
To where science took this whole notion of developing ideas in the open and improving on other peoples' ideas and making it into what science is today, and the incredible advances that we have had. And I compare that to witchcraft and alchemy, where openness was something you didn't do.
Zing!
But... does he run Linux?
(Sorry, someone had to say it.)
Developers: We can use your help.
"Normally I am not recognized, people don't throw their panties at me."
Nice to know he thinks like the rest of us guys.
Holy s-, it's Jesus!
For example I long ago decided I will never go to meetings again because I think face to face meetings are the biggest waste of time you can ever have.
Hi, this is Dan from Human Resources. You probably don't know me, because you were absent from the Workplace Amicable Relationship Promotion Meeting. After meeting with your supervisors, we have come to the decision that we should meet with you RE your attitude toward workplace gatherings.
Not only does your absence from group meetings project the wrong image to the rest of the company, but some employees have taken it as a personal affront. There have been complaints, and many people at the last Work/Life Socialization Meeting have asked us to step in. Is 2:00 PM okay for everyone?
Thanks,
Dan
Human Resources
Step into a huge movement. Don't Tread In Me.
Talking about a t-shirt which showed Linus as a sword-wielding leader:
"It's ironic," says Stallman mournfully. "Picking up that sword is exactly what Linus refuses to do. He gets everybody focusing on him as the symbol of the movement, and then he won't fight. What good is it?"
From Chapter 13 of the biography of Stallman.
Please help publicise swpat.org - the software patents wiki
reclusive (adj): Not having a publicist lobbying to get onto CNN.
If by "dominate the gadgets market" you mean selling lots of iPods, maybe you are right. But "home base for open source"? The Apple operating system isn't open source, for chrissake! There's no intersection between Linux and Apple, Linux is an open source operating system, Apple is a system which has some open source elements, but the OS isn't one of them. It used to be but, thanks to the BSD license, that detail has been fixed.
As for this "cutting edge development", could you be so kind and point us to any big OSS project whose development began in Apple and was later adopted by others? I mean, like Konqueror was the basis for Safari, only the other way round?
Oh, sorry, I forgot, don't feed the trolls, or maybe that big "whooosh" was the joke going over my head?
It seemed that CNN were trying to ask very pointed questions, trying to make Linus out to be some warrior against Microsoft. I like this part:
KLS: Another reason, because it's an alternative to Microsoft?
LT: Well that is, I think, played up more than it necessarily needs to be. Because there is a very vocal side to this which is the whole anti Microsoft thing. I think it makes a better story than is necessarily true in real life.
For a techie guy who doesn't have reams of PR guys behind him and telling him what he should say, he handled the press pretty well.
I thought CNN were supposed to be respectable, like the US version of the BBC or something? It seemed like they were just looking for some big scoop with regards to people being Anti-Microsoft rather than trying to have an interesting interview with a major contributor to an alternative OS.
Three degrees. Linus Torvalds was in The Code (2001) with Miguel de Icaza. Miguel de Icaza was in Antitrust (2001) with Tim Robbins. Tim Robbins (I) was in Mystic River (2003) with Kevin Bacon.
If you ask me, the biggest contribution of Linux was turning the OSS movement from a "niche" to a "community". Linux got a recognition from the mainstream software world that GNU never came even close to obtaining.
The headline asks the question if he is the leader, its not a statement but since you brought it up, whom would you declare the OSS leader? Al Gore?
Maybe, but only if he picks Feingold as his running mate.
But seriously, it would have to be RMS. Linus pointedly isn't trying to lead a movement (at a conference he reportedly said "I really don't like the idea of thousands of people following me. (pause) But I'd appreciate it if someone could tell me where the men's room is.").
RMS, on the otherhand, has been pointently "leading" for going on three decades now.
--MarkusQ
P.S. And what Gore actually said was: "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system." Which was true.
As Vincent Cerf, said "The Internet would not be where it is in the United States without the strong support given to it and related research areas by the Vice President [Gore] in his current role and in his earlier role as Senator."
And Dave Ferber said without Gore the Internet "would not be where it is today."
And Marc Andreesen said "Gore made [Mosaic] possible with the High Performance Computing Act."
And Joseph E. Traub said "[Gore] was perhaps the first political leader to grasp the importance of networking the country. Could we perhaps see an end to cheap shots from politicians and pundits about inventing the Internet?"
See Seth's page.