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Torvalds' Secret Sauce For Linux: Willing To Be Wrong (ieee.org)
An anonymous reader writes: Linux turns 25 this year(!!). To mark the event, IEEE Spectrum has a piece on the history of Linux and why it succeeded where others failed. In an accompanying question and answer with Linus Torvalds, Torvalds explains the combination of youthful chutzpah, openness to other's ideas, and a willingness to unwind technical decisions that he thinks were critical to the OS's development: "I credit the fact that I didn't know what the hell I was setting myself up for for a lot of the success of Linux. [...] The thing about bad technical decisions is that you can always undo them. [...] I'd rather make a decision that turns out to be wrong later than waffle about possible alternatives for too long."
His erect penis,
Plugged inside a man's anus.
He is a faggot.
Perhaps Linus is willing to be wrong, but he's unwilling to admit when he's wrong. He's incredibly arrogant and it sets a bad tone for the interactions between developers, and in how they deal with users. Making a quick (and possibly wrong) decision rather than being more careful also means that the Linux kernel is a mess. Sure, there are areas that use good coding practices, but mostly it's just a bunch of haphazard code that's been thrown together and barely compiles. That's certainly true with drivers and many of the new features. Compare the Linux kernel to BSD and you'll see a huge difference in coding practices. BSD is far more careful and it results in kernels that are far more stable and efficient. Perhaps Linus makes decisions quickly, but that's often not a good thing. Being thoughtful is usually a far better idea. As long as Linux decisions are made quickly rather than thoughtfully, Linux won't have a chance against Microsoft, who thinks very clearly and thoroughly over their decisions regarding Windows. Maybe stuff gets done quickly, but in the long term, it's really holding Linux back.