Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 30th Jan 2008 23:33 UTC, submitted by irbis
He doesn't own a mobile phone and he is proud of it. And he thinks virtualization is over-hyped. Find out what else we prize from Linux guru Linus Torvalds. "Linux has done what I wanted it to do for the last fifteen years, literally. So since very early on my motivation actually came from the outside: my motivation came from problems that other people see. I don't see the problems, my usage model is actually fairly simple and it's still the same development model that I tend to concentrate on. So I am actually motivated by other people's issues, and sometimes they make me go 'those people are just crazy, that's just insane', but sometimes the crazy people have some of the most interesting problems too."
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RE: Why is this interesting ?
by diegoviola on Thu 31st Jan 2008 00:14
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Member since:2006-08-15
RE[2]: Why is this interesting ?
by diegoviola on Thu 31st Jan 2008 00:34
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Member since:2006-08-15
RE[2]: Why is this interesting ?
by Quag7 on Thu 31st Jan 2008 19:59
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Member since:2005-07-28
RE: Why is this interesting ?
by sultanqasim on Thu 31st Jan 2008 00:14
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Member since:2006-10-28
Linus is a celebrity. A wise celebrity. Thats why people care about his opinion.
BTW - I'm sort of biased; I'm a fan of him because 95% of the time his unusual opinion matches up with mine. Eg. I don't own a mobile phone either (got tired of mine and gave it away) and I prefer lots of old computers instead of one powerful computer with virtual systems on it.
RE[2]: Why is this interesting ?
by Weeman on Thu 31st Jan 2008 17:47
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Member since:2006-03-20
Linus is a celebrity. A wise celebrity. Thats why people care about his opinion.
I don't consider him wise. I think he's an arrogant asshole who's a bit full of himself. He did a nice effort with his Linux kernel, but other than that, he has absolutely no social skill. Either he likes something, which ain't a lot of things, or it's immediately outright shit and makes a lot of backhanded comments about said subject. No such thing as grey areas in his opinions. I don't want to know the opinion of such a guy.
RE: Why is this interesting ?
by broken_symlink on Thu 31st Jan 2008 00:24
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Member since:2005-07-06
RE: Why is this interesting ?
by SlackerJack on Thu 31st Jan 2008 00:29
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Member since:2005-11-12
RE[2]: Why is this interesting ?
by flanque on Thu 31st Jan 2008 03:02
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Member since:2005-12-15
I'd much prefer to hear about what Linus has to say than perhaps Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer. Linus seems to be far more reasonable and less of a tyrant seeking money.
Besides, who can take someone like Ballmer seriously? Have you seen how he enters the stage like a rock star? Was 'developers developers developers developers developers' actually planned to be said or was he just stuttering? Come on.
RE[2]: Why is this interesting ?
by gogglesguy on Thu 31st Jan 2008 03:44
in reply to "RE: Why is this interesting ?"
Member since:2007-08-10
Bill Gates and Steve jobs can talk like salesman but Linus is the main man actually doing the coding we use to power Linux.
He is every bit as important as both of them, his code speaks volumes.
He is every bit as important as both of them, his code speaks volumes.
Did you read the interview?
"Well for the last few years all I have really done is communicate. I end up merging other people's code. I actually seldom write code myself..."
So he's more like the Jobs and/or Gates of Linux
RE[2]: Why is this interesting ?
by diegoviola on Thu 31st Jan 2008 19:41
in reply to "RE: Why is this interesting ?"
Member since:2006-08-15
RE[2]: Why is this interesting ?
by BrainDeadHippie on Thu 31st Jan 2008 21:31
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Member since:2005-07-06
i've always enjoyed his interview and his biography was really good -
anyways what i liked about this interview is his view on virtualization. I like vmware because i can run windows and linux on the same machine so I was a little puzzled when in the summary it said that he thought it was hype...but linus was just saying that virtualization is just not for him - where Steve jobs and bill gates would be spazzing all out about this even if they didn't use it..and then when linus said that just because virtualization wasn't for him didn;t mean that linux wouldn't spuuort it just shows how strong linux is.
BDH
RE: Why is this interesting ?
by RGCook on Thu 31st Jan 2008 17:42
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Member since:2005-07-12
RE: Why is this interesting ?
by gustl on Thu 31st Jan 2008 20:08
in reply to "Why is this interesting ?"
