Re: what's the killer app for GNU/Linux systems?
On Saturday 02 December 2006 08:50, Nate Duehr shared this with us all:
>--> Ron Johnson wrote:
>--> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>--> > Hash: SHA1
>--> >
>--> > On 12/01/06 12:30, Nate Duehr wrote:
>--> >> Roberto C. Sanchez wrote:
>--> >>> On Thu, Nov 30, 2006 at 02:30:54PM -0600, Ron Johnson wrote:
>--> >>>> The *real* killer "app" was Linus' decision to develop Linux
> openly. --> >>>>
>--> >>> I took a software engineering class where the professor maintained
> that --> >>> the only notable contribution that Linus Torvalds has made to
> the --> >>> programming/compsci/compeng world was figuring out how to make
> it --> >>> possible for hundreds of people to work on the same code base
> without --> >>> stepping all over each other.
>--> >> He was wrong. People step all over each other in the kernel and just
>--> >> about every application that requires more than a few developers all
> the --> >> time in the open-source world. [Hint, see recent ABI screw-ups
> in --> >> mysql-server and mysql-client... not caused by Debian, happened
> --> >> upstream. Retarded bugs really, too.]
>--> >
>--> > Just because Linus solved a *social* problem, doesn't mean that that
>--> > ability was instantly transmitted to every other project.
>-->
>--> What social problem did he "solve"? You appear to have him on a
>--> pedestal he probably doesn't deserve nor want.
>-->
>--> Back then source was generally free for a whole lot of OS's. He just
>--> wrote a interesting new monolithic kernel for x86 hardware and invited
>--> the world to help him work on it. He's no genius of social sciences or
>--> anything.
>-->
>--> The rest was just dumb luck and timing. The time was right for
>--> something new, maybe. BSD was going strong by the time Linux popped up.
>-->
>--> You give him too much credit. Where he might be a genius is in keeping
>--> it together all these years... not in doing Linux in the first place.
>-->
>--> The first Linux kernels weren't exactly earth-shatteringly great or
>--> anything. There were lots of OS's that did a better job on x86
>--> hardware, and a few were already open-source.
>-->
>--> Just as an example, Microware's OS/9 is still around, and it was up and
>--> working on multiple hardware platforms years before the early Linux
>--> kernels came out. It never was open-source, but it's still a better
>--> RTOS than Linux.
>-->
>--> Nate
The genius is that Linus got people involved and the allowed it to run without
taking it back or stifling it in any way. As for timing, that's another
genius in itself. So maybe Linus was two geniuses?
Charlie
--
Registered Linux User:- 329524
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I daresay one profits more by the mistakes one makes off one's own bat than by
doing the right thing on somebody's else advice. ..............W. Somerset
Maugham
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Linux Debian Etch
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