Re: Linus Geek of the Week

["markw-4" <user=5@nabble.blu.org>]

 I have mixed feelings about Linus. When all is said and done, the first 
version of Linux wasn't so hot. It took a lot of people a lot of work and 
a lot of time to make it good. 

Also, where some people see that he has been a great administrator and 
guide for Linux, one could just point out there are a lot of people who 
could have done the same thing, and there's more about random chance and 
opportunity that this particular guy ended up doing it. 

I built my first computer over 33 years ago. I had "popular" shareware 
programs for Windows about 23 years ago. I helped the FSF move almost 2 
decades ago. I've had mediocre developer friends go on to become 
millionaires because they attended the "right" party. I've had friends who 
were simply amazingly smart, still, like us all, after all these years, 
working for a living and worried about the economy. 

Maybe I'm bitter, but I don't think so. I'm just old enough to have seen 
that a lot of life is a crap-shoot and while preparedness and skills help 
when you get opportunity, ground breaking opportunities don't always come 
your way. They don't come because you are smart. They don't come because 
only you could do it. They come because a number of unpredictable and 
uncontrollable factors came into place at a particular time, and someone 
who had no idea what was happening was able to run with it. 

All that being said, the "perfect storm" of AT&T closing off UNIX, GNU not 
having or focusing on a kernel, MINIX being a toy, and a new public global 
network becoming popular (the internet) could have produced  a far worse 
figurehead. So, like so many before him, I think he was lucky to get there 
and have the luxury of being able to pursue it, he has done a pretty good 
job over the years. 

Anyone agree? Disagree? Think I'm an idiot? 


> From: Jerry Feldman <[hidden email]> 
> Subject: Linus Geek of the Week 
> To: BLU Discussion List <[hidden email]> 
> Message-ID: <20080720074848.7f70e6d2@gaf> 
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" 
> 
> A friend pointed me to this interview with Linus Torvalds. It is a 
> pretty decent interview. 
> http://www.simple-talk.com/content/article.aspx?article=532


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