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Linus To Recieve Honorary Doctorate
JariK writes "Linus Torvalds will recieve an honorary doctorate
from the University of Stockholm Mathematical Department. The information can be found,
regrettably in Swedish only.
" Well, my Swedish is rusty - anyone post a translation below?
http://www.info .su.se/Aktuellt/Pressmeddelanden/PmView.asp?PmID=2 42. Too bad babelfish don't do swedish.
Just saw on Finnish TV that Linus got some sort of money award today too, I think it was 100 000 FIM (~20 000 US $).
It appears all you have to do to get a phd is change an whole indrustry...
Better get to work,
You forgot the condescending jokes about ABBA ;)
and Ace of Base. Otherwise you had the Swede-
bashing down just great
// Ulf (currently surfing from the Stockholm
University that started this thread)
You guys would like to discuss any sort of BS, but not to code a line.
What the deal if he got a honorary doctorate? This
just inflates value of being a Dr., though it's still a bit better than just giving out some money to a school. Linus is a practical dude, who coded some things. He is no match to real Dr's who really earned their SCIENTIFIC degrees. Perhaps Linus deserves a title of Pr. (Practical guy) for good IMPLEMENTATION, but that's it.
*sigh*
For those of you who care, RMS has also been rewarded a Honorary Doctorate at Stockholm University.
For those of you who do not know it, Honorary Doctorate is rather often given to people outside the achademic world for their work and contributions.
I think that as sort of a "September-fools" joke, we should start refering to him as Dr. Torvalds for that day only. =)
RMS doesn't have a honorary doctorate from
Stockholm University, but in 1996 he got one
from the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden
which also is located in Stockholm.
Fredrik Henbjork
http://o112.ryd.student.liu.se
It is also interesting how it is the University of Stockholm that is now honoring Linus. How come? Linus is Finnish, and has studied in the University of Helsinki, not in Stockholm.
But of course this is all good PR for Stockholm University, as people generally are confused about Linus's origins and constantly mix his country of origin (Finland) with his native tongue (Swedish). This way at least some of the audience can be easily led to believe he was a Swede, after all, and studying in Stockholm. As you pointed out, this is more about Stockholm University honoring itself than Linus. A clever trick, anyway.
If anything, Linus' contribution is to "political science."
Really, more than anything else, he happened to be at the right place at the right time AND (not to be ignored) was of the right character (IMPORTANT) to foster the project.
actually, Linux has pricked the software industry on the toe. But we'll see how things develop....
Err, I believe, when one refers to "contribution[s] to Computing Science", one would be referring to research, etc, helping to add new knowledge/research/etc to the Computing Science area. The Linux kernel does NOT fall under this catagory, since the kernel is really nothing more than an implementation of many well known algorithms.
Don't jump the starter gun.
> There are 17 million external examiners
> currently reviewing his work. I vote for him
> passing.
Credentials, please....
> so, in order for someone to have earned an
> honorary degree, they have to have invented
> something... gotcha...
No, but in order for it to be counted as Computer Science it has to involve more than hacking code and reimplementing something from the past.
If you look closer at the article, you will notice that several other foreign men recived this "award". It has nothing to do with nativity.
Not to forget my favorite Swede-bashing topic; their specialization on unstable vehicles such as the Wasa ship and SAAB Viggen (aka SAAB 90000 dyrgripen). This enabled them to reveal that Mercedes had actually stolen Swedish technology to use in their model A. This rip-off was discovered by a heroic Swedish moose.
- An Anonymous Cowardly Norwegian
(BTW, Linus Thorvalds is from Finland...)
No, I wasn't. The point is, even though he did hard work, he didn't do Ph.D. quality work. I can't put it any more simpler than that.
http://www.almac.co.uk/chef/chef/chef.ht ml
Software Engineering is a branch of computer science in most academic institutions. Even on that front, Linus's contributions were nill. He implemented Linux. Linux is not that great in terms of design. It's great in terms of how many people are behind it and that it *works*.
Then again, QNX works damn fine too. So does BSD, Solaris, etc.
In Swededen, and other countries as well, you usually get an honorary degree if you have been active on the subject all your life. Linus is the youngest yet to acive one. In math, yes, but all of you that have done some coding out there know that it requies a lot of math skils. And seeing that Linux is quite popular (duh) he sure deserved it,,, He made a difference (witch we only are beginning too see the results of) that I guess the other guys perhaps did not,,,
Precis!
Nagoon har stooolit min nesa!
Usch och fy!
i didn't say amything about turning it down, i just do not understand why he is considered a genius.
i am not disagreeing that Linux contributed to the CS field, i am just wondering if he is in the same category as Turing, Einstein and Newton.
