Dude is 45 years old and we are already planning for his death. In other industries he would just be hitting his stride. In this one we are getting fitted for diapers.
Profile of Linus Torvalds
31–40 of 71 posts
Re: Profile of Linus Torvalds
#32I stopped reading when the author referred to Linux as an operating system.
I prefer to speak of GNU/Torvalds.
Re: Profile of Linus Torvalds
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow, Richard Stallman's posting here. What an honor.
Is this sarcasm, or is Stallman really posting here? What is his username?
The joke is that rms is really upset about people calling Linux an operating system and thinks Linux distros should be called GNU/Linux, a position he hasn't gotten a lot of people to support him on.
Re: Profile of Linus Torvalds
#34Dude is 45 years old and we are already planning for his death. In other industries he would just be hitting his stride. In this one we are getting fitted for diapers.
Is the tech industry really the only one that asks the "what happens if you [the founder] gets hit by a bus tomorrow?" question.
Re: Profile of Linus Torvalds
#35Misleading title. I'd say click bait. It talks about Linus and Linux but not about the "future without him" part.
Ok, we changed the title to something generic. Suggestions for a better title are welcome, as always.
I'd go so far as to say this is too generic, but what do I know? In any case I thought the original title was better.
Re: Profile of Linus Torvalds
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Once upon a time, before RMS re-defined the term for his benefit, the phrase "Operating System" meant what we now call the kernel. You can see the legacy of this in Computer Science departments around the country where they teach an "Operating Systems" course which covers implementing schedulers, file systems, device drivers, etc... Maybe if the GNU folks could have made a usable kernel, they wouldn't have had to sto…
To be fair to RMS, commercial entities selling "Operating Systems" have usually used the label, even before RMS and the Free Software movement were widely noticed by outsiders, to refer to not only the kernel, but the whole package of software and tools sold as a package with it.
Who knows. I see ads all the time for the "Xfinity Entertainment Operating System" which as far as I can tell is just television service.
Re: Profile of Linus Torvalds
#37My main criticism of the linux ecosystem is this:
The many eyes theory is broken due to complexity and amount of code, and hence the primary way to the future is in reduction of both (loc and complexity thereof). At over 10 million loc these days, linux has become unweildy for even the most experienced kernel hacker to really understand. This is why I think microkernels like Minix 3 have a bright future as their development progresses. (Minix 3 has <15k loc)
Re: Profile of Linus Torvalds
#38Dude is 45 years old and we are already planning for his death. In other industries he would just be hitting his stride. In this one we are getting fitted for diapers.
Is the tech industry really the only one that asks the "what happens if you [the founder] gets hit by a bus tomorrow?" question.
Perhaps just of the ones where [the founder] has their feet still firmly on the ground.
Re: Profile of Linus Torvalds
#39As an aside, how does Linus come across as a grouch? Like any other normal human being that expresses a range of emotions, he might have exhibited an imperfect control on his temper/tone. People are way too judgemental / thin skinned these days.
As an aside, how does Linus come across as a grouch?
"Reporters" drive clicks by pretending to be outraged. Therefore they have to build up a set of standards and narratives which will make readers find Linus' behavior unacceptable, and dismiss Linus' explanations as just being a grouch. Once readers buy into the narrative, they see the world through that lens.
Side note: multiply this by all the news sites that use snark and moral outrage. That's how you get thin skin and judgmental in society. It's just like how the bigger news organizations exploit and reenforce a sense of fear in their viewers.
Re: Profile of Linus Torvalds
#40"Torvalds released the Linux operating system from his college dorm room in Finland in 1991."
Apparently the reporter assumed that everyone who goes to college, lives in a dorm room. But in this case that was not true.