Linus Torvalds CNN Interview

[BoyOfDestiny]

Here, although I bet this will get posted like 3 more times ;)

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/BUSINESS/05/18/global.office.linustorvalds/

A fun read I think. claims that Linux in in the #2 spot of OS's...

I'd love to see the actual figures one of these days... I just hope it means more drivers... :)

So the heirarchy is

Windows
Linux (rather GNU/Linux ;))
??? BSD/OS X/ etc...

[Iandefor]

Here, although I bet this will get posted like 3 more times ;)

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/BUSINESS/05/18/global.office.linustorvalds/

A fun read I think. claims that Linux in in the #2 spot of OS's...

I'd love to see the actual figures one of these days... I just hope it means more drivers... :)

So the heirarchy is

Windows
Linux (rather GNU/Linux ;))
??? BSD/OS X/ etc... I believe that that figure also takes servers into account.

[BoyOfDestiny]

I believe that that figure also takes servers into account.

Yeah I bet. :) Desktops, servers, pda's, watches?, who knows. :)

[mstlyevil]

Still the figure is acurate when you consider that MSFT is in almost all of those things also. Now it being the second largest operating system on the desktop might be debatable.

I personally believe it is the second largest on the desktop because it is hard to measure a product given away for free on the internet. Most measurements look at sales of what was loaded on a computer and do not take into account those that replace the OS or dual boot.

[TrailerTrash]

LOL..She should have asked him if he liked GNOME.. LOL

[ubuntu_demon]

interesting read. especially this part :



KLS: Over the years, Linux has spawned other open technologies and even an open source spirit or open source philosophy. It has engendered stuff like Wikipedia, the online open source encyclopedia or even, some could argue, citizen journalism. What are your thoughts about that?

LT: We shouldn't give credit to Linux per se. There were open source projects and free software before Linux was there. Linux in many ways is one of the more visible and one of the bigger technical projects in this area and it changed how people looked at it because Linux took both the practical and ideological approach. At the same time I don't think this whole "openness" notion is new. In fact I often compare open source to science. To where science took this whole notion of developing ideas in the open and improving on other peoples' ideas and making it into what science is today, and the incredible advances that we have had. And I compare that to witchcraft and alchemy, where openness was something you didn't do.So openness is not something new, it is something that actually has worked for a long time.


I hadn't really thought about open source in that way until last wednesday when someone (a teacher of history of computing) told me something along these lines ... and now Linus himself says it.

[MiKuS]

exelent read.
allthough he doesent say much some of us didn't know

[kanem]

interesting read. especially this part...

Yeah. People often forget the science in computer science and don't realize that open source is not the new way to do things, it's the original way of doing things with computers. This keeping code secret stuff is just a fad that will pass. It's like me (a scientist) wanting to keep my results secret from other physicists. Insane.

One thing that bugged me with the article:

Linux is the free software code developed by a global community of programmers. It's also the world's fastest growing operating system and number two behind Microsoft.

Torvalds works full time overseeing the development of Linux which he created back in 1991 while at university in Helsinki.
Ok, if you are going to call the operating system just Linux, you can't then go and say that Torvalds invented the Linux OS. The interviewer (who obviously doesn't know much about the history of the OS) seems to be under the impression that the whole OS was written by Torvalds in '91 and that he is the leader of the whole development process. Not just the kernel, but the whole enchilada; X, Gnome, and Ubuntu too. And she is spreading that misconception to all the readers who don't know any better.

[ubuntu_demon]

Yeah. People often forget the science in computer science and don't realize that open source is not the new way to do things, it's the original way of doing things with computers. This keeping code secret stuff is just a fad that will pass. It's like me (a scientist) wanting to keep my results secret from other physicists. Insane.


I know science is open. I know open source is open. I just didn't think about where linux and open source originated from (apart from Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds). :)



One thing that bugged me with the article:

Ok, if you are going to call the operating system just Linux, you can't then go and say that Torvalds invented the Linux OS. The interviewer (who obviously doesn't know much about the history of the OS) seems to be under the impression that the whole OS was written by Torvalds in '91 and that he is the leader of the whole development process. Not just the kernel, but the whole enchilada; X, Gnome, and Ubuntu too. And she is spreading that misconception to all the readers who don't know any better.

I totally agree. People don't know GNU and people want things oversimplified though.

[fuscia]

LOL..She should have asked him if he liked GNOME.. LOL

he does seem to hate gnome more than microsoft. maybe it's just easier for a kde user to migrate to windows than to gnome.

[GeneralZod]

I wonder who voted this thread a "1", and why :confused:

[MenZa]

LOL..She should have asked him if he liked GNOME.. LOL

Linus has stated, several times, that his flavour was KDE.

[TrailerTrash]

Linus has stated, several times, that his flavour was KDE.


LOL..I know..I was just being goofy. 8)