When I sat at my graduation ceremony (BS in CS)
at NMSU, they gave honorary degrees to some old
guy and his wife. For what? "Contributions to
the free enterprise system." He was an
entrepreneur. And she was his wife. Everyone
sitting around was grumbling and making
wisecracks. Here were hundreds of people who
worked hard for years and were getting some
recognition, and here was this butt kisser
getting an honorary degree for nothing.
(Linus deserves it though.)
Lets see - we shouldn't blame you for your opinion. OK who's your mother maybe you'de like we hold her accountable for your opinion?
He's not, he's not even a very good coder and not at all a genious of any kind.
But he is a good project leader, not more not less.
SO what. Sorry but Gates could (and probably has) bought universities, PhDs shit when he tells them to, and most everyone talks to him with respect "in his face" He's a little rich boy made REALLY FRIGG'n RICH
There already is one poll on that subject;
I live on this continent
You are killing me!!! HAA HAA HAAAAaaaa....
Those of you who speak Swedish might get the extremly lousy joke in the previous sentence.
;-))
one does not need to be credentialed to ask the man standing on the platform to present credentials.
So how come you missed it's called:
Russian, Hindi and Greek?
Yes.
Marko
This is like saying that the fatherland of all the English-speaking people living in Ireland is really England. Linus is certainly not a member of an ethnic minority in Finland, but a language minority. There is a huge difference. As the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland put it in words themselves:
You should also consider reading the excellent essay "So it seems - a question of identity" by Mia Lindström, a Swedish-speaking Finn herself. She writes (and I quote):
Even from the historical perspective, the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland cannot really be considered as immigrants - or even straight descendants of ancient immigrants anymore. However, explaining this would require a boring history lesson. Those who are still interested in the issue can read more about it here.
*disclaimer* I like Linux, use it, and have nothing against Linus *disclaimer* /.ers would probably wet themselves if they actually met Linus (You know who you are Mr. "I'm never washing this hand again!"), still I can't believe anybody thinks he deserves this. Sure he's a good programmer and he's written part of and managed the development of a kernel, but does that mean he's actually expanded his field? After all there are other free kernels, other unix kernels, other monolithic kernels. What has he done? Linux isn't even arguably the best kernel of its kind for any purpose (contrary to popular belief). So its better than the WingDOH!s kernel (if you can call it that). Big deal, considering that WingDOH!s source is probably a 300M compressed single text file with one function, main(), all external variables, no loops, and a hole lotta gotos. Anyways this just sounds like more people jumping on the bandwagon. Just more politics and PR if you ask me.
But, come on. I realize this is sheepdot, where everybody follows the hurd (pun intended), and many
One of the many tactics used against Linux in the marketplace is that it is developed by "inexperienced, unprofessional, back-yard programmers". Lets use the university's acknowlegement of the opposite to boost the image of Linux in the eyes of the public.
This event can benifit us all, as Linux users!
I'm not the original poster, but I totally agree that you don't have to have credentials to ask for them. If you can't figure out why . . .
Please, the whole point of getting credentials is so that other people believe you. I go to college, and I have people w/ Ph.D's lecturing. If I ask them what authority they have to explain the material to me, they say they have a Ph.D, meaning they studied the material for a while. Now do I also have to have a Ph.D to ask that question? I certainly hope not. Or how about the people who make their living as consultants. They have certificates of some sort that make them some sort of authority in their field. Their job is based on uncredentialed people asking them (credential person) for help in an area. To say only a credential person can ask for another person's credentials is pretty idiotic. The examples can go on. Any type of degree or certificate is like credentials, and the whole point of it all is so that other people believe you are an authority of sorts. This is more important so that uncredentialed people believe you. The other credential ones can tell if you really know what you're talking about.
As someone who has the real thing.. (PhD in Biophysics, University of London) I should be able to comment.
An honorary degree is given to 'honour' a person for a significant contribution to society. FOr example, when I got my BSc one of the honorary doctorates was a judge who had made many contributions to furthering legal opinion.
I don't think you can use the honorific if it is an honorary degree (ie he couldn't use Dr. in front of his name or in the case of Sweden it would probably be Dr. Philos. )
As for dry and dusty PhD theses, yes this is true.
We have a saying (originating from the discoverer of restriction enzymes, he recieved a nobel prize for it)
The work that leads to a nobel prize today
is a PostDoc project tomorrow
a PhD project the day after.
Next week it is the technicians job
Next month we buy it as a kit
As other have already pointed out, a honorary doctorate is a VERY prestigious thing in many parts of Europe.
