Apple tried to hire Linus to kill linux

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/03/apple-tried-to-hire-linus-torvalds-kill-linux/


The founder of Linux was invited to Apple HQ in Cupertino by Steve Jobs at the turn of the millennium, where is was invited to join Apple and work on (what would become) OS X.

The lure? ‘Unix for the biggest user base’.

The catch? That he would have to stop development on Linux, a condition that led Torvalds to flatly refuse the offer.

 

Someone else would have just picked it up. That's the beauty in Linux, no one company or person is involved. Of course, that is also its curse.

 

ot posts removed

 

Correct, no one is indispensable.

 

Though others would continue the effort, could anyone match his knowledge, creativity and management of the Linux Kernel ?

IMHO something would be lost, but it would not be the end.

Cheers, Nick.

 

I think it's less of him being so intelligent (though he does have insight) and more of him really being the person who the entire community looks to.

 

Yes, he does a very good job of managing the Linux kernel at a project, architectural and code level. Seems to generally have a good ability to communicate well with technical and non-technical people.

It is very rare to get someone who has all these abilities to such a good level.

Cheers, Nick.

 

I think of all the temptations Linus has had to moniterize, corupt or otherwise stray from the path he has taken to shepard Linux is quite admirdable. I doubt many would be able to resist.










I know my spelling is awful on this post. Just too tired to care.

 

Unless and until a chance is given for a new person, we will never know. The world has gone on minus the greats, in fact the rule being more greats follow and even better the previous ones.

 

If he abandoned it, it would probably become the fragmented mess you see with distros now. Everyone will want their say of how the kernel should be, which makes you wonder what will happen when he passes away?

 

Yep the distros are a mess cause they are not ONE, just like ONE GOD, One Language. If Linux has the lure, its the lure and freedom of choice, none of the distros are in any mess. In fact its about CHOICE and only LINUX offers it, Windows and Apple has NONE.

 

I have to disagree with you there. Having so many distros is actually not a good thing. I certainly don't want to see a Ubuntu-only world, but Linux wouldn't be harmed by a good amount of these hundreds of one man shows knocked out. Think about it, how many of these small distros have you seen implode due to internal fighting?

How many are bug ridden, incomplete messes because its ran by one or two guys, and their users are both the support crew and the testers? Freedom of choice is fine and dandy, but stability is needed too. If a new person picks Ubuntu for their first Linux because it's the one everyone talks about, then what will choice matter?

If they pick a distro deep down the DistroWatch list because it looks nice, and, when they install it (if they even can, thanks to LiveCDs usually being crap), it's a bad experience, what then? Your average user is not going to download images all day and go through several blank discs just to get a distro working. They're going to head straight back to Windows or Mac.

 

dw246,

Disros come and go, if they are good they stay around. Lets not take that freedom away. Btw, PCLOS did quite well as a one man Texstar show, sometimes its a case of too many cooks spoiling Linux

Among the varieties of distro, Ubuntu manages to stay on top due to universal appeal, MINT is but a Ubuntu derivative so its not that all the choices are taking user focus away, in fact many usually used all and then settle for what suits them best. Thankfully apart from video drivers and few wireless ones, most are handled by the kernel so there is no such issue but one thing is quite clear, most releases are done for Ubuntu and Debian and therefore that tells all where user choice is heading.