LWN: Comments on "Linus Torvalds' Benevolent Dictatorship (Business Week)"

Linus Torvalds' Benevolent Dictatorship (Business Week)

xoddam — Wed, 01 Sep 2004 04:49:19 +0000

Actually it's the complete opposite of a constitutional monarchy.

A constitutional monarch holds all authority but no power, as power
is vested in politicians who are responsible to the monarch and the
people for their errors.

On paper, Torvalds holds almost no authority at all, but in practical
terms he wields a lot of power -- as long as he uses it *responsibly*.
One slip and he'll lose his leadership role altogether.

Linus is the Prime Minister, not the King.

Of course, I can think of at least two prominent Prime Ministers of
the early 21st century who have thrown constitutional convention to
the winds and care not a whit about being responsible to the public.
Linus' responsibility is better enforced :-)

Linus Torvalds' Benevolent Dictatorship (Business Week)

csawtell — Sun, 22 Aug 2004 02:33:52 +0000

"I am a dictator, but it's the right kind of dictatorship. I can't really
do anything that screws people over. The benevolence is built in. I can't
be nasty. If my baser instincts took hold, they wouldn't trust me, and
they wouldn't work with me anymore. I'm not so much a leader, I'm more of
a shepherd."

What Linus is reported as saying sounds to me like a very good definition
of the functions of a constitutional monarchy.

God save the King.

Finland

eru — Thu, 19 Aug 2004 13:38:36 +0000

Is his father still active in politics?

Nils Torvalds never was a visible figure in Finnish politics. I only remember hearing about him as the father of Linus. If Wikipedia is to be believed, he is more a journalist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nils_Torvalds

Finland

chepelov — Thu, 19 Aug 2004 08:41:39 +0000

Is his father still active in politics? IIRC, Linus stated he will not settle back to Finland (too cold or not enough sunlight, or something to that effect). Wouldn't that hurt his father's career?

Anyway, parent is right: growing up in a highly media-aware environment certainly helps more with being articulate and a good handler of journalists than growing up in one or another $LOCALE.

Excellent interview

JoeBuck — Wed, 18 Aug 2004 22:46:51 +0000

It might have been clearer if he had said "alchemy" rather than "witchcraft", since this is really what he was describing (the alchemists made many important discoveries, but as they didn't share them, progress was extremely slow).

He did not say in this article what he has said elsewhere, that most of the interesting work these days is not done in the kernel and thus he has nothing to do with it (even from a management standpoint). The trade press is not clear on this.

Europe

andrel — Wed, 18 Aug 2004 18:51:02 +0000

Plenty of Europeans are inarticulate. More relevant: Linus's parents are journalists and his father is a politician.

Excellent interview

purslow — Wed, 18 Aug 2004 16:30:06 +0000

Agreed, but it's not a surprise: he grew up in Europe.

"Brutus is an honorable man"

justme — Wed, 18 Aug 2004 16:06:26 +0000

I like the comment where Linus says MS would be "ashamed" to use legal tactics against competition. Since I have a hard time believing he doesn't know of MS' unclean hands in the SCO suits (he mentions Groklaw later in the interview), this comment smacks of Linus either pre-emptively shaming MS, or simply mocking them.

Not that Linus would ever deliver sarcasm with a straight face. That would never happen.

Excellent interview

rjamestaylor — Wed, 18 Aug 2004 15:57:20 +0000

I am always amazed, pleasantly, at Linus' responses to loaded questions and especially his penchant for stiff-arming the "opposition" with a turn of phrase. Examples in this article:

Turning the looming threat over MSFT patent attacks against Linux into a matter of Bill's and Steve's personal pride over winning via innovation versus litigation
Besting the "Cathederal and Baazar" analogy to a simpler and more loaded analogy between the scientific method and witchcraft.
Exposing the marketing circus behind so-called "innovation" versus publicly exposed hardwork
Putting the lie to FUD about re-using good ideas with a simple Eistein analogy
Explaining his key role while diminishing his theoretical importance
Deflating the potential controversy over the more-of-the-same contribution sign-off procedures
Diminishing the importance of proprietary OS and other software infrastucture as products in themselves
Re-phrasing Open Source vs Closed Source in terms of the Scientific Method versus methods long ago abandoned in favor of the former.
Flipping the FUD of anti-Americanism (i.e., it's an anti-American thing to hurt the US dominance in software development) into a matter of American pride (i.e., the US needs to adopt the best tools and methods to continue to innovate).

His deftness in the media is a real asset to the whole community.