I'm not aware of any possibility to get such a degree e.g. just by throwing enough money at it, like in the US.
This has probably to do with the fact that Universities are usually subsudized/financed by the state in Europe, and don't have to beg for money as desperately as the US counterparts do.
I think RMS got a honorary doctorate at KTH (Royal Institute of Technology) a year or two ago, correct me if I'm wrong...
Damn, ;-)
not only do they beat us in icehockey, they beat us in OS design as well...
I just switched of my ericsson GH688 for Linus... the least I can do...
(But We swedes still got ace of base, the only group that are breaking new ground today in music, eh... oh well...)
confused swede...
Your school has a teacher named "Fuchs"?
Huh-huh, Fuchs...
alot of them are, in the big picture, not influential or even original...
university is not about originality and such, it is about
getting a degree so that business people will think nice
things about you, or about getting grants or whatever.
as long as degrees are required to get money, degrees
will be only about getting money.
at most schools.
It doesn't say much more.
This year's honorary doctorates from Stockholm University are now decided. Notable among them is
a mere 29-year old Swedish-speaking Finn, Linus
Torvalds, who (among other things) created the world famous operating system Linux. Torvalds lives in Santa Clara, USA.
In the end, though, it's not worth much anyway. Linus may as well have been a suit or polotician.
The fact is, he didn't contribute anything to computer science per sae. However, I suppose his hard work deserves some recognition. Then again, why not any other Linux developer who is just as 'smart'and hard working as Linus? Then again, that's not the purpose of these kind of throw-away doctorate degrees...
Rather, honorary degrees are usually given to people that the universities see as important persons in a field closely related to the degree, and that the university believe will "represent them well". Thus an honorory degree is mostly a statement from the university that they would be honored to be associated with the person in question.
Of course it is no real indication of the contributions of a person to the field, just a way for the university to give credit and receive PR :-)
But anyway, it's not something that's lightly given away by most European universities.
Maybe they should add the encheferizer to babelfish. Unfortunately, it only goes english -> swedish, though.
Another multi-lingual translation service along the same lines:
Chef/Jive/ValSpeak/Pig Translator
bork bork bork
So the ignorant Barbarians can understand it...
Extremly Q-and-dirty word by word transl.
Linux-creator to become honorary doctor in Stocholm.
Linux Torvalds becomes a recordyoung honorary-doctor at the mathematic-naturescientific faculty (?) at Stockholm University
Finlandswedish Torvalds, that in a pressannouncement from the faculty is called "IT-rebel and computergenius, is the man behind the operatingsystem Linux, a free program that are praised by scientists around the world.
With Linux it becomes possible to cheaply get hold of a computer that in performance surpasses the workstations that for a couple of years ago
cost hundredthousands of crowns (SEK), the faculty writes
It has "promoveret" three more honorary doctors; the chech professor Josef Houstek and the
Canadian professors Larry Mayer and Ross Norstrom
All will be "promovated" (???) on the 24 of september.
The party will be held in "blå hallen" which is the same place where the Nobelprize winners are presented.
And unless I'm mistaken (which I probably is) isn't this the same guys who decides who shall get the Nobel prize in Physics ?
Or is that KTH ?
---
I still wouldn't use an operating system developed be someone who talks like "Mumintrollet"
I truly believe you are completely right. There is no doubt that I like Linux, and I thank Linus for his effort and dedication (as well as the hundreds of people that helps him). There is no doubt that he has done great work, (and so hundreds of other people). It is really an example to everyone, but genius? I obviously have not measured his IQ, but why everytime that someone sees someone out of the ordinary the word genius comes out. This is like a marketing thing. You do this or we believe that you did that, therefore you are this or that. Either way, if I was Linus, I still would accept it, and enjoy the ride while it lasts!
Perhaps one can pick out a few common Latin or Germanic roots and cognates in non-technical writing, but the evolution of Indo-European languages has happened such that one must be careful... a French-speaker doesn't mean what you think he does when he says "J'attends le slashdot," and a German-speaker isn't necessarily talking about an unusual skin-color when he remarks of you, "Er sieht blau aus."
-.
"Three cheers for lingui...uhm...wait!...hey, dudes, what phonemes are we going to scream?"
Did he design a new OS paradigm?
no.
Did he start the whole "put out there and share the code" or the Free Software or Open Source idea?
no.
Did he rewrite an improved Unix implimentation all by himself based on new ingenious concepts?
no.
did he start a small kernel based on existing and tested ideas and then have thousands of people expand it, imnprove it and make it grow?
yes.
is he an excellent programmer (probably 100x better than me)?
yes.
does this make you a genius or a really good programmer?
