http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2300267.stm
Linus Torvalds has revealed he is happy to be the poster boy for the
anti-Microsoft campaign but would not know what to say if he met Bill
Gates.
Talking to BBC World ClickOnline at his home in Silicon Valley, the
inventor of the Linux operating system admitted that he has never been
in the same room with his arch-rival.
"We have been at the same conferences but never in the same room. I
wouldn't know what to say to him," he told ClickOnline.
Mr Torvalds enjoys the notoriety he has achieved as the man that
challenged the Microsoft empire with his open source alternative
operating system.
*Rising to the challenge
"In a way it is fun. I'm pleased to be a poster boy. It gives me some
self-importance," he said.
He would not, however, want to become personally involved in the
dispute with Microsoft.
"I've tried to stay out of the Microsoft debate. If you start doing
things because you hate others and want to screw them over the end
result is bad," he said.
The main reason he developed Linux in the first place had as much to
do with wanting a challenge as being fed up with an operating system
that would not do what he wanted it to.
Like most technology projects it ran way over the time allotted to it
and, to this day, is not truly finished.
"It was a lot harder than I expected. I thought, like most of my
projects, it would talk half a year and then I'd lose interest," he
said.
To the relief of his legion of followers he did persevere and eleven
years on is still working on it.
Reluctance to change
While Linux is gradually gaining ground on Microsoft it might well not
be suitable for everyone, Mr Torvalds admitted.
"Most people don't want to change. They may hate Windows but they run
it despite that because, quite frankly, they don't care about
computers," he said.
And even those that do care, often install Linux without much idea of
what they want it to do, he said.
Mr Torvalds is not convinced that the open source movement, which has
radically altered both the operating system landscape and the mindset
of Microsoft itself, will ever entirely topple the Gates empire.
"I think, in the end, Linux will be a big part of why it happens but
Microsoft is not going to shrink into nothingness in the foreseeable
future," he said.
Instead it is more likely that Microsoft will become like IBM - "still
huge but not the dominant force anymore", he said.
The world of coding is beginning to lose importance as Mr Torvalds,
ubergeek, admits he has finally found a balance between work and play.
*Uber-geek grows up
"I have a life too. I have kids now. Linux has been a big part of my
life but now I want to have my own time," he told ClickOnline.
He revealed that he is more likely to have childrens' parties with
bouncy castle and candyfloss than to have a bunch of programmers
round.
"Part of doing Linux was that I had to communicate a lot more instead
of just being a geek in front of a computer.
"It has made me more used to talking to people. I still like coding
but I have other things to do," he said.
Although his followers would dispute it, Mr Torvalds is not convinced
the phenomenon of Linux has made him entirely cool.
"No-one has ever called me a cool dude. I'm somewhere between geek and
normal," he said.
--
¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø
Karl Hiramoto
On Sat, Oct 05, 2002 at 07:31:23AM -0400, Karl Hiramoto wrote:
"We have been at the same conferences but never in the same room. I wouldn't know what to say to him," he told ClickOnline.
A quote from a while ago: "I couldn't give him advice in business and he couldn't give me advice in technology." - Linus Torvalds, about why he wouldn't be interested in meeting Bill Gates. -- Randomly Generated Tagline: "... Either this man is suffering from serious brain damage, or the new vacuum cleaner's arrived..." - Rowan Atkinson
On Sat, 5 Oct 2002 07:31:23 -0400 (EDT)
Karl Hiramoto
Speaking of which:
Did Andy ever make any progress in persuading maddog to
speak to WLUG?
Clint
On Sat, 5 Oct 2002 15:18:05 -0400
Bill Smith
On Sat, 5 Oct 2002 07:31:23 -0400 (EDT) Karl Hiramoto
wrote: KH> Although his followers would dispute it, Mr Torvalds is not KH> convinced the phenomenon of Linux has made him entirely cool. KH> KH> "No-one has ever called me a cool dude. I'm somewhere between geek KH> and normal," he said.
i've met him.... ...back when Maddog Hall was pushing (Digital) Red Hat 2.5, i think. :)
-I- would say Linus is a "cool dude"... <shrug>
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- William Smith wsmith-at-chezsmith-dot-com Fall River, MA http://www.chezsmith.com
If only you'd use your powers for Good instead of Evil... * TAG! v3.0 *
_______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug@mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug
On Saturday 05 October 2002 6:37 pm, Clint Moyer wrote:
Speaking of which:
Did Andy ever make any progress in persuading maddog to speak to WLUG?
Clint
Hi Clint et al, Honestly, I hadn't pursued it. However, your e-mail rattled my cage sufficiently that I just sent Maddog an e-mail inviting him to visit our group in Nov or Dec. I'll let you know when I hear back from him. It typically takes a few days. Later, Andy -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org
participants (5)
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Andy Stewart
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Bill Smith
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Clint Moyer
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Karl Hiramoto
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Theo Van Dinter