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

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

Posted May 21, 2004 7:23 UTC (Fri) by janpla (guest, #11093)
Parent article: Is Torvalds really the father of Linux? (News.com)

Yes, this really is the a question of fundamental importance to all of us - as we all know, Linux WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RUN if Linus in some remote sense was inspired by the ideas of others!

So now we have reached the state of 'He's, he's, he's .... he's a BASTARD, that's what he is!!!' But what does it matter? Not a thing - Linux is a reality, Tanenbaum got left behind by the development and Microsoft are a bunch of sad wankers. And Linux is still what it is: an excellent platform for serious work.

Tanenbaum seems to take this gracefully - he has his misgivings about the fundamental architecture of Linux, and I am sure he has a good point, but that's it; no attempt to steal Linus' glory, and that shows that he is an honest and worthy man.

Of course Linux is 'a derived work' just like anything else. We all learn from those who came before, and the cleverest of us take the good bits and build something new, in this case Linux. End of story.

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

Posted May 21, 2004 17:23 UTC (Fri) by Baylink (subscriber, #755) [Link]

This is true....

anyone who hasn't read Spider Robinson's "Melancholy Elephants", which is precisely on point for this topic (and, ISTR won a Hugo), ought to go here -- through the Kind Courtesy of Spider and Jim Baen (*ghod* it's nice to be able to link to this) and read it, promptly.

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

Posted May 27, 2004 8:46 UTC (Thu) by mbp (guest, #2737) [Link]

I don't think it's fair to say Tanenbaum was left behind. It's pretty clear in his response that he was not trying to write a massively popular operating system, in fact he was trying *not* to do that. He was trying to teach how operating systems work by constructing a simple one. On that measure, both Linus and Tanenbaum succeeded.