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Linus Torvalds- VC Money is Good for Open Source

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the show-me-the-money dept.

jpheasant writes "Open Source startups are clearly the hottest thing in Silicon Valley right now, with every VC wanting to invest in an open source player. Linus Torvalds finally speaks up about this." This story selected and edited by LinuxWorld editor for the day Saied Pinto.

31 comments

  1. Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That blurb ("clearly the hottest thing in Silicon Valley right now...Linus Torvalds finally speaks up") is fairly hallucinatory for something that required two editors to post...

  2. All I have to say... by corychristison · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    ... is: Go Linux / F/OSS / Open Standards!

    ;-)

  3. OT: From TFS by iced_773 · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    -edited and posted by saied
    What's that supposed to mean? Are subscribers allowed to edit now?
    1. Re:OT: From TFS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wanna know too!

  4. The first sentence and they've already lost it by John+Nowak · · Score: 3, Insightful

    FTA:
    If open source were a religion, Linus Torvalds, the Finnish engineer who wrote the core of the operating system that would become Linux, would be its prophet.

    RMS? Hello?

    1. Re:The first sentence and they've already lost it by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 1
      From TFA:
      Now, some people will argue that "balance" is bad, but those people tend to be more in the "crazy fringe," and Linux in particular was never in that camp.

      I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'.
      --
      No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
    2. Re:The first sentence and they've already lost it by Bogtha · · Score: 4, Informative

      Stallman wants nothing to do with open source, he's concerned with Free Software.

      --
      Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
    3. Re:The first sentence and they've already lost it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      RMS? Hello?

      RMS is one of the few who can be what he want's. If he want to snort a spaghetti through his nose on some IT-manager-who-invited-the-man-banket.. he does it... and everyone will clap into their sweaty hands.. because RMS is the man.. and he doesn't NEED to use buzzwords.. they know that too... because he's the dude.. the man...

      I use the GPL.

    4. Re:The first sentence and they've already lost it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "The operating system interacts directly with the hardware, providing common services to programs and insulating them from hardware idiosyncrasies. Viewing the system as a set of layers, the operating system is commonly called the system kernel, or just the kernel, emphasizing its isolation from user programs... Programs such as the shell and editors (ed and vi) shown in the outer layers interact with the kernel by invoking a well defined set of system calls."

      - Maurice J. Bach, The Design of the UNIX Operating System (1986)

      This is just one of many textbooks that emphasize that the operating system is the kernel, it is the portion of system software that runs in kernel mode and arbitrates requests for hardware resources from applications and shells.

      So plain Linux is an operating system in the accepted technical sense of the word.

    5. Re:The first sentence and they've already lost it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How does the Popular People's Front figure into all this?

  5. Bitkeeper. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    OPM (other people's money) is good, but apparently OPS (Other People's Software ) isn't.

    1. Re:Bitkeeper. by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 1

      Either one is BEST when it's free.

      --
      No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
    2. Re:Bitkeeper. by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      Have to love the /-shit mentality of throwing things out without have the slightest clue.

      Linus did not abandon BK because of his issues with it. He abandoned it because he was tired of fighting with zealots over what was primarily a personal choice. Linus never required a kernel developer to adopt BK. In fact, Alan Cox never used it, even when he was in Morton's position of the stable release maintainer.

    3. Re:Bitkeeper. by Aim+Here · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Erm, hardly. Linus didn't really drop BitKeeper; he was pushed. Larry McVoy stopped letting Open Source developers use the Bitkeeper software for free, because Andrew Tridgell decided to try making a competing free (speechwise) software client that operated with the BitKeeper server. Apparently McVoy really, really, doesn't like competition.

      The people who objected to the use of Bitkeeper were proved right all along, on purely practical grounds; it's absolutely foolish for you to depend on software which can be pulled away from you at the whim of one person or one company. If I was a builder, there's no way on earth I'd use bricks, or tools, that would turn to dust if if the manufacturer decides to press a red button on the CEO's desk. That would be a disaster waiting to happen. Software is no different.

