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Linus Torvalds Receives IEEE Computer Pioneer Award

Posted by timothy on from the what's-that-guy-done-anyhow dept.

mikejuk (1801200) writes "Linus Torvalds, the 'man who invented Linux' is the 2014 recipient of the IEEE Computer Society's Computer Pioneer Award, '[f]or pioneering development of the Linux kernel using the open-source approach.' According to Wikipedia, Torvalds had wanted to call the kernel he developed Freax (a combination of 'free,' 'freak,' and the letter X to indicate that it is a Unix-like system), but his friend Ari Lemmke, who administered the FTP server it was first hosted for download, named Torvalds' directory linux. In some ways Git can be seen as his more important contribution — but as it dates from 2005 it is outside the remit of the IEEE Computer Pioneer award."

1 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. Good (I guess) by BaronM · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    I remember my first successful install -- Slackware with kernel 0.99pl12. Tried SLS and failed.

    I applaud the award, but I'll admit to mixed feelings about Linux these days.

    Free, in either sense, just isn't enough to put up with the added difficulty of keeping a system running. I'm not talking about hobbyist level on the one hand where each system can be lovingly tended by hand nor large-company level where systems are templates, scripted, PUPPETed, and under service contract. I'm not even talking about Linux on the desktop, which is still for masochists. I'm talking about small-to-midsize deployments where the system admin is either nonexistent or a generalist who is also the help desk, web developer, and DBA. In that case, MS has made it so easy to put in a domain controller, WSUS, and manage centrally or just go with Office 365 that Linux looks positively archaic.

    RHEL with RHN (or the Suse or Ubuntu equivalent) are OK, but far more expensive and still don't manage your desktops in any meaningful fashion. The Windows support in PUPPET and CHEF are poor at best.

    I can't help feeling that Linux, while extraordinarily powerful, has less relavance now than it did 10 years ago. It kind of feels like VMS and Solaris did when they were clearly better than their competition, but basically missing the point for mainstream business or home use. No doubt Linux will be around in the server room and as the basis of 'appliances' and embedded systems for years to come, but the year of Linux on the desktop is never coming, is it?