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View Full Version : What will happen when Linus Torvalds dies



sephirothsigep
April 27th, 2007, 04:55 AM
Alright if you dont know who Linus Trovalds is then you need to do some reading. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds) anyway for a quick idea he is responsible for about 2% of the current Linux kernel. Since Linux has had thousands of contributors, such a percentage is very respectable. Torvalds remains the ultimate authority (aka Benevolent Dictator for Life) on what new code is incorporated into the Linux kernel. so my question is what is going to happen when he dies, since he is the one that controls what is added and removed from each kernel? also what group or perosn will take over after him? anyway put your thoughts down

Ric95
April 27th, 2007, 05:04 AM
I think the worst that could happen is that linux users will have to compile new drivers and kernels for themselves.
I doubt it would ever go that way though. It will probably get easier and easier to use, although there may be more businesses aiming to make money from linux ( eg; repository access), not such a bad thing... better than windows anyhow.

tbroderick
April 27th, 2007, 05:12 AM
Well, if it was one person who'd be in charge, my guess would be Andrew Morton.

FoolsGold
April 27th, 2007, 05:17 AM
They'll probably just put a penguin in charge.

ubuntu27
April 27th, 2007, 05:26 AM
They'll probably just put a penguin in charge.

LOL!! Then the penguin will rule the world!! Then he will have military power!!

Look at this thread: Penguin and his Army. (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=210068)

FoolsGold
April 27th, 2007, 05:34 AM
Look at this thread: Penguin and his Army. (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=210068)

BEHOLD! THE NEW LEADER OF THE LINUX REVOLUTION!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0f/Nils_Olav_inspection.jpg

wmcbrine
April 27th, 2007, 05:35 AM
Well, if it was one person who'd be in charge, my guess would be Andrew Morton.I would think Alan Cox.

saulgoode
April 27th, 2007, 05:37 AM
Well, if it was one person who'd be in charge, my guess would be Andrew Morton.

My understanding is that during a good portion of 2.2 and all of 2.4, it was actually Andrew Morton's branch that most distributions used for their kernel source.

steven8
April 27th, 2007, 05:49 AM
How about Alan Cox, Andrew Morton, and a team of Linux kernel Devs? Linus is unique in that he created the kernel himself. I picture more than one person taking over the development if something were to befall Linus suddenly. You know. . .a community effort. :)

tbroderick
April 27th, 2007, 06:30 AM
I would think Alan Cox.

I say Andrew cause I'm pretty sure he is the maintainer of the 2.6 kernel series and Linus maintains the 2.7 series.

OffHand
April 27th, 2007, 09:34 AM
I say Andrew cause I'm pretty sure he is the maintainer of the 2.6 kernel series and Linus maintains the 2.7 series.

There is no 2.7 kernel:

http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Torvalds-surprised-by-resilience-of-2-6-kernel/0,130061733,339273095,00.htm

And I think Linus is still in charge of THE Linux kernel.

sephirothsigep
April 27th, 2007, 08:42 PM
Linus is still in chare of the kernel development and choices for what all takes place for the most part if my understanding is correct. any how i thikn that their is going to be many different off springs of the kernel once he is gone and there is no main person in charge makeing the calls. but then again i could be wrong.

forrestcupp
April 27th, 2007, 09:02 PM
Do you think Linus will ever die?

It won't be a big deal. Bill Gates is leaving Microsoft, and they're still going strong.

sephirothsigep
April 30th, 2007, 08:47 PM
microsft is still going strong because 80% of computer users dont know any better than to you windows.

PartisanEntity
April 30th, 2007, 09:10 PM
An interesting though that has, without wishing Linus any ill luck, crossed all our minds no doubt.

The worst that can happen IMO is that we end up with multiple Linux kernels that start to develop at different rates and go different ways. Then you would end up with many more distributions and the average or new user would lose any oversight, it would just become too complicated and time consuming to have to sift through hundreds of distributions based on different kernels to find out which one suits you. I would really hate to have to go through 15 distributions just to find out that works, or that I like, I don't have the time.

That would really annoy me, it is best we all stay focused on one kernel and fine tune our distributions.

Hopefully it would become a community maintained single version.

dca
April 30th, 2007, 09:14 PM
GNU & the Linux kernel has grown well beyond the sum of all its parts. If Linus croaked tomorrow, (of course I don't wish that on anybody) there would be a short time of grief and bereavement but work would continue...

BuffaloX
April 30th, 2007, 09:45 PM
We could make Linux a Monarchy.
That would solve two problems:

When Linus steps down he would be followed by his first born child. Securing the future and stability of Linux.
Linux could no longer be accused of communism.

ssam
April 30th, 2007, 10:32 PM
linus has written a complex bash script which will take over all his work if anything should happen to him. its impossible to know that this has not happened already.

seriously there is probably a plan. i imagine one of the top maintainers would take over the role. Andrew Morton sounds like a reasonable choice, but there are a few others it could be.

the alternative is that some organisation like the linux foundation, or the fsf would take over.

Happy_Man
April 30th, 2007, 10:34 PM
Leave it to you guys to make my day just that much more terrible...:razz:

ynnhoj
April 30th, 2007, 11:44 PM
what if linus doesn't die/go away for years and years, and linux as we know it becomes something completely different? things can/will evolve.. seems kinda silly to speculate about. :-?

