Linus Torvalds For Nobel Peace Prize?

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Linus Torvalds For Nobel Peace Prize?

Posted by kdawson on Friday November 20, 2009 @04:36AM from the nice-step-towards-world-domination dept.

An anonymous reader writes "I'm as much of a Linux fanboy as anyone else, but I've never thought of anything in computing as being worth a Nobel Peace Prize. Apparently, there are those who take global collaboration seriously, though..." The suggestion has been bouncing around the Portland Linux community, where Torvalds lives. Is it worthy of wider attention and discussion?

22 of 541 comments (clear)

He deserves it by Yvan256 · 2009-11-20 04:38 · Score: 4, Funny

I come from 2051, in a timeline where Linux didn't exist. You don't want to hear about the Microsoft vs Apple netwar.
1. Re:He deserves it by tomhudson · 2009-11-20 05:01 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  I come from 2051, in a timeline where Linux didn't exist. You don't want to hear about the Microsoft vs Apple netwar.
  
  Yes, it was terrible, all those Windows machines loaded with malware, all trying and failing to attack anything non-Microsoft, until Apple ended it by buying what was left of Microsoft in 2018 in an all-stock deal of 100 Microsoft shares for 1 Apple share, plus the lint in Steve Jobs' bellybutton.
  Now people's Windows machines work perfectly. Microsoft Windows - a product of Apple, Inc.
2. Re:He deserves it by Mike+Buddha · 2009-11-20 05:49 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Now people's Windows machines work perfectly. Microsoft Windows - a product of Apple, Inc.
  ...but they now cost 1000x more than they should and they only do what robot warlord Steve Jobs thinks you should be able to do.
  
  --
  by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
Why not? by Xebikr · 2009-11-20 04:39 · Score: 5, Funny

I'm sure that at some point in his tenure as King of Linux he will do things worthy of the Nobel Peace prize. Let's just give it to him now to get it out of the way.
1. Re:Why not? by middlemen · 2009-11-20 04:47 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  Well then we should nominate Theo de Raadt for it instead.
Well... by MyLongNickName · 2009-11-20 04:41 · Score: 5, Funny

I can't say he is less worthy than Obama. Obama's biggest claim to fame is that he is not George Bush. Linus isn't George Bush either, so I guess his qualifications are in order.

--
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
1. Re:Well... by scorp1us · 2009-11-20 04:55 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Linus has though, fueled many thousands of flame-wars with his product.
  Obama just fuels just one Afgan war.
  
  --
  Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
Sure, why not? by Fished · 2009-11-20 04:43 · Score: 2, Funny

After all, he's not George Bush either. Or perhaps it's that he's not Bill Gates. *snark*

--
"He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
Re:Well he's at least done more than Obama by Anonymous Coward · 2009-11-20 04:47 · Score: 5, Funny

Linus didn't start a nuclear war with Iran either.
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation? by rishistar · 2009-11-20 04:48 · Score: 2, Funny

It strikes me that a lot of good is being done by this body. Plus there's more to come. So it strikes me that Bill might be in line first, or maybe a shared one with Bill, Linus and Tim Berners-Lee or something.

--
Professor Karmadillo Songs of Science
Re:That's GNU/Linux, you insensitive clod! by Shadow+Wrought · 2009-11-20 04:49 · Score: 5, Funny

Just give him a Gnubel Prize and call it good.

--
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
LKML by daceaser · 2009-11-20 04:50 · Score: 2, Funny

Peace prize? They plainly haven't been reading the LKML at the Nobel Institute...

--
-- There are three kinds of mathematicians: those who can add and those who can't.
Re:List his peace initiatives... by MrHanky · 2009-11-20 04:53 · Score: 5, Funny

Since Obama got one for not being George W. Bush, Linus should get one for not being Theo de Raadt.
Re:That's GNU/Linux, you insensitive clod! by Penguinisto · 2009-11-20 04:53 · Score: 5, Funny

...he would refuse it anyway, on the grounds that it wasn't called the "GNU/Nobel Peace Prize".

--
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Re:Well he's at least done more than Obama by eln · 2009-11-20 04:54 · Score: 4, Funny

Linus didn't start a nuclear war with Iran either
...yet.
Proof that Linux does NOT promote peace... by castironpigeon · 2009-11-20 04:55 · Score: 4, Funny

Everyone knows KDE is better than Gnome. And really, Ubuntu isn't even a real distro. It's just Debian gimped and preconfigured.

run away! run away!

--
mmmm...forbidden donut
1. Re:Proof that Linux does NOT promote peace... by characterZer0 · 2009-11-20 05:02 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  No, Ubuntu is Debian de-gimped. Pay attention.
  
  --
  Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
Re:Well he's at least done more than Obama by Profane+MuthaFucka · 2009-11-20 05:06 · Score: 5, Funny

Technically true, but you're forgetting Linus' herring genocide of 1997.

--
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
Re:List his peace initiatives... by tomhudson · 2009-11-20 05:07 · Score: 2, Funny

Since Obama got one for not being George W. Bush, Linus should get one for not being Theo de Raadt.
And we could give one to Hans Reiser for not being O.J. Simpson. Oh, wait a sec ...
How about giving it to both RMS and Linus?
Or for the lulz, Stallman and Palin. Can you imagine the two of them in the same room? The improbability is SO high that the universe might finally have to hork up a Higgs Bosun.
Re:List his peace initiatives... by Anonymous Coward · 2009-11-20 06:19 · Score: 2, Funny

Since Obama got one for not being George W. Bush, Linus should get one for not being Theo de Raadt.
And we could give one to Hans Reiser for not being O.J. Simpson. Oh, wait a sec ...
How about giving it to both RMS and Linus?
Or for the lulz, Stallman and Palin. Can you imagine the two of them in the same room? The improbability is SO high that the universe might finally have to hork up a Higgs Bosun.
I hear that they were going to give one to RMS but he won't delouse his beard until they come up with a Free as in Freedom shampoo that he can build himself.
Re:Apple and Parallels Desktop by QuincyDurant · 2009-11-20 06:20 · Score: 4, Funny

It was a serious question; I'm not technical enough to know the answer. I read Slashdot to try to wise myself up.
Death Star by jDeepbeep · 2009-11-20 07:15 · Score: 3, Funny

...but they now cost 1000x more than they should and they only do what robot warlord Steve Jobs thinks you should be able to do.
That is.... until the building of the great and powerful Death psyStar

--
Reply to That ||