Where is the spirit of Linux? (LinuxFocus) [LWN.net]

LinuxFocus has an editorial on the spirit of Linux. "Linux really used to have a spirit and a small but very active community. It was almost like a little garage. Everybody was working on some part of the car. Adding tires, polishing and tuning the motor.... New people came and were amazed. Hey, this is a cool idea! How can I help? Give me that screw driver. I will fix the mirror. Next Linuxfocus came into the garage. The Linux "car" is a nice one! It is a bit difficult to drive but we like it so we will contribute by documenting how to use it. Everybody who was using the Linux "car" was also contributing to it in some way. It was very exciting." (Thanks to Mats Schneider)

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Where is the spirit of Linux? (LinuxFocus)

Posted Feb 1, 2005 21:50 UTC (Tue) by apolinsky (subscriber, #19556) [Link]

I, for one, have been in love with the Linux software since Slackware 2.4. I have been trying, without too much sucess, to move our office to open source software. I have always found the tools to be reliable and while they might not have the fantastic graphics available to the windows users, they always seem to work. Windows computers at home, used by my family have had hard disks reformatted innumerable times to correct 'Windows update' errors. My only re-install on my Linux machines, was when I changed the Debian 'sources list' and screwed up an update. My hat is off to all the wonderful contributors to the Linux project.

Alan Polinsky

Where is the spirit of Linux? (LinuxFocus)

Posted Feb 1, 2005 22:02 UTC (Tue) by vmole (guest, #111) [Link]

The "spirit of Linux" is doing just fine. If people are complaining about the brakes (*not* 'breaks'; hey, Linux Focus people: we call it "editing") on the car, then it's because we've been claiming that our car is just as good as the big one from Seattle. But I still see plenty of people helping out, both oldtimers and newbies.

Where is the spirit of Linux? (LinuxFocus)

Posted Feb 2, 2005 0:37 UTC (Wed) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

Indeed: in the last two days alone, I've tried to help fix a kernel bug only to find Rene Rebe providing diagnostics and Hugh Dickins and davem fixing it before I had time to do much more than blink, and I've ran slap-bang into a nasty glibc-2.3.4 compilation problem only to find that it's already known about and being jumped on, but that at least I could help with some analysis.

The fun is still there, oh yes. It's not diminished perceptibly since I started using Linux in 1997. You can still pick up anything that takes your fancy and hack at it in whatever way you like and submit the hack, or just distribute it separately... there's politics, sure, but there always is that whenever any group of people cooperate on anything. Unlike in so many other fields of human endeavour, and unlike in the tight-walled gaol of proprietary software, you have the right to make what changes you wish, bypass the politics, and hand your improvements on; because you still have the freedom.

And that's what counts. While it's there, the spirit will stay.

Where is the spirit of Linux? (LinuxFocus)

Posted Feb 2, 2005 3:41 UTC (Wed) by b7j0c (subscriber, #27559) [Link]

There's nothing worse than the "back in the day"/"old skule" rants. In any succesful organization you get people working for its success who invariably can't shutup about going back in time once success is theirs. These types are very annoying.

Was this author even making such contribtions "back in the day"?

In any case he seems to bemoan a lack of contributions from the community. Does the kernel list really need a thousand more postings a day?

Users who are just users *are* contributing. They are contributing to the size of the userbase, the size of the advocacy group, the size of the potential market for people who are trying to market products and services based on linux. What more do you want? Not everyone is cut out to contribute quality code.

I see nothing wrong with the "community" Newbies are WELCOME!

Where is the spirit of Linux? (LinuxFocus)

Posted Feb 2, 2005 20:46 UTC (Wed) by grouch (guest, #27289) [Link]

"Users who are just users *are* contributing. They are contributing to the size of the userbase, the size of the advocacy group, the size of the potential market for people who are trying to market products and services based on linux."

Indeed! That expanded userbase contributes by making hardware manufacturers, web monkeys who previously 'designed' only for IE, publishers, policy-makers and legislators all take notice. More users also mean more testing of software under more conditions. "Newbies" alert developers to interface design needs. They also help in making the code more robust because they _will_ find that condition the coder didn't anticipate.

Linux is inclusive; the more, the merrier.

Where is the spirit of Linux? (LinuxFocus)

Posted Feb 2, 2005 3:55 UTC (Wed) by ccchips (subscriber, #3222) [Link]

Ok, I guess I screwed up. It's late. I just got done installing a Fedora on my significant other's computer, just so I could see if an OS would run. Now, I gotta take it off and install XP, once I buy the darn thing.

Myself, I guess I have to say the "spirit of Linux"...er.....

Why do we need an article like that, anyway? The spirit of anything is in the people who do it. Look at the bajillion distributions around...everybody is doing everything, one way or the other.....

I even have a little spirit myself. When I don't have to fix people's Windows 2000 machines.....

Where is the spirit of Linux? (LinuxFocus)

Posted Feb 2, 2005 12:01 UTC (Wed) by rjw (guest, #10415) [Link]

I liked your original post, no need to apologise ;-)

Where is the spirit of Linux? (LinuxFocus)

Posted Feb 2, 2005 23:34 UTC (Wed) by DrHook (guest, #27637) [Link]

Good luck! Linux will run on virtually anything. I tried something similar once and Linux ran perfectly while, for some unknown reason, WinXP crashed repeated during the install on the same machine. Go figure!