First things first. In Sweden honourary degree's isn't handed out to everybody, and as several (Swedish) posters alread pointed out it usually takes quite an effort to get one. There have been mistakes of course but much more often than not the people that get's the degree has definitely earned it. A little odd though that it was from a mathememathical faculty.
And to all of you that obviously doesn't think that linus deserves it, i have a few words to say:
Before Linux i can't remember i've seen a free SMP capable os with quite good driver support,robust kernel and even games and apps being built for it by ISV's. Now, have you ? In the same scale as Linux ? I Haven't for sure, and if that isn't something to give awards for i don't understand what in the open source movement should be awarded !
And for all of you that has contributed to Linux success i'd like to say that you work is highly appreciated. And i hope that you'll take this award as a recognition that what you do actually is something that is unique in it's own sense.
/Micke
This small news blurb (also in swedish) states that Linus is the youngest person ever to receive a honorary doctorate by the mathematical faculty. They call him a computer rebel and genius.
He said:
See: Linux is ObsoleteIsn't it more than a bit ironic for an Anonymous Coward to ask for credentials?
My $0.02.
---
> professor Ross Norstrom, National Wildlife Research Centre, Kanada and the above mentioned
:-)
> Linus Torvalds.
Kanada? Var ar Kanada? Jag kommer fran Canada, is that the same place? Still, strangely Svensk sounding name on that Kanadian, maybe, along with Herr Torvalds, they mostly like ethnic Swedes. How Stockholm of them!
If that doesn't earn him a doctorate, I don't know what does.
That doesn't earn him a doctorate. Making a design decision to go with one of many preexisting options isn't exactly earth-shattering. Nor was his decision to license it under the preexisting GPL.
His true contribution was to 'rally the troops', and gain support for his fledgling kernel back in its foramtive days. In other words, for lighting the first spark.
And that contribution wasn't even to "computer science". Save that distinction to folks like von Neumann, Turing, Church...
Linus may not have performed an actual contribution in the field, but what he did do is something that RMS could never do (and ESR was getting close to). That is, makeing OSS popular.
Linux and *BSD came out about the same time (the only reason I started with Linux instead was someone gave me the 10 floppies needed to install Linux). GNU was well known only in small circles. Linus was able to make OSS popular, reduce cost for thousands of people (schools included), helped start a new way of product design and release, and threw the software industry as we know it on its ear.
For those reasons, Linus deserves recognition.
"Young Computer Genius One of This Year's Honorary Doctors
This year's honorary doctors at Stockholm University have been awarded. Among them is the merely 29 year old Finnish-Swede Linus Torvalds, who, among other things, created the world famous Linux operating system.
Torvalds resides in Santa Clara, USA...
The honorary doctorates are going to be formally awarded at a ceremony in Bla Hallen in the Stockholm City Hall on Friday the 24th of September..."
Found it on LinuxToday.
Bill Gates has even earned an Honorary Doctorate from some university.
I think that Linus is Swedish even though he lived in Finland. He is a member of an ethnic minority. So, his fatherland really is Sweden.
From http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/linus/index.html :
"4. If Linus is Finnish, why is his birth language Swedish?
Finland has a significant (about 6%) ethnic-Swedish minority population. They call themselves ``finlandssvensk'' or ``finlandssvenskar'' and consider themselves Finns; many of their families have lived in Finland for centuries. Swedish is one of Finland's two official languages."
I don't even need to know swedish to read that much. It was not clear if the other awardise were honary docorates or advisers to Linux (most live in the USA leading me to incorrectly guess the latter) I did realise that it didn't say much at all about Linus though.
Put effort into it, and you will be surprized how much of a foreign language you can read. Mind you it takes practice to understand it, but to read and catch the drift is something you can do. Well, not with chinese or russian because the symbols have no meaning, and the languages don't have the latin influence that this all goes by.
Funny, that Swedish message looked just like a Slashdot error. Maybe it's here.
(A M00se once bit my HTML Validator...)
A thesis is just writing things up. Any documentation he's done (either for the LDP or just on it's own) therefore counts as part of a thesis. Any copy of any write-up he's done that's been printed, bound and stored in the University Library qualifies as properly submitted, by the usual standards at most Universities. There are 17 million external examiners currently reviewing his work. I vote for him passing.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
This is the best translation I can do with my limited Swedish:
"Our best wooden furniture does not compare to the genius of Linus Torvalds. We bow and scrape before him, and in respect, we silence our mobile phones. We give him the door codes to our buildings so that he may visits our flats. We let him wear his shoes in the house. Cars stop in the streets for him. We drink Aquavit to him, and we compose and sing songs to him at our Kreftskivas. We name species of crayfish after him. Last year Stockholm was the Culture Capital of Europe, this year it is the Linus Capital of Europe, and we will name him winner of Eurovision automatically."