Member since:2006-01-19
Because everything Linus says is NOT the mind-numbing market-speak we get from Ballmer, Gates or Jobs.
He never needs to tell a lie, and he tries to never tell a lie.
He is also a genius when it comes to managing the Linux development crowd. He definitely is not good at motivating people and keeping track of costs, so as a project manager at a company he is wasted talent, but for what he does, he seems to do it intuitively right.
And he is an interesting person.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:58 UTC
"The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:52 UTC
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 21:03 UTC
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 20:46 UTC
"And so it is with Dell's Alienware X51 R2, a small form factor gaming PC in console digs. It's shaped similar to Microsoft's Xbox 360 Slim, and though it's slightly larger than either a 360 or PlayStation 3, the X51 R2 would be right at home in a living room setting nestled next to a large screen TV. Indeed, it's adept at running Steam's Big Picture mode, and if your primary objective is to play games in the living room, go ahead and consider the X51 R2 a hybrid game console." This is obviously not the only machine like this - still, these are very valid console alternatives even for those that don't like being hunched over with a cramped WASD-claw. Also, PC gamers among us: could you get away with the $699 model for gaming?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 17:32 UTC
From Bloomberg: "Microsoft, the world's largest software company, provides intelligence agencies with information about bugs in its popular software before it publicly releases a fix, according to two people familiar with the process. That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes." The lid has officially been blown off.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 11:39 UTC
"The key takeaway we've reached (after two less than 24 hours playing with the iOS 7 Beta release) is this - every App must consider even basic updates to its UI to survive in a post-iOS 6 world." Great. Telling developers to update their entire application - user interface and behaviour alike - to target a look and behaviour that isn't final yet. Seems like potential for a lot of wasted work here.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 11:32 UTC
"Overall the app is really basic, and designed for on the go editing. Microsoft says it's not planning to create an iPad version, noting that tablet users can utilize the Office Web Apps instead. We'd like to see some additional options for editing, including more clear options for text formatting and the ability to insert and change images, but it's a solid attempt for something you're only really going to use for editing in emergencies." A resounding meh can be heard from all over the world.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/13/13 19:39 UTC
"Today, most people are using modern browsers that support the majority of the latest web technologies. Better yet, the usage of legacy browsers is declining significantly and newer browsers stay up to date automatically, which means the leading edge has become mainstream. Given these factors we've decided to retire Chrome Frame, and will cease support and updates for the product in January 2014." Eh.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/13/13 14:45 UTC
The Next Web: "First of all, many of the new icons were primarily designed by members of Apple's marketing and communications department, not the app design teams. From what we've heard, SVP of Design Jony Ive (also now Apple's head of Human Interaction) brought the print and web marketing design team in to set the look and color palette of the stock app icons. They then handed those off to the app design teams who did their own work on the 'interiors', with those palettes as a guide. We've also been hearing that there wasn't a whole lot of communication between the various teams behind say, Mail and Safari. And that there were multiple teams inside each group that were competing with various designs, leading to what some see as inconsistencies in icon design. Those may well be hammered out in days ahead." What. Reminds me of how Microsoft does (used to do?) things.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/13/13 11:43 UTC
"The German Parliament, the Bundestag, has introduced a joint motion against software patents. The resolution urges the German government to take steps to limit the granting of patents on computer programs. In the resolution, the Parliament says that patents on software restrict developers from exercising their copyright privileges, including the right to distribute their programs as Free Software. They promote the creation of monopolies in the software market, and hurt innovation and job creation." After New Zealand, we now have one of the most powerful economies in the world moving to ban software patents for all the reasons smart people have been outlining for years. also: "The government should also push to ensure that software is covered by copyright alone, and that patent offices (including the European Patent Office) stop granting patents on software." Germany is not a country the EU can ignore. Very good news, this.More News »
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Member since:
2005-12-12
Why are people so interested in Torvalds' opinions about everything ? This is just a polite version of the obsession with celebrity that has propelled Corey Delaney ( http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,23136307-5012985,0... ) to notoriety.
Torvalds was in the right place at the right time and got lucky, that's all. Only his opinions on the Linux kernel are of interest.
Yes, mark this down as an envy-fuelled diatribe if you must. Or ask me a question ! About anything ! I have opinions on just about every subject.