Linus Torvalds is past his sell by date, claimed CNN

[ComplexNumber]

in response to CNN claiming he doesn't matter anymore,.....





We immediately sought out Torvalds for his reaction to the story, trying our best to be sensitive to his mortally wounded ego. Here's the Q&A that ensued via email.

NewsForge: What's your reaction to allegedly having fallen from grace?
Torvalds: I will hunt them down, and personally kill every single Fortune reporter.
That will teach them. Mwhahahhaaahahaa!
NewsForge: Will you and Steve Ballmer form a 12-step recovery group as a consequence?
Torvalds: No. We're rivals in this, and I worry that Steve "ninja" Ballmer will find those reporters first, and use his magic chair-shaped shuriken to get to them before I do.
He's crafty, that Steve. And the company jet gives him a certain edge. But I will prevail!
NewsForge: Have you really made a billion dollars from Linux?
Torvalds: No. Linux was just the cover story. I made all my money smuggling drugs while traveling to international conferences under the guise of talking about "the future of technology" or some such tripe.
Did it never strike you that a lot of the people coming to Linux conferences were the long-haired hippie type, and seemed a bit spaced out? You thought that was because they were geeks, didn't you? It's an easy mistake to make.
It was the perfect cover.
NewsForge: Now that you're off the A list, will you go back to giving keynotes at LWCE?
Torvalds: I'm still on the A list of certain multi-national government agencies, so that's a very definitive no.
NewsForge: Do the kernel hackers still respect you anyway?
Torvalds: The long-haired hippie ones still do. Wink, wink.

http://trends.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/07/15/2224218

[K.Mandla]

Linus rocks.

[Kernel Sanders]

Its a wind up article. Not even a funny one tbh......

[Engnome]

I'm long haired and respect torvalds so atleast that is true ;)

[RAV TUX]

in response to CNN claiming he doesn't matter anymore,.....





http://trends.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/07/15/2224218

Linux is simply awesome, I am glad to be a part of this.

[Derek Djons]

Well, I almost choke while laughing about Linus' conversation with NewsForge... :)

[jc87]

Gotta love Linus , great interview, but my favorite Linus quote is still :


Modern PCs are horrible. ACPI is a complete design disaster in every way. But we're kind of stuck with it. If any Intel people are listening to this and you had anything to do with ACPI, shoot yourself now, before you reproduce

[RavenOfOdin]

Gotta love Linus , great interview, but my favorite Linus quote is still :

. . .Just. . .Whoa.

:D

[shinkaide]

That's like saying Colonel Sanders doesn't mean shite to KFC... or something like that... oh well, until Jon Stewart says otherwise, CNN is still the world's most reliable news source.

Loved the interview. Hehe. :D

[Jucato]

I have one question, though. What were their criteria for deciding who matters or doesn't matter? Is it just by popularity (or infamy, in the case of Ballmer)? Or the amount of press coverage the person generates (which would be quite ironic in Ballmer's case, again...). If it were based on the role of those persons within each company/group, how would they have known those "facts" unless they have really gone inside (no, "inside sources" shouldn't count).

I'm not questioning the articles credibility, per se. I'm just curious to know how they decide these things.

As for Linus' current "importance" in the Linux world, I guess that has to be clarified or narrowed down. If you're talking about his role in the wider GNU/Linux world, then he really is probably dwarfed by big names/companies. But if you're talking about his role in the Linux kernel development, I'd doubt that his influence has diminished. For one, he has never really taken the role of benevolent dictator (AFAIK) and has, from the very beginning, acknowledge that the kernel is really a group/team project, that he just initiated the process. For another thing, he really doesn't go public that much. But when he does, the press immediately focus on his "controversial" statements.