Wordnik, a dictionary project which aims to collect
I had a professor who went to grad school with Bill Joy. It was his opinion that Bill could have presented his BSD work for a Ph D if he were interested.
I think the orignal poster was hinting about Linus's work at Transmeta. That would still just be speculation though.
Linus' achievements, the design decisions taken in the implementation of the Linux kernel and the open-source development model used to manage such a large, distributed project, are both closer to the realm of software engineering than that of computer science. CS is a more abstract, theoretical discipline, whereas Linux is firmly grounded in the world of day-to-day use and practical considerations.
I already shouted hooray when I read the blurb. And I'm not going to take it back. I think Linus deserves all the honours he gets.
fish and pipes
What Linus did is, he conducted a large scale experiment in software engineering. He tried a bazaar style development on a scale that nobody before him did. As a result, we know more about this software development process today than we did before.
If you read some academic magazines, such as, Communications of the ACM, you will find that many respected researchers complain about the lack of experimentation in CS. Linus did it. Sure, he didn't really plan to do what he did and he didn't write his findings properly up; that's why he gets a honorary degree and not a "real" one. Or maybe ESR should also get a degree, because in CatB, he wrote much of what Linus discovered up (he even verified the experiment on a smaller scale).
And regarding the complaints that the degree comes from a mathematical faculty: it doesn't. The article says "mathematical and natural science faculty". In Europe, CS (including software engineering) is often more closely associated with mathematics than with the engineering disciplines.
So, keep cool.
Chilli
-=- Just a random lambda hacker
Gave it to a person like Linux? I was the assumption that his name was Linus. Anyway, Very good thing giving a good man like our Hero Mr. Torvalds a doctorate. So what do we call him now, Dr. Linus Torvalds?
Buy the ticket, take the ride.
At least that's how the popular story goes... From what I've heard (note: rumour, rumour... OK, I read it in the Samba main author's Mindcraft rebuttal), one of Linus' professors wrote in a newsgroup message something like:
"Writing an OS only for the 386 in 1991 will give you your second F this term."
Anybody confirm this? I'm way too lazy to search DejaNews, and this is probably too old anyway.
/* Steinar */
(This comment is of course GPLed.)
So it's politically based, is that what you're complaining about?
Go away.
--
Infuriate left and right
I am one of the people out in the real world who
chose not to go down the academic path. In this
world too many believe that we need degrees or
doctorates to achieve something.
You asked what his thesis was? The Linux Kernel,
a true thesis.
"he didn't contribute anything to computer science per sae"
Has he not?
Seems like he must have done something besides
the linux kernel. Something not quite so sexy,
perhaps, that everybody on the planet hasn't heard of or something?
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
I always thought it was odd how Linus had to take
time out to do a Masters Thesis. (I mean, LINUX
should have been worth a thesis). I think it's
great that the University sees fit to award him
a doctorate. Way better than giving one to some
suit, or politician...
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
P.S.: "Dr. Linus Torvalds." I think that sounds cool.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon? :P)
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't.
For a group of people who pride themselves for being rebels and saving the world from bad software, there's a lot of bitterness towards people with university-issued bits of paper.
This industry was built by people who did and didn't graduate and some who don't give a damn about college. In the end, it's the software that matters.
Linus is being recognized by a group of folks for his INTELLECTUAL, not financial, contribution. I say he takes the doctorate and that we applaude the fact that someone in the Outside World acknowledges that what he's done is a Great Thing.
Hell, let's see if we can get a few more honorary degrees for some of the other Free Source coders and organizers out there...
-S. Louie
"I may be Love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it."
Hmm, yes, "confer a doctor's degree" sounds a bit better, perhaps. "Promote" does have the correct meaning, although it might be a bit belligerent. Like I said, this was a quick'n dirty translation :)
:)
As for mudding... Not much. Exam week. Need I say more?
Young computer genius to receive one of this year's honorary doctorates
This year's honorary doctors at the University of Stockholm have now been appointed. Among them is the 29-year-old Finnish-Swedish Linus Torvalds, creator of the world-famous Linux operating system. Torvalds lives in Santa Clara, USA.
[snip other doctorates]
The honorary doctors will be promoted (?) at the traditional installation- and promotionceremony in the Blue Chamber of Stockholm City Hall on Friday the 24th of September, when new doctors and jubileedoctors (?) will be promoted as well. New professors will also be installed at this time.
And he is still worth approximatly 947 gazillion dollars more than you, me and Linus put together.
