30 Years of Linux: An Interview with Linus Torvalds
tag1consulting.com
tag1consulting.com
GCC not only makes Linux possible, but it brought the other unixes closer together, which is instrumental to escaping the vendor lock of the various *nix vendors. That means by the time Linux is reliable enough for production, there is already a lot of cross-platform software to run on it.
It took decades for LLVM to finally appear as a workable alternative; even the BSDs relied on GCC.
Someone change the license on something Torvalds uses and piss him off!
During the source control wars I was firmly in the Bazaar camp, however - but it seems everything but git is now moribund.
On a more serious note, a new programming language would really be the next step. If tradition holds, it might turn out to be really hard to use though.
After all, we know there is no love lost between him and Nvidia....[0]
Linux just feels different. There have been other open source operating systems, but to me it doesn't feel like they would have inherently taken over the same market that Linux has now if it had never existed. Like, do I really think my phone, my VM server, and my cloud computing infrastructure would be running FreeBSD in this parallel universe? Maybe, but I suspect they would have more likely ended up using separate, more-closed, operating systems.
Like, for example, one written by Apple?
would be dominated by the BSDs!
College can really lock you into one editor or another for a lifetime.
> I really need to switch over to something that is actually maintained and does utf-8 properly. Probably 'nano'.
Hell yes.
I was also struck by his comments about the preferred tool, email:
Email really ends up being a wonderful tool, and we didn't rely on face-to-face meetings.
> Is there anything in the kernel which is not optimal, but would require a complete rewrite to address properly? In other words, the kernel is 30 years old and knowledge, languages and hardware have changed a lot in these 30 years: if you rewrote it from scratch now, what would you change?
And Linus' answer was very interesting for me - and after reading it, I would answer your question (tongue in cheek): "Never, because it seems that Linux developers were quite successful in starting all over again for quite some parts of the Linux kernel."
I guess it's not really an answer to your question, but kind-of ;)
It occurred to me that there's enough inertia at this point that you'll likely only see ground-up architecture and/or implementation when some sort of hardware substrate is produced that requires it. Until then, we are on the karmic wheel of cpus that drive os/language design that drive cpu design.
Open Source won't ever make the inventor (and those who blindly follow him) rich in the long term. There is an initial wave of enthusiasm which provides a time window to unload the bags though.
Torvalds seems to have done OK for himself, for reasonable values of "rich".
And who the heck do you think is "blindly following him"?
My guess: VHNWI (very high net worth individual), defined by Investopedia https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/hnwi.asp as the range $5m to $30m. Maybe he's even in the ultra HNWI range.
He doesn't "look" rich, but then, what does rich look like anyway?
Linus is doing fine.
Also when I said blindly follow the Open Source project leader I was referring to Buterin and Nakamoto
Nor you are acting in movies which again make people dream and embrace you as part of their life.
You are writing freaking code, if you don't get the money, all you are left with is the tepid admiration of nerds around the world...can't imagine anybody desiring that.
If Linus were to create a startup tomorrow it's not like people would waive their salary for the opportunity to work for the great man.
To summarize if you don't get money you are left with absolutely nothing in hand.
Most musicians don't get boatloads of cash or to perform in stadiums but instead the appreciation of a handful of people who enjoy their music.
It does depend on your motivation for writing the code as well. If you are coding to solve someone else's problem and feel no benefit from it then indeed money is typically expected.
I think there is a whole world of difference between 60,000 people singing along to something you wrote and having 6,000,000 visits to your Github folder.
Unless you are a robot the 2 feel and therefore are completely different feelings.
Matter of fact the first is a feeling, the second is an acknowledgement that your code works fine.
Businessmen seek to add monetary compensation to the aforementioned acknowledgement , because they know that the sole acknowledgement is not enough to propel future goals they might have.....including playing music in a stadium such as the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen did, or hosting a music festival such as Steve Wozniak US festival
People don't write software like linux to get 6,000,000 likes they can bask in. They write software they need because they like writing software and need that software.
People are successful when they decide to be. Are you successful?
That is some sort of Politically correct thought where you give everybody participation trophies and everybody is successful (which means that nobody really is)
Like everything there are metrics, Linus doesn't figure in any of the polls which ask people who they admire the most.
Even those going down to #500.
People like Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Larry Page, Sergey Brin...they all figure into those standings.
Success is a state of mind. You setup the conditions.
And sure, many people have achieved both, but they didn't take their money with them once they were gone. As long as you have enough to live comfortably, everything else is at most an incidental bonus IMO.
[1]: Though I haven't heard anything suggesting he's anything but pretty okay with his lot in life.
Nobody knows who Linus is..in all the "most admired" polls, even those computing down to #500 he doesn't appear.
If you want to be remembered you have to make an effort to put yourself out there...that's the reason why Musk is so shamelessly self promotional in the social arena. Same for Larry Ellison
Bill Gates even, although much less shamelessly.
It also seems that in the interview Linus' wisdom really shining through. This perhaps due to the interviewer and interviewee were communicating through email, not in real-time, so both of them have ample time to reason and articulate their questions and answers properly. He who has been given wisdom, has been granted abundant good [1].
I think the interviewer missed the opportunity to ask Linus regarding one of his most popular quotes, “Only wimps use tape backup. REAL men just upload their important stuff on FTP and let the rest of the world mirror it.” The fact that he mainly contributed to the OS and the Git, both are essential components in doing online sharing. Thus it seems that he really took his conviction to be a REAL man, by his definition at least. And to be REAL man is one of the main purposes of life, according to Rudyard Kipling's poem, "If".
[1]https://versebyversequranstudycircle.wordpress.com/2017/02/1...
The fanbase and the money are all incidental, and sometimes orthogonal. You could write code that $makes some rich guy richer$ and that will probably make you more money than code that $gets a beer for everyone$, which instead might make you more popular. You could also write code to solve $a very specific problem that only you and 10 other people in the world have$, which will make you neither rich nor popular, but solves the problem that you had, so how valuable that code is all depends on the problem you had. Maybe you write some code that runs your insulin pump, so it keeps you alive without thinking about it. What's that worth? Is it more or less than the $makes some rich guy richer$ code? You decide.
What's even better is that in all of those cases, you still have the code. Even if someone makes a copy of it, even if you give it away, you still get to keep what you wrote. Isn't that fantastic? I think that's fantastic.
I get it. Making money is extremely important to you. Have at it. The world is your oyster. Some people have just moved past that point, which might be tough to accept, but is true, and I think they're on to something there.
Sure, as a hobby. But as a full time job orchestrating such a massive project while being a public figure? That's a bigger ask that is better justified when rewarded though other means too.