      What you called 'zealots' here are really pragmatists.

  6. Dude... by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 3, Funny

    RMS? Hello?
     
    ... RMS is a deity, not a mere prophet.

    --
    Only to idiots, are orders laws.
    -- Henning von Tresckow
    1. Re:Dude... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep, RMS is the devil, smart, but forever a thorn in the OSS movement's side.

      *Ducks* :)

    2. Re:Dude... by Workaphobia · · Score: 1

      Most religions tend to have their prophets and deities in alignment, not at each other's throats over interpretation of religious doctrine (v3).

      --
      Evidently, the key to understanding recursion is to begin by understanding recursion. The rest is easy.
  7. Linus Torvalds is the Mel Gibson of Open Source by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    not deliberately trolling... but he seems like the kind of guy who gets drunk and says things that a lot of people are actually thinking, but are too ashamed to say aloud even when drunk.

    1. Re:Linus Torvalds is the Mel Gibson of Open Source by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What is Aramaic for "Sugar tits" anyway?

    2. Re:Linus Torvalds is the Mel Gibson of Open Source by hey! · · Score: 1

      There's a particular kind of stupidity that is the exclusive property of the highly intelligent. It is a byproduct of being accustomed to being right when everyone else around you is wrong.

      Ten years ago, Linus could be counted on to say something reasonable, diplomatic and humble in any controversy. Over the last ten years, he has started to develop the kind of verbal swagger that to software engineers is what slurred syllables are to the prize fighter.

      One can only imagine the corrosive effects on the brain of being a universally admired programmer, known worldwide not by your full name, or your initials, but by your first name, as if you were Cher or Madonna.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  8. VC Money by Cycloid+Torus · · Score: 1
    It can be necessary, it can be useful, but having been involved with funds from sources expecting an annualized 35% return from an IPO within a very short number of years - be careful! Good smaller businesses can be overwhelmed.

    When you become certain that what you have is scalable and it will suffer from not having the cash to accomplish documentation, marketing and staffing commensurate with the demand, then go for it. Folks on the East Coast might want to talk with Mike Roer http://www.cvg.org/asp/contactus.asp.

    Hope you get very rich!

    --
    Lost in space at an early age. Survived the vacuum. Now rebuilding castle in air.
  9. VC = Vietcong ? by kalleguld · · Score: 1

    ... Or have I just seen too many war movies lately?

    of course, it's Venture Capital(ist) in case you were wondering

    --
    Sigs are bad for your health
  10. Torvalds is a communist!! by erroneus · · Score: 1, Funny

    And his assertion that "VC" (Viet Cong) money is good for open source just proves it! I didn't want to believe all the stuff that Microsoft has been saying, but this is just too much!

    (I'm kidding... no, really... please mod +1 Funny)

  11. You're the one who 'lost it' by renoX · · Score: 1

    If you told RMS this, he'd probably slap you (or at least verbally abuse you): remember RMS == Free Software, not open source.

  12. Heh, no joke by PCM2 · · Score: 1

    I used to work at a startup where the founders would occasionally give venture capitalists the big tour. We rank-and-file workers, well aware that any VC investor would inevitably install its own stooges in senior management and basically undermine and overthrow the company for short-term gain, referred to these people as "Victor Charlie."

    --
    Breakfast served all day!
  13. Free software != open source by tepples · · Score: 2, Insightful
    If open source were a religion, Linus Torvalds [...] would be its prophet.
    RMS? Hello?

    RMS is the prophet of free software, not open source. The goals are different, even if the methods are much the same.

  14. Actually... by Cryptnotic · · Score: 1

    RMS is the crazy guy with the beard and the sign that reads "The end is near! Repent and join the hurd!"

    --
    My other first post is car post.
  15. Money for prototype? by daybyter · · Score: 1

    I guess it's easy, if you have a long ongoing project, but who could you contact, if you have an OSS based idea and need some money to create a prototype?

  16. Stallman is an amerinigger. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    discuss.