Oh, and if money isn't everything.. he is greatly respected by a whole lot of people. Maybe not the Linux crowd, but I remember when I was just starting to program and I dreamed that I would be as bad-ass as Bill Gates.
I don't feel that way any more, but lots of people do.
so, in order for someone to have earned an honorary
...A view of the Universe functioning...
degree, they have to have invented something...
gotcha...
----------------------------------------
Hey! I was going to do that!
Your mother is a hamster, and your father smells of elderberries! I fart in your general direction!
Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction
Please note that Linus hasn't earned a degree.
Hasn't he already got two?
J
What a curious mixture of elitism and anti-authoritarianism. If I were Linus, I'm not sure if I'd be insulted that you didn't seem to think I deserved a doctorate, or whipped up into a political furor over the way acadamia operates.
Let him accept his degree if he wants to. He certainly did enough work to earn it. I see nothing wrong with honoring great intellectual achievements this way, even if it does perpetuate the false mystique of acadamia.
Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
There are many honorary degrees that are only awarded so that the institution can ingratiate themselves with some dignitary. I think an honorary degree for Linus, however, really is a recognition of excellent work, work that could probably have counted as a Ph.D. if done within a university.
I believe the only actual requirement for a Ph.D is an original contribution to the field. This usually takes the form of a thesis, but doesn't have to. I suspect the Linux kernel would qualify.
thejeff
Philosophy is what the Ph in PhD means!
Linus has held both the project AND ideals together! Was he the first? ... No! Will he be the last? ... Hell no!
But Linus and avoided most of the pitfalls of other projects, free or not. He does not boast his achievements, and he, more importantly, does NOT take advantage of them either! In addition, he is CAREFUL how he bashes competitors. He does it in a ETHICAL, SINCERE AND TECHNICAL FASHION -- something most software companies need a good lesson in.
He is a GREAT LEADER for the OpenSource front. He has the character as well as the technical knowledge. He is not the best of either, but the best combination of the two I have ever seen.
-- BitMan
-- Bryan "TheBS" Smith
Independent Author, Consultant and Trainer
Just wanted to tell you that Linus was interviewed over telephone on the Swedish "P3" radio channel at 10:35 UTC 20 May... :)
Salman Rushdie was made an honorary visiting professor; as a columnist for the school paper quipped, this made Rushdie MIT's most inaccessible faculty member.
send all spam to theotherwhitemeat@ropine.com
Linux-maker to become honordoctor in Stockholm Linus Torvalds is to be record-young honordoctor at the mathematical/natursientific faculty at Stockholm University
Finland-swede Torvalds, who in a pressmessage from the faculty is called "IT-rebel and computer genious", is the man behind the operating system Linux, a free program which is honored by sientists all over the world.
With Linux it is becoming possible to, for a reasonable amount of mony, get a computer, which is a lot better than workstations which, just a few years ago, did cost hundreds of thousends of crowns, the faculty wrotes.
Three additional honordoctors are promoved; the tjechian professor Josef Houstek and the canadian professors Larry Mayer and Ross Norstrom. All of them are promoved the 24th of september.
--The knowledge that you are an idiot, is what distinguishes you from one.
Hey, speaking of honorary degrees, does anyone else get those annoying spam e-mails selling "prestigious degrees based on life experiences" from non-accredited universities. I've gotten at least 20 of those e-mails in the past 6 months.
Four years of college, three years of graduate school, and they think I need more degrees?!?! argh. Actually, I was kinda thinking about going for that L.L.M. hmmmmmmm.
"BadTimes will make you fall in love with a penguin" - Laika
In Denmark (and i guess in Sweden) it is actually a great honor to receive a honorary degree. We don't use em much, and you usually have to be 70 before you get one, as a reward for a life long achivement.
Tom
In the USA, honorary degrees are handed out for silly reasons. Colleges that don't offer real Ph.D.s will still give out honorary Ph.D.s. Graduation speakers almost always are given an honorary degree. They really are pretty meaningless.
I've heard that in Europe that this isn't the case. In some cases, honorary degrees are considered more prestigius than earned degrees. Hence, this could be a really big deal for Linus.
Someone from Europe care to confirm or correct this understanding?
At least they gave it to a deserving person such as Linux. On the other hand, at my graduation a few weeks ago, they gave Ted Turner an Honorary Law Degree from the University of Georgia. The guy sat and spoke about how we were going to die from nuclear attacks. It seems as though "honorary degrees" are being given out like mad lately. The more money you give = Honorary Doctorate?
