Today, I have this important article slash rant to share. It's about the recent story involving Linus Torvalds and his behavior in the Linux kernel development circles, the subsequent apology, the fallout, and the disturbing implications and ramifications of the whole affair on the long-term survival of Linux as a whole. Take a look. https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/linux-beginning-of-the-end.html Cheers, Mrk
Interesting read. I sure do hope Linus doesn't step down forever. The world need their visionaries. And usually they are not, nor behave, like the norm. And possibly that's why they make a difference in their fields. They don't have the same boundaries in their mind that most of us set for ourselves (with plenty of "help" by the society nowadays ). Look at Elon Musk for example. Or Steve Jobs.
Have tried Windows 3.0 and all follow ups, Chrome OS and iOS. Currently using LinuxOS. Looking forward to the possibility that one day I may be using Dedoimed OS?
Nice read. But I really don't understand what's the fuzz is? Linus missed one summit over 20 years and now suddendly everyone is throwing him under bus? Or did he use even nastier language than the normal cursing that we have come to expect from him ? (It's often in the field that people with above average IQ tend to be "little" direct. It's a feature, not a bug. ) Silver tongued sweet talking is for PR people, or for anyone working at customer work, where it is expected. Linus is neither. So maybe they should hire american PR guy or gal to handle translation from curse word filled geek speak to corporatese. Come home Linus. P.S: There is no elves, trolls (or polar bears) here ....
Nothing changed in how he behaves. I am convinced, with a high degree of certainty, that there are elves and trolls and other mystical creatures in Finland. Mrk
A strange article, IMO. A rant precisely. On the one hand, a sensational caption ("The beginning of the end"), on the other hand: "I don't know if Linus is coming back, or who is going to succeed him, or whether the old model will even be retained. I just hope that whoever grabs the helm has enough backbone and willpower to fight to keep Linux free and alive." So what are you really trying to tell us? That Linus has an obligation to live forever and maintain Linux to all eternity? Or that you will stop reviewing Linux distributions because their end is near and that we should all move to Windows?
Perhaps we'll now get a better supported Linux kernel by Google or some other company, willing to make Linux easier to use for everyone? One can always dream anyway.
By Google? God forbid. They are tracking us on nearly every site already. I don't also want them to track me via the Linux kernel. This has little to do with the kernel but rather the userspace tools/applications. That said, I don't think that, e.g., Linux Mint is hard to use. The console is only rarely necessary. Besides, if someone is used to Linux and switches to Windows he/she is faced with similar problems. I'm still running Windows in a VirtualBox VM - but only infrequently with the consequence that I'm no longer that conversant with all its settings as I had been years ago. It's a different philosophy but not necessarily easier or more difficult. Just possibly unfamiliar.
Which is one of the beauties with open source software. One could always look at what the code does to make sure such things don't happen. It seems we're actually heading towards a Google Linux world anyway, with Chrome OS now being able to use Linux programs. There's a reason Linux for desktop is stucking chewing around ~2% year after year. It's difficult and "scary" to install it yourself and there are no computers being sold with Linux in my country at all. Not counting Chrome OS, anyway.
For us nerds it's easy. For the average person, it's scary. Which is precisely why only nerds like us generally use Linux.
Which was precisely my point. Google or some other major company has to start shipping Linux as a serious alternative to Windows. This will increase the marketshare, which means we might actually get Office 365 natively for Linux. Then corporations can leave Windows once and for all... which is probably exactly why Linux will never get Office 365.