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Linus' Lessons On Software Dev Management

Posted by Soulskill on from the if-you-want-something-done-right dept.

Esther Schindler writes "In this interview with Steven Vaughan-Nichols, Linus Torvalds shares hard-won wisdom about managing software development projects, including encouraging community involvement, the importance of programming tools, and ensuring the project stays on track. For instance, regarding getting people to contribute to your project, he says, 'If you start off with some "kumba-ya feeling" where you think people from all the world are going to come together to make a better world by working together on your project, you probably won't be going very far.'"

3 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Kumba ya? by miffo.swe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Stallman is more in touch with reality than most people. Imagine where BSD could have been now without the constant rape and pillaging of it? The reason it flunked is purely because of the license and that nobody ever gives anything back to the BSD community.

    Had Linux been based on the BSD license it would never have taken off like it did.

    --
    HTTP/1.1 400
  2. A stable device driver API would help the users by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Breaking the user experience in order to ‘fix’ something is a totally broken concept; you cannot do it. If you break the user experience, you may feel that you have ‘fixed’ something in the code, but if you fixed it by breaking the user, you just violated that second point; you thought the code was more important than the user. Which is not true.”

    Hmm. So this doesn't count everytime the Kernel APIs change and a bunch of device drivers get broken? IMHO it's the users that get hurt by the lack of stable kernel APIs since the original developers are the only people that have the skills, source and tools to make the fix - if they are still interested.

  3. Re:Kumba ya? by timeOday · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I think RMS is just expressing his priorities, not being out of touch with reality. Here are three groups to consider:

    1) Money-oriented: Larry Ellison, Bill Gates
    2) Technology-oriented: Linus Torvalds, James Gosling
    3) Socially-oriented: Richard Stallman, and... not many others in this arena

    If you judge people in one group by the values of the other, they seem deficient. Torvalds failed to capitalize on his success. Ellison is a bastard. Stallman's head is in the clouds. But they are at or near the top of their own games.