The transaltion is boring: it says that Stockholms University has recognized outstanding people, one of them is Linus Torvald who developed Linux, and lives in Santa Clara Calif, 29 years old. He has been honored the Honor Doctors Degree By Stockolmas Univ.
Thats all, then it talks about other Swedes who also earned this Honor Doctorsdegree.
For example, he explicitly chose to build a monolithic kernel as opposed to a microkernel. Conventional theory dictates that a microkernel is more flexible and expandable, but Linus believes it is better to put core system functions together in one large piece of memory. Now that Linux is available to everyone, we can all evaluate that choice and more aptly decide for ourselves whether abstraction is the right choice for our needs.
If that doesn't earn him a doctorate, I don't know what does.
Leenoos Turfelds is tu be-a geefee un hunurery Ducturete-a degree-a frum zee Uneefersitiy ooff Stuckhulm. Mr. Turfelds is heeeled es zee
creetur ooff zee Leenoox oopereteeng system, a ferseeun ooff Uneex imbreced by zee Oopee Suoorce-a mufement. Bork Bork Bork!
Young computergenius one of this years honorary doctorates.
This years honorary doctorates at the Stockholm University are now apointed.
Among them is the 29 year old finisch-swedish Linus Torvalds that created
the world faoums operating system Linux. Torvalds is livning i Santa Clata USA.
[...]
(bla, bla about the rest of the guys)
...and at the Mathematical Department [...] Linus Torvalds.
The honorary doctors will be confer a doctor's degree at the usual installation
at the Blue Hall at Stockholms City Hall friday the 24 September. [....] bla bla
Ralf
Creating an entirely new operating system that the whole world is going to use is really not a big feat considering the crud foisted on us by those Microguys.
However, using a stupid looking penguin as a moniker for it and having everybody accept it, now that's something worthy of a phd
machine that it came out of. If you has a lot of spare money laying around, wouldn't you buy one??
By the way, I don't mean to belittle all the hard work that all you PhDs have done, but unfortunately, an original contribution does not equate to an important contribution. And I also think the *BSD OSes are significant contributions, certainly >= PhD quality.
Let me put it this way. In order for the university to convey 'honor' on Linus (or anyone else), it must first have some authority. If I give Linus an honorary doctorate would anyone (including Linus) care? I really doubt it.
By accepting the 'honor' Linus accepts the authority of the presenter. I say Linus should reject it out of hand, because in the end you have to ask yourself, "Is the university honoring me, or am I honoring the university?"
Of course, as with the honorary doctorate, no one really cares what I have to say 8*)
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
Please note that Linus hasn't earned a degree. He may be the most brilliant man to ever touch a computer, but there is a lot more to earning a degree than demonstrating that your brilliant. What about a thesis?
I've always seen honorary degrees as nothing more than a way for the academic elite to maintain their stranglehold on 'intelligence'(i.e., the attitude that your not truly intelligent until you have a degree). What happens when great things are created by people without the academic stamp of approval? Some school rushes in to give them the stamp so that they can now be 'officially' intelligent.
Linus, refuse their degree. Tell the world that you were smart enough to guide the development of one of the world's greatest software systems without a degree, and that others can do the same.
People who have earned real doctorate degrees have every reason to be proud. It's something that takes years of hard work to obtain. Those achievements shouldn't be watered down by giving 'honorary' degrees to people who haven't done the work, just so universities can be the gatekeepers of intelligence.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
Oh, come on now - what exactly did Torvalds do to deserve a Doctorate in Math? Honorary degrees are being given out these days for things they have no business being given out for. I'm all for honorary degrees honoring someone who did something that they idn't have academic training for. For instance, my university this year is giving an Honorary Doctorate of mathematics to Dr Somebody, PHd, Mathematics. The guy has THE REAL THING, and they are giving him an honorary one! What kind of crap is that? If someone wants to give Linus Honorary doctorate in CS, then maybe. But, let's stop this knee-jerk give-out-an-honorary-degree-to-every-schmo-for-any -thing-they-do-for-anysubject crap.
Did he design a new OS paradigm?
From Merriam-Webster
Main Entry: paradigm
Pronunciation: 'par-&-"dIm also -"dim
Function: noun
Etymology: Late Latin paradigma, from Greek paradeigma, from paradeiknynai to show side by side, from para- + deiknynai to show -- more at DICTION
Date: 15th century
1 : EXAMPLE, PATTERN; especially : an outstandingly clear or typical example or archetype
Could be.
2 : an example of a conjugation or declension showing a word in all its inflectional forms
Probably not
3 : a philosophical and theoretical framework of a scientific school or discipline within which theories, laws, and generalizations and the experiments performed in support of them are formulated
Now here is something. GNU is nice, but you would have to admit, Linux has pushed the GNU movement ahead by leaps and bounds. Linux could be considered the framework
Did he start the whole "put out there and share the code" or the Free Software or Open Source idea?
