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Linus Explains What Surprises Him After 25 Years Of Linux (linux.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the Linus-on-Linux dept.

Linus Torvalds appeared in a new "fireside chat" with VMware Head of Open Source Dirk Hohndel. An anonymous reader writes: Linus explained what still surprises him about Linux development. "Code that I thought was stable continually gets improved. There are things we haven't touched for many years, then someone comes along and improves them or makes bug reports in something I thought no one used. We have new hardware, new features that are developed, but after 25 years, we still have old, very basic things that people care about and still improve... Our processes have not only worked for 25 years, we still have a very strong maintainer group... And as these maintainers get older and fatter, we have new people coming in."

Linus also says he's surprised by the widespread popularity of Git. "I expected it to be limited mostly to the kernel -- as it's tailored to what we do... In certain circles, Git is more well known than Linux." And he also shares advice if you want to get started as an open source developer. "I'm not sure my example is the right thing for people to follow. There are a ton of open source projects and, if you are a beginning programmer, find something you're interested in that you can follow for more than just a few weeks... If you can be part of a community and set up patches, it's not just about the coding, but about the social aspect of open source. You make connections and improve yourself as a programmer."
Linus also says that "I really like what I'm doing. I like waking up and having a job that is technically interesting and challenging without being too stressful so I can do it for long stretches; something where I feel I am making a real difference and doing something meaningful not just for me."

7 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. Great guy by 110010001000 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Did more for computing than Gates, Ellison and Jobs combined.

    1. Re:Great guy by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah, Gates set computing back a decade. Good programmer, but he should have stayed in school. I know some people will ask, "Why stay in school? He made plenty of money." He should have stayed in school for the betterment of humanity.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    2. Re:Great guy by AndroSyn · · Score: 4, Informative

      So instead we got the 640k barrier, config.sys, interrupt conflicts, extended/expanded memory, 8.3 filenames, segmented memory...

      640K barrier is IBMs fault for putting the BIOS at the top of the first 1MB instead of the bottom. Interrupt conflicts, I think you can blame this on IBM too. 8.3 filenames came from CP/M.

      EMS/XMS and memory segmentation are FAR more the fault of Intel given these are CPU architecture related.

      So...that leaves config.sys(which isn't that terrible really).

       

    3. Re: Great guy by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Without Microsoft, we may not actually have had the computer revolution that we had.

      No, we would have. And it demonstrably would have been better at many points in the history.
      If Microsoft hadn't used unfair practices (and they had to pay because of it), DrDos would have replaced Microsoft.
      If they hadn't used 'sharp' business practices, OS2/Warp would have replaced Windows. It was a much better OS.
      If they hadn't used their Monopolistic practices to keep alternative OSes off, then maybe Linux might not have won anyway, but it would have had a better chance. For comparison, we can see that Android turned out alright.

      In the 80s, everyone and their dog was writing an OS. There would have definitely been another one if Microsoft hadn't done it.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    4. Re:Great guy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Interrupt conflicts you get to blame on Intel.

      I think you can also blame the 1MB boundary for the BIOS on Intel as well.

      What you CAN blame on IBM was selecting the 8086 CPU instead of the Motorola 68000.

  2. What should really surprise Linus is... by Nutria · · Score: 3, Insightful

    a week without dupes on /.

    --
    "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
  3. Re:Dupe Comment by willoughby · · Score: 4, Informative

    Better to get the early history of Linux right from the source. The book "Just for Fun" is the story told by Linus himself.