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Linus Torvalds For Nobel Peace Prize?
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?
He created a multinational project of cooperation between tons of people all over the globe and made a project that has helped change the computer industry and lower costs, making computing more affordable for everyone. Sounds good to me.
That's a lot better than saying you'll do things but not having done them yet.
He'll never win. The prize is very political, and I doubt they would give it to someone who isn't in their group of admired people. As a PR tool, it could be much more valuable to give it to someone else.
Are there better candidates? I'd certainly expect so. But look at the list of winners. While some are obviously good (Doctors Without Borders, The Dalai Llama) others are much more questionable.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
"(okay, Carter brokered the Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement back in the 1970's which later fell apart, and did a lot of post-presidential negotiation work, but really..."
Look, I loathe Carter as much as the next gut, but at least get your facts straight. Carter won the prize for brokering the Egypt/Israeli peace agreement which, last I checked, still holds. That puts him pretty high on the list of people who have done something to further peace in the world, and he deserved the prize.
Now, if he had only spent more time and attention on the US, maybe his presidency wouldn't be viewed as a total failure.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
You're looking for reasons to justify your viewpoint. The GP is right. In the old days, before the GPL became popular, independent programmers went the shareware route, not the free route. You don't remember the magazine articles and opinions that came out as free software became more popular, quite skeptical that it could actually work, and that was when it was already working. Sometimes someone has to come up with the idea and prove its viability before others will latch onto it. It was RMS who pushed the vision of free software, and others who caught on to the idea.
You are right (which I have to say, otherwise you will try to continue being argumentative) that the other developers deserve credit, too. Of course they do. RMS couldn't have done it alone. But there is a reason RMS is well recognized.
Qxe4