No, he didn't invent it, only helped it.
Did he rewrite an improved Unix implimentation all by himself based on new ingenious concepts?
Not exactly no. He wrote the orginal kernel which started all this nice AltOS movement. Things don't have to be ingenious to recieve praise. They just have to work better.
did he start a small kernel based on existing and tested ideas and then have thousands of people expand it, imnprove it and make it grow?
Not bad for a college student from Finland who speaks Swedish and has a thing for Penguins.
is he an excellent programmer (probably 100x better than me)?
Never seen ya program...
He has a good work ethic and that is what makes a programmer who he is.
RB
As the old perl adage goes,
s/(?=c)ie/ei/
Evan Prodromou | evan@prodromou.name | http://evan.prodromou.name/
As the old perl adage goes, "s/(?=c)ie/ei/".
Evan Prodromou | evan@prodromou.name | http://evan.prodromou.name/
Hi all,
Why is it that so many people are so quick to put Linus down for his doctrate. Surely if you had managed to create an operating system, for free, and make it good enough and popular enough so that other people freely use it, you would be pretty happy when you got a doctrate for it.
I know that my ambition is to become a major jazz musicien (I'm currently only 17). However, I am aiming to make my money in computing... it's pretty difficult to get into money with music.
Anyway, I am aiming to got to university and do computer science. I would ideally like to study further and get a Ph.D. This is going to take a lot of work, *but* a lot less work that Linus has done with Linux.
So, would that make me any less deserving for a doctrate, honerary or other ? I would hope not.
Ok, it's really famous and and important what Linus do.
:)
But...
Revolutionate this the Computer Cience ?????
Or it's only a really good implementation/organization ??
Like an ingenier making a big bridge, nothing more than using what he learned.
I think that he should not receive a honary doctorate.
Ok folks, not blame me, it's only my opinion.
Ok, it's really famous and and important what Linus do.
:)
But...
Revolutionate this the Computer Cience ?????
Or it's only a really good implementation/organization ??
Like an ingenier making a big bridge, nothing more than using what he learned.
I think that he should not receive a honary doctorate.
Ok folks, not blame me, it's only my opinion.
Young computergenious one of this years honorary doctorates.
This years honorary doctorates at the university of Stockholm, have now been selected. Among them the only 29 year old finland-swede Linus Torvalds, who among other things has created the worldfamous operatingsystem Linux, is noticed. Torvalds is a resident of Santa Clara USA.
The following will be honorary doctorates:
Philosofical honorary doctorates:
At the faculty of humaniora:
dr Herbert Blume, Braunscheweig, Germany
professor Donald Davidson, Berkeley, USA and publisher Per I Gedin and professor Birgit Åkesson, both from Stockholm.
At the faculty of social studies:
professor Barney Glaser, Mill Valley, USA, socionom Leif Holgersson, Västerhaninge and FN:s special envoy in disability issues Bengt Lindqvist, Tyresö
And at the faculty of mathematical-natural science:
professor Josef Houstek, Checkian sience academy, professor Larry A. Mayer, University of New Brunswick, Kanada, professor Ross Norstrom, National Wildlife Research Centre, Kanada and the above mentioned Linus Torvalds.
Legal honorary doctorates:
Judge Leif Sevón and former chief prosecutor Eric Östberg, Stockholm.
--------
Hopefully this is all translated reasonably correct.
Linus Torvalds is just like everyone of us. He knows how to program, like most of us have some sort of niche. I'm sure there are plenty of programmers that are _better_ than he.
For instance, I've never seen him in Silicon Valley, and honestly it's a small place. He lives in Santa Clara, I live about 10 minutes north. I doubt most people have met him. Besides, he's like us, why would we want to.
He didn't change the industry. AT&T did. The industry is not using Linux, it's using Solaris, WindowsNT, and often *BSD. Linux is for poor companies, or companies that are trying to gain share holders' favor.
Linus is definately a great *person*. But that's all he is... just another programmer, like me, like the rest of you. I, in fact, honor his work, and his efforts to shape the open source community with a far superior operating system; but lives weren't saved, exceptional and superior work was not given, nor has he done anything to make him different. Bill Gates is different because he is a selfish money hoarding advocate of control; monster. Linus is a guy.
Just consider this: With all your hard work, excellent ideas, life-long devotion, and industry changing talent, have you and will you ever be recognized in a way that very few (Gates, Torvalds, Ellison, etc) get to be?
With that in thought, do you think he deserves it now?