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Linux creator Linus Torvalds shares Millennium Technology Prize

bbc.co.uk

1–10 of 23 posts

Re: Linux creator Linus Torvalds shares Millennium Technology Prize

#3
post #2

"It is estimated that a total of 73,000 man-years have been spent working on the code." That is such a mind-boggling number that I can scarcely believe it.

I guess I'll stop writing my own kernel. There are other things I want to do in the next 73,000 years.

Re: Linux creator Linus Torvalds shares Millennium Technology Prize

#4
post #2

"It is estimated that a total of 73,000 man-years have been spent working on the code." That is such a mind-boggling number that I can scarcely believe it.

I guess I'll stop writing my own kernel. There are other things I want to do in the next 73,000 years.

The purpose of you writing a kernel is to share a Millennium Technology Prize?

Re: Linux creator Linus Torvalds shares Millennium Technology Prize

#5
I have always been curious whether Linus has made good money for his contributions. This both made me happy that he was given some money and prompted me to find out whether he has made money otherwise.

It looks like he has [1], and thats awesome.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds#Later_years

Re: Linux creator Linus Torvalds shares Millennium Technology Prize

#7
That's pretty cool. Remembering back to the old Minix/Linux flame fest I would not have ever predicted it would end up this way.

I'm struck by the fact that these sorts of things are often given to people who have persisted, year after year, in pursuit of singular excellence in a particular topic. I highly respect folks who have that level of grit.

Re: Linux creator Linus Torvalds shares Millennium Technology Prize

#8

I really can't put in words how much I admire Linus! If you know Linux's history, met the community or if you've tried Linux... it's hard not to fall in love with it.

Isn't this really more the windowing environments and the driver support? Gone are the days when it was difficult to get a working UNIX installation, thanks to Linux, but as far as the kernel is concerned, I was happy with Solaris, NetBSD, HP-UX. Some might argue SE was a welcome addition, but for me it's the first thing I disable.

I know there have been a large number of features added to the kernel over the years, and support for new hardware, but those developments have also happened with the other flavors of UNIX.

I guess my point is, did the world really need another flavor of UNIX?

I think I personally have been more impacted by LT for having authored git. Even though I write this on Chrome running on Ubuntu. I'd have been just as happy to have installed any other Unix flavor.

Re: Linux creator Linus Torvalds shares Millennium Technology Prize

#9
I don't mean to take away from Linus' achievement, nor to sound like RMS, but every time people refer to "the Linux operating system" it's misappropriating credit. They usually mean GNU/Linux and the kernel is only one piece of that.

EDIT: Disregard this comment, the article has been edited removing references to Linux as an operating system.

Re: Linux creator Linus Torvalds shares Millennium Technology Prize

#10
post #2

"It is estimated that a total of 73,000 man-years have been spent working on the code." That is such a mind-boggling number that I can scarcely believe it.

It would be interesting to know how many men years were put into Windows and OS X, for comparison. Anybody has an idea or references?
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