FuturePilot
April 30th, 2007, 11:47 PM
An interesting though that has, without wishing Linus any ill luck, crossed all our minds no doubt.

The worst that can happen IMO is that we end up with multiple Linux kernels that start to develop at different rates and go different ways. Then you would end up with many more distributions and the average or new user would lose any oversight, it would just become too complicated and time consuming to have to sift through hundreds of distributions based on different kernels to find out which one suits you. I would really hate to have to go through 15 distributions just to find out that works, or that I like, I don't have the time.

That would really annoy me, it is best we all stay focused on one kernel and fine tune our distributions.

Hopefully it would become a community maintained single version.

That's a scary thought:shock:

Tux Aubrey
May 1st, 2007, 12:32 AM
"When Linus steps down he would be followed by his first born child. "

I am very attracted to the Monarchy solution, but I don't know whether he has any children. We could end up with some distant relative who had not been properly brought up to carry the mantle. Or worse, some lttle kid in Norway or wherever suddenly finds himself King of Linux and there are all sorts of plotters and Machievelian underlings plotting to overthrow him.

And what if he had twins? One of them would, of course, be evil and there would be an inevitable mix-up and we would have a period when nobody would know whether the good twin or the evil twin would succeed. This would be a very worrying time for Linux users.

Perhaps someone should just cut to the chase and organise a fight to the death between contenders to the crown.

I think he had better stay alive until the community sorts this out.

Compucore
May 1st, 2007, 01:19 AM
Well what about the different communities of linux. Something to the effect like voting for the next if your living in the states. Or the next prime minister like in Canada. Have if come from the different distros. communities. And when it is tallied up those features either get added or reomoved or stays in lpace depending on the amount of votes. I mean that is the way I see it over here.

Compucore

chriswyatt
May 1st, 2007, 01:26 AM
linus has written a complex bash script which will take over all his work if anything should happen to him. its impossible to know that this has not happened already.

:lolflag:

That made me laugh, when I first started reading that paragraph I was taking it completely seriously.

jargoman
January 7th, 2008, 07:59 PM
The real answer is nothing. Believe it or not linus is not in charge of the Linux kernel. The community is. There is nothing stopping anyone from downloading the source code and butchering it to there liking then redistributing it.

Of course his demise would be a sad loss to the community at large who recognizes him as the main contributer to the linux kernel.

for example linus has no say what patches are applied to his kernel before being released as the ubuntu kernel. That's what GPL is all about.

insane_alien
January 7th, 2008, 08:08 PM
when linus dies, i suppose there may be a short slowdown and then a vast flurry of activity as we have a week long hack-athon on the kernel in his honour and then another to celebrate andrew morton becoming benevolent dictator for life. then things will continue on as always with the work done increasing as we gather up new developers.

Lostincyberspace
January 7th, 2008, 08:12 PM
But Linus still has a lot of power over it, Stallman also has a lot of control over things too, just because they created it and made it successful. they don't do the most any more, they are more like guides but they still help to keep it close enough together that switching isn't to bad.

Niniel
January 7th, 2008, 08:30 PM
The idea of a monarchy is still best.

One of Nils Olav's descendants could be made king/queen, and then it could be kept in that family.
After all, He has already experience in leading people and moving about in high-society.

aks44
January 8th, 2008, 12:30 AM
On that topic, see What if Torvalds gets hit by a bus? (http://web.archive.org/web/20000422005356/http://segfault.org/story.phtml?mode=2&id=38b40d78-087dd360)


Linux kernel development was not significantly affected by our experiment; however, we attribute this to the large sample size used.:D

mrgnash
January 8th, 2008, 12:45 AM
There will be a lot less stupid comments about with DE people should use...

Mateo
January 8th, 2008, 02:25 AM
Pretty morbid question, especially considering that Linus is still fairly young. He's not going to continue on the project to his death, anyways. So when he retires 15 or 20 years from now, linux will be strong enough that it doesn't matter.

sajro
January 8th, 2008, 02:46 AM
Linus Torvalds doesn't die. He simply returns 0.


You are dead.
linus@torvalds:~$ live
You are alive.

Seriously though, he will be replaced (solemnly). If you've read Rebel Code, you'll see that one of the people mentioned as a possible successor if something happens to Linus is Miguel de Icaza. I, however, think Eric Raymond would be a good admin.

But I think I speak for all of us her when I say I hope Linus doesn't go before his natural time.


"When Linus steps down he would be followed by his first born child. "

I am very attracted to the Monarchy solution, but I don't know whether he has any children. We could end up with some distant relative who had not been properly brought up to carry the mantle. Or worse, some lttle kid in Norway or wherever suddenly finds himself King of Linux and there are all sorts of plotters and Machievelian underlings plotting to overthrow him.

He has two daughters I believe. I only know the younger one's name: Patricia Miranda (http://cs.helsinki.fi/~torvalds).

He isn't from Norway. He is from Finland. But he lives in California now with his kids and his wife (Tove).

Lostincyberspace
January 8th, 2008, 02:51 AM
thats if he retires he might take a year or two off but I think he won't be able to live with him self if he isn't doing active work on something.