Is Torvalds really the father of Linux? (News.com) [LWN.net]

Is Torvalds really the father of Linux? (News.com)

Posted May 20, 2004 14:28 UTC (Thu) by chel (guest, #11544)
Parent article: Is Torvalds really the father of Linux? (News.com)

Most of the parts of writing an OS are quite trivial. To do it right, some parts are cuxial. Linux and Andrew T lived in different parts of the galaxy if you look at these essential parts. Saying "Linux is a derivative work of Minix" is utterly nonsense. Both the father of Linux and the father of Minux agree on that.

As the author of the book does not understand the things he writes about, I think some things need clarification.

Is Linux a Unix clone? No, Linux is one of the systems implementing a part of the specifications: basicly the system interfaces. Even the utilities are not part of Linux.

Did Linus write Linux? No, Linus started to write Linux and produced a basic system. From that point the team grew around Linus.

Is Linus the father of Linux? Yes, he had a strong hand in all major design descisions, contributed a lot of code, made the team work together. In the team there are and were many brilliant designers, keeping a team with many brilliant people together in itself is a major achievement. Linus was able to do so with his thorough knowledge and understanding of the subject and his humor (just remember the "brown paper bag releases")

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