what would have happened if Linus Torvalds had accepted Steve Jobs offer?

[ardouronerous]

I was reading this article about if what Linus Torvalds had accepted Steve Jobs offer, here's the link: https://www.tecmint.com/what-if-linus-torvalds-would-have-accepted-job-proposal-of-steve-jobs/

According to the article and based of what I've read, in 2000, Steve Jobs offered Linus Torvalds a job at Apple under the condition that he halt developing Linux.

Excerpt from the article;

What if Torvalds would have accepted the proposal?

That day if Torvalds would have accepted the proposal of Steve Jobs, today the world would not been the same. We wont be having Linux, Kindle, Android, more than half of Internet. More than 90% of servers of Today. Literally the picture of world would have been very different, as it is today.



How true is this exactly? If Linus did accept Steve's job offer, would Linux just die as this article states, no Android, Kindle, Linux servers running most of the Internet, and Linux running on most of the world's supercomputers?

Based off what I've read, Linux has grown too big to be tied down to one man, e.g. Linus Torvalds, so if Linus were to quit or die today, tomorrow or many years from now, Linux would continue on in the hands of the many eyeballs eying the Linux source code.

But was this the case in 2000?

[mobius+]

I dont know if this Job offer was true (could be) but in 2000 the Linux world was already much much bigger than just Linus Torvalds so independently of him the Linux world would have continued and perhaps there would have been other distros and some other differences but the presence of Linux would have continued for sure.

[ardouronerous]

Linus admits it himself, Linux kernel development would continue with or without him;

A quote from https://www.cio.com/article/2937193/linux/what-will-happen-to-linux-when-linus-torvalds-quits.html

"I've long since come to the realization that Linux is much bigger than me. Yes, I'm intimately involved in it still, and I have a fairly large day-to-day impact on it, and I end up being the person who, in some sense, acts as the central point for a lot of kernel activities; but no -- I wouldn't say that Linux 'depends heavily' on me.
So if I had a heart attack and died tomorrow (happily not likely: I'm apparently healthy as anything), people would certainly notice, but there are thousands of people involved in just the kernel, and there are more than a few that could take over for me with little real confusion."

So I don't get why Steve tried to convince Linus to cease developing Linux. It's to eliminate competition of course, but didn't Steve Jobs realize the meaning of free and open-source? The Linux community owns Linux.

[speedwell68]

Linus admits it himself, Linux kernel development would continue with or without him;

A quote from https://www.cio.com/article/2937193/linux/what-will-happen-to-linux-when-linus-torvalds-quits.html


So I don't get why Steve tried to convince Linus to cease developing Linux. It's to eliminate competition of course, but didn't Steve Jobs realize the meaning of free and open-source? The Linux community owns Linux.

SJ knew exactly what FOSS was about and it terrified him. The guy was an ultimate control freak and he knew that if FOSS on the desktop succeeded he'd lose his control. FOSS has wiped the floor with Apple and Microsoft in every sector other than the desktop. In his heart of hearts he knew that Apple is and always will be a failure in ever sector. FOSS controls the server and mobile market and Microsoft controls the desktop market. By 2000 he would have seen what was coming and probably hoped by poaching Torvalds he could have destabilised the FOSS sector.

[ardouronerous]

FOSS has wiped the floor with Apple and Microsoft in every sector other than the desktop. In his heart of hearts he knew that Apple is and always will be a failure in ever sector. FOSS controls the server and mobile market and Microsoft controls the desktop market.

Not in the music industry though, I was once apprenticed at a small sound and video studio, they made commercials and stuff like that, and all the sound engineers were using Apple.


By 2000 he would have seen what was coming and probably hoped by poaching Torvalds he could have destabilised the FOSS sector.

Would it have though? Based off what I've read, Linux is one of the only FOSS success stories, other systems haven't reached the popularity that Linux has.

[speedwell68]

Not in the music industry though, I was once apprenticed at a small sound and video studio, they made commercials and stuff like that, and all the sound engineers were using Apple.

What I meant was in each type of hardware. There are more Android mobile devices than iOS. There are more Linux servers than any proprietary system. There are more Linux based embedded systems than anything else. But there are more Windows desktops/laptops than anything else. My point is that Apple aren't the market leaders.

[grahammechanical]

In Regards to the original question ...

we would still be waiting for Richard Stallman to release a useful version of his GNU operating system.

Regards

[SantaFe]

In Regards to the original question ...

we would still be waiting for Richard Stallman to release a useful version of his GNU operating system.

Regards
That's nothing GNU! :o ;)

[QIII]

It's like a Greek myth: A GNU consigned to an eternity of looking for the HURD.

[pauljw]

Heheheh.... thanks for laughs. It's so good to know that I'm not alone in holding this opinion of the most wonderful RS.