Linus Torvalds stewardship is often cited as critical factor in thriving linux kernel development
Ulrich Drepper is often cited for preventing widespread community contribution to glibc and causing forks such as eglibc.
For casual observer like me it appears both are technically brilliant individuals who have strong opinions and dont suffer fools lightly. What caused linux to thrive ? Was it the organizational heirarchy of having individual maintainers for different components in the linux kernel ?
Ask HN: Difference in management styles of Ulrich Drepper and Linus Torvalds
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Re: Ask HN: Difference in management styles of Ulrich Drepper and Linus Torvalds
#2If I remember correctly, the main problem with Mr. Drepper was that he was resistant to accepting changes to glibc... even (subjectively) good ones.
Torvalds, like Drepper, is often criticized for a less-than-friendly attitude, but it is generally acknowledged that he lets the Linux kernel progress.
Re: Ask HN: Difference in management styles of Ulrich Drepper and Linus Torvalds
#3I cannot say I have studied either in sufficient detail but I will say there is a huge body of academic and less-academic work on the effectiveness of leaders and leadership style in commercial and corporate markets - and none of it is conclusive in anyway.
However, in these cases there is a vast corpus of emails and comma - it's as if we had a stenographer following Lou Gerstner and Steve Jobs around, so I would be surprised that now you have mentioned it, there is not some academic attempt to quantify answers.
Hell, if anyone fancies a middle aged student for a research thesis I would happily take a run at this :-)
Re: Ask HN: Difference in management styles of Ulrich Drepper and Linus Torvalds
#4Well, we can conclude that being an asshole is irrelevant or not enough for running a successful project.
Re: Ask HN: Difference in management styles of Ulrich Drepper and Linus Torvalds
#5Sounds like homework...
Re: Ask HN: Difference in management styles of Ulrich Drepper and Linus Torvalds
#6Well, we can conclude that being an asshole is irrelevant or not enough for running a successful project.
I remember at the peak of the Steve Jobs dynasty, I noticed several classmates who would try and act just like him while speaking in front of people (black sweaters and all), and they started being complete jerks to people who didn't have the same perceived creativity or vision that they had. They thought if they acted in the ways Jobs was famour for, maybe they'd inherit his brilliance...
Re: Ask HN: Difference in management styles of Ulrich Drepper and Linus Torvalds
#7If I remember correctly, the main problem with Mr. Drepper was that he was resistant to accepting changes to glibc... even (subjectively) good ones. Torvalds, like Drepper, is often criticized for a less-than-friendly attitude, but it is generally acknowledged that he lets the Linux kernel progress.
To add to this: Torvalds has definitely let changes into the kernel which he was initially against (particularly when changes moved away from the "UNIX way" of doing things to more complex, but more efficient, solutions). However he can be talked into things with reason (and data!), he can snap at people, but then the conversation continues and progress is made.
Re: Ask HN: Difference in management styles of Ulrich Drepper and Linus Torvalds
#8Sounds like homework...
Now that you said it, it certainly does.
Re: Ask HN: Difference in management styles of Ulrich Drepper and Linus Torvalds
#9Well, we can conclude that being an asshole is irrelevant or not enough for running a successful project.
I remember at the peak of the Steve Jobs dynasty, I noticed several classmates who would try and act just like him while speaking in front of people (black sweaters and all), and they started being complete jerks to people who didn't have the same perceived creativity or vision that they had. They thought if they acted in the ways Jobs was famour for, maybe they'd inherit his brilliance...
Sounds like a cargo cult (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult).
Re: Ask HN: Difference in management styles of Ulrich Drepper and Linus Torvalds
#10Linus is passionate about his project. He has a strict, no-bullshit attitude, but he knows how to control his temper. If you notice, he yells the harshest at experienced kernel developers. This is because he expects better of them, and does not tolerate stupid (considering their knowledge) mistakes. However, you won't see him tear down newbies, and he can often be quite pleasant and even relenting.
Ulrich was simply antisocial. He just stopped giving a fuck by the end. He yelled at everyone, ignored and bullshitted his way out of valid bug reports and was a detriment. He complained about how maintaining a GNU project is a burden and how he would be quick to leave... back in 2001: http://sourceware.org/ml/libc-announce/2001/msg00000.html. Most likely he stayed for the brownie points at Red Hat and the FOSS community at large.