OT: Linus Torvalds, Hero

[taharka]

Linus Torvalds was just 21 when he changed the world. Working out of his
family's apartment in Helsinki in 1991, he wrote the kernel of a new
computer operating system called Linux that he posted for free on the
Internet — and invited anyone interested to help improve it.

Full article at; http://www.time.com/time/europe/hero2006/torvalds.html

taharka

Lexington, Kentucky U.S.A.

[Leo]

On Tue, 14/11/06, taharka wrote:

>  Linus Torvalds was just 21 when he changed the world. Working out of
> his
>  family's apartment in Helsinki in 1991, he wrote the kernel of a new
>  computer operating system called Linux that he posted for free on the
>  Internet — and invited anyone interested to help improve it.
>
>  Full article at; http://www.time.com/time/europe/hero2006/torvalds.html
>
>  taharka
>
>  Lexington, Kentucky U.S.A. 
It seems some claims in the article are very controversial.

-- 
Leo

[taharka]

How do,

On Tue, 2006-11-14 at 15:08 +0000, Leo wrote:
>  It seems some claims in the article are very controversial. 
Yes, note this is Time Magazine, known for controversial material ;-)

>  -- 
>  Leo 
taharka

Lexington, Kentucky U.S.A.

[Mike McCarty]

taharka wrote:
>  Linus Torvalds was just 21 when he changed the world. Working out of
> his 
Eh, it's a change that 99.99% of the world's population probably didn't
even notice and still doesn't know about.

[snip]

Mike
-- 
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This message made from 100% recycled bits.
You have found the bank of Larn.
I can explain it for you, but I can't understand it for you.
I speak only for myself, and I am unanimous in that!

[Mike A. Harris]

Mike McCarty wrote:
>  taharka wrote:
> > Linus Torvalds was just 21 when he changed the world. Working out of his
>  
>  Eh, it's a change that 99.99% of the world's population probably didn't
>  even notice and still doesn't know about. 
And yet, if all of a sudden magically for some reason - every single
electronic device across the entire spectrum from embedded systems to
desktop computers, laptops, routers, webservers, big iron systems and
other systems out there all immediately ceased to function by magical
means in the entire world - all on the same split second...

I would speculate 99.9% of the world would be well aware of it, and not
simply because of mainstream media reporting on the issue.  Rather, the
Internet would more or less cease to function, and all sorts of
businesses around the world would be totally screwed.

So your implication that because 99.9% of the world's population is
unaware of Linux means that Linux has not changed the world is seriously
flawed.

There's no question Linux has changed the world in a very major way, and
like I've claimed above, if Linux stopped working simultaneously
everywhere in the world all of a sudden, this fact would be
unquestionably clear to anyone who has any doubt.

[Don Maxwell]

As personal evidence of how "Linux Changed the World, my Sony big
screen TV came with a printed copy of the GPL because the TV runs on
Linux.

On 11/16/06, Mike A. Harris <mharris(a)mharris.ca&gt; wrote:
>  Mike McCarty wrote:
>  > taharka wrote: 
>  So your implication that because 99.9% of the world's population
> is
>  unaware of Linux means that Linux has not changed the world is seriously
>  flawed.
>
>  There's no question Linux has changed the world in a very major way, and
>  like I've claimed above, if Linux stopped working simultaneously
>  everywhere in the world all of a sudden, this fact would be
>  unquestionably clear to anyone who has any doubt.
>
>

[Kanwar Ranbir Sandhu]

On Thu, 2006-11-16 at 09:37 -0600, Don Maxwell wrote:
>  As personal evidence of how "Linux Changed the World, my Sony
> big
>  screen TV came with a printed copy of the GPL because the TV runs on
>  Linux. 
Yeah, I got that too.  I was looking at all the documentation that came
with my KDSR50XBR1, and found a French version (I'm in Canada) of a
license.  I was going to toss it aside, but then noticed that GPL was
written out in French.  I didn't realize what it was until a I read a
little further and some F/OSS libraries were listed.  I was absolutely
floored.

When I pick up my PS3, I'm slapping a PPC Linux distro on it.  I'll be
running even more F/OSS in my house.

It's pretty neat, actually.

Regards,

Ranbir

-- 
Kanwar Ranbir Sandhu
Linux 2.6.18-1.2200.fc5 i686 GNU/Linux 
21:55:34 up 1 day, 3:53, 3 users, load average: 0.62, 0.54, 0.29

[Les Mikesell]

On Thu, 2006-11-16 at 10:31 -0500, Mike A. Harris wrote:

>  And yet, if all of a sudden magically for some reason - every single
>  electronic device across the entire spectrum from embedded systems to
>  desktop computers, laptops, routers, webservers, big iron systems and
>  other systems out there all immediately ceased to function by magical
>  means in the entire world - all on the same split second...
>  
>  I would speculate 99.9% of the world would be well aware of it, and not
>  simply because of mainstream media reporting on the issue.  Rather, the
>  Internet would more or less cease to function, and all sorts of
>  businesses around the world would be totally screwed.
>  
>  So your implication that because 99.9% of the world's population is
>  unaware of Linux means that Linux has not changed the world is seriously
>  flawed. 
No, the implication just recognizes that Linux is just one
variety of operating system and a subset of unix-like systems
at that. 

>  There's no question Linux has changed the world in a very major
> way, and
>  like I've claimed above, if Linux stopped working simultaneously
>  everywhere in the world all of a sudden, this fact would be
>  unquestionably clear to anyone who has any doubt. 
It is popular of course, but if it didn't exist it would not have
left a void.  The *bsd kernels could have been adapted to all
the same things - and perhaps we would even be better off for
it.  It is impossible to say now what might have happened even
if it had been a *bsd version that was the first user-friendly
CD distribution instead of RedHat's.  We might be far more
advanced at this point if development had been focused on the
more mature existing university code instead of being split by
the introduction of Linux.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell(a)gmail.com