Linus and his views on the state of Linux
Some snippets from the interview with Linus Torvalds on apcmag.com:
- “We really don’t expect to need to go to a 3.0.x version at all: we’ve been very good at introducing even pretty big new features without impacting the code-base in a disruptive manner, and without breaking any old functionality.
-
“I dislike the frothing-at-the-mouth ideology (to me, ideology should be something personal, not something you push on other people) and I think it’s much more interesting to see how Open Source actually generates a better process for doing complex technology, than push the “freedom” angle and push an ideology.
And I think that pragmatic approach was what made Linux and Open Source also much more palatable to many more people, and helped make it mainstream.” - “Funnily enough, the only distributions I tend to refuse to touch are the “technical” ones, so I’ve never run Debian, because as far as I’m concerned, the whole and only point of a distribution is to make it easy to install (so that I can then get to the part I care about, namely the kernel), so Debian or one of the “compile everything by hand” ones simply weren’t interesting to me.”
The interview on various aspects of Linux and his thoughts. So it seems like he sees the code as something stable. I guess that it’s a good thing. But, there’s also the danger that some folks might feel more complacent about things.
As to free and open source as an ideology, there’s the thing about what it’s like to “push” for an ideology. In some ways, I see that there are people who are very strong about their belief in open source and it makes people interested. It could turn off others too. Striking a balance (in terms of approach) is quite difficult. But I do agree that the pragmatic approach works because people could easily figure out the value of open source for them.
I found it weird though that he thought that Debian is a “technical” distro. I also used Debian and found it very intimidating except in the beginning because it was all new to me then. Maybe he had a bad experience with “technical” distros like Debian? Hmm. time to dig up some of the older interviews with Linus to see that!
Related Stories
POSTED IN: The Free World.
0 opinions for Linus and his views on the state of Linux
No one has left a comment yet. You know what this means, right? You could be first!
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: