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Time's Man of the Century: Linus Torvalds?
Mr H writes "According to Time's Person of the Century Poll
Linus Torvalds is #15 out of 100." When I looked, Linus -- at #15 -- was ranked right below Madonna (#14), and right above Pope Paul VI (#16). Yitzhak Rabin was #1, Elvis Presley was #2, and Adolph Hitler was #3. Bill Gates, FYI, was ranked #17, Billy Graham was #4, and Albert Einstein was #5.
I think the Linus T. inclusion in this poll is utter BS.
Mention anything about Linux anywhere and you'll see a flock of dedicated Linux users/developers just voting to make their cause more visible. I can relate to this because I used to flock around to "help Apple" in those polls.
This reminds me of all the other open polls. It doesn't serve a value. Object World recently had a poll to determine the best web application server. There were Apple folks on the Mac OS X-Talk mailing list asking people to go vote for WebObject (still a damn good product, but the award it won makes it artificial).
Torvald didn't do squat to "influence the course of history over the past 100 years". Nor has Gates. Nor has Jobs.
People who shook the world for good were those who caused major shifts in society. John Lenon didn't do that either. He merely represented a free-form movement that started out of the will of the mass to change things. I guess HE can relate to Torvald. But neither really MADE the movements (BSD started out years before Linux, and is still used in more places than Linux).
But you can bet that Hitler did change the course of hystory. He changed how societies collided each other. More so than Napoleon did. He defined what war is today. He defined how a society can be manipulated into beleiving a cause, either good or bad. None can really like what he did. But nobody can ignore what he did, and still reflects today, 50+ years later, when we are still going against war criminals, picking up debries and rebuilding nations from that war.
However, Hitler couldn't have gone this far without the simplicity and genius of another man. And that's Henry Ford. Ford redefined (and basically invented) mass manufacturing, without which no U-Boats or Sherman thanks or rifles, bombs, amunitions, boots, hats, medals and tombs could have been produced in great-enough numbers to have ever made a difference. Ford didn't only shift society--he moved it, literally, by making possible (and afordable) the trade routes that constitutes today's world economies. His mass-produced cars, and the manufacturing lines that made them possible,is at the core of current human activities. Throughout this planet, right up to the moon. Apollo 11 wouldn't have made it in time for the Kenedy deadline ("before this decade is over") if it wouldn't have been for countless mass-produced parts like metal plates, wires, electronic components, bolts and paint buckets.
Ford made it possible for the Jobs, Gates, Torvalds, Lenons to have their medium to publicise their cause. Imagine Lennon without mass-produced records or radios. Jobs without mass-produced Apple I parts. Gates without mass-produced Macs to copy from. Torvalds without mass-produced internet connection apartus: modems, phone lines, hubs. Imagine a great movie without Soilent Green.
Henry got my vote.
All of those other people in the list are either
1: political leaders that a) started wars, or b) ended wars
2: religious leaders that a) fell from grace, or b) held the grace of their god
3: pop culture figures that are products of a greedy western hype machine (Madonna, Bill Gates, John Lennon, Pricess Diana)
4: appear on the list only by virtue of the revenues they have generated for the media machine.
Where does Linus sit? He's not in either of those categories, realistically (okay you could say #4, but that's secondary to his function, unlike Madonna whose prime purpose is to do just that).
Linus, and the entire Linux project, is a peace-time project. You have Jews, Hispanics, Atheists, disabled people, nerds, geeks, jocks and other 'types' of people all working together, peacfully, productively, making something that countless thousands of other members of the human race will put to use to enhance their lives through greater productivity, education, etc.
For free.
Linux is the product of a truly Free Society. It is not some government funded project, it is not based on some fascist/rascist/capitalist/whateverist agenda.
Linus' inclusion in that list is the only one that makes sense.
Should we put a figurehead on the 21st Century that means anything *other* than what this civilization has fought the *entire* century to become, which is a Freedom for All Races? Should we say "the 21st Century was best represented by Adolf Hitler, who was a war monger who persecuted the Jews"?
Should we say "the 21st Century is best beheld by the image of Mother Theresa, who, in spite of her own personal suffering and persecution, continued to suffer her entire life so that children in 3rd World Countries, ignored by the rest of the species, could have decent health services"?
No. I don't think so.
Linux is the child of all of those other people on this list. It's prime creators' (Linus) image is the natural representation of everything that all of those other figureheads has either fought *HARD* to obtain, or *HARD* to prevent.
So I say he deserves to be in that list with the rest of them.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Why not Hitler? WWII was _the_ most significant political event of this century. That puts all the major leaders - FDR, Churchill, Stalin and yes, Hitler in the running for most historically significant figure of the century. Not the most admirable perhaps, but definitely one of the most significant. I voted for Gandhi myself, but the case for Hitler is pretty strong. He's a bit unlikely to disappear from the annals of history.
--Shoeboy