Linus Torvalds Awarded the Millenial Technology Prize 91
Karrde712 writes "In a first for the Millennium Technology Prize, both Laureates were awarded the prize. Linus Torvalds was recognized for the creation of the Linux kernel and its continuing impact on enhancing scientific progress throughout the world. Dr. Shinya Yamanaka was recognized for his work in the development of induced pluripotent stem cells for medical research."
New submitter Elessar wrote in about the BBC's related interview with Linus "... touching on many subjects including Linux on the desktop, Raspberry Pi, and the weirdness of his employment contract." (He did another one with Linux.com earlier this week too).
Don't you mean... (Score:5, Funny)
Don't you mean GNU/Linus Torvalds Awarded the Millenial Technology Prize?
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rms
Re:Don't you mean... (Score:4, Informative)
No, because the prize was awarded for developing just the kernel.
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You're an idiot. Linux is the kernel. The kernel boots and runs whatever it's told to (usually configured to run /sbin/init). You don't get GNU until that point.
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For how many users is the GNU userland important anymore? I bet Google Chrome is much more used these days. GNU is irrelevant.
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They may not see it, but just about everything that gets the user from the kernel booting to being able to launch a web browser like Chrome is a lot of GNU software. To say that it is irrelevant is misleading. Besides, many people do things on their computers that aren't in a web browser, and on Linux, much of that depends on GNU software. Even those web browsers typically depend on GNU library software like glibc.
The only place you could use Linux without GNU is on Android (which interestingly, isn't ca
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when i boot my Windows 7 system, i either run firefox, or play one of the installed games... i dont touch IE, any of the MS games installed, hell, i never touched anything else in that system except the first day i installed it, to setup few things... but i doubt this means "windows" is irrelevant, and firefox is more important...
GNU is still the very heart of a Linux system. you might not see them, but all these cron jobs running silently in the background are bash scripts, all programs require GLibC to ru
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It's still irrelevant in the context of the prize criteria. If the prize would have been given for creating Linux as an operating system, the GGP would have some point, but TFA explicitly says that creating the *kernel* was the achievement that was found laudable.
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not necessarily many people will use a mix of BSD and gnu utilities many more people use android Linux. also many embedded Linux installs use custom code not owned by gnu. rms is fine calling android android/Linux and desktop Linux gnu/Linux because they use a different base but where do we draw the line i have a bunch of apache licensed code open office; Mozilla licensed Firefox liferea Thunderbird; various programs using a BSD licensed database so do i have a gnu/BSD/apache/Mozilla/Linux where do i draw t
Re:Don't you mean... (Score:5, Informative)
Well Linus was mostly on the Linux Kernel. The Linux Kernel isn't GNU/Linux. Technically you can build an OS off the Linux Kernel, that isn't "Unixy" at all. The GNU (GNU Not Unix) is model to make a Unix like system without any Unix Code (unlike Free/Open/Net/... BSD) Most of what we call Linux Distributions is the GNU/Linux OS packaged with custom set of software.
However you could make an OS that doesn't look or feel like Linux or Unix. Off the Linux kernel, (with perhaps some similar boot messages) But the OS would work and behave quite differently.
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Like Novell OES-Linux and Cisco NX-OS.
I think Android would still be considered a Unix through and through (going purely on behavior rather then trademarks and licensing)
I always found it weird that you could just plop a non-Unix user space right on top of a Unix kernel. But I guess with enough abstraction anything is possible.
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The "Unixy" attributes of Linux (or any other *NIX) is the kernel, filespace, API, and libraries.
The whole Unix/non-Unix user space is a misconception. What you are referring to is an X/Motif, Gnome, KDE, Android, or shell UI. There are *NIX UIs that are nothing more than some LEDs and a few pushbuttons. That doesn't make them any less Unixy.
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The whole Unix/non-Unix user space is a misconception. What you are referring to is an X/Motif, Gnome, KDE, Android, or shell UI
Or he was referring to the Unix concept of user space vs kernel space. User space where the user's programs are loaded and executed with the user's permissions, which is entirely independent and separated from the kernel space. Sounds like you're confusing user space with UI.
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I believe you have miss-interpreted what I said, but I understand what you mean.
What I mean is that there are certain expectations a Unix user might have of their user space and how they interact with it. Think of it as a cultural/unwritten standard. Some user space tools like GNU feel more Unixy then a few LEDs and push-buttons. After all, you can't really pipe the output of an LED into a push-button, though I'm sure you could modify the system to pipe the signal going to an LED into whatever the push-butt
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Have you actually tried it, especially any version from the past 5 years (the 6.x family)? It works quite well enough for my use, to the point that I havne't bothered to run a Linux system (virtual or not) on either my home or work computer in a few months, despite using POSIX-based apps extensively.
There are package managers and repositories, compilers and debuggers, shells and standard utilities. X11 clients can connect to X11 servers (I use a win32 one locally). Access control uses the Windows credential
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...and don't forget Cygwin:
http://www.cygwin.com/ [cygwin.com]
This site has gone to shit (Score:2)
Now we've got a bunch of comments attacking Linus Torvalds! Are the people on here so desperate to be contrary and hip that they will support literally ANY non-mainstream viewpoint?
We complain about slashdot's stories creating misleading controversy through provocative headlines and summaries.
But we get a story where we can say "Thanks, Linus - you did good" - and we fill it with stupid bickering. No wonder nobody important posts here any more (not under their real names, anyway).
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You must be a heinous foreigner, seizing on any deficiencies to feign a scientific conscience.
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Not to mention "millennial". Look how many times it's misspelled in the summary.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Spelling Error (Score:5, Informative)
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I was wondering what kind of organization would resolve to award a prize only every 1000 years. I guess that solves it.
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Because it's spelled weird.
So sick of this.. (Score:5, Funny)
I'm sick of this guy being recognized for inventing the Linux kernel just because his name is similar... when will people realize RMS invented Linux?
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Re:So sick of this.. (Score:5, Insightful)
The way I understand it is that Torvalds came up with the kernel (which is what's being recognized here), but RMS created many of the other tools that turn Linux from a kernel into a full fledged operating system. Without both of them, Linux probably wouldn't have been successful.
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Or possibly, if linux hadn't featured the gpl, it would be a niche OS with a version developed by apple or some other giants whose patents make it impossible to keep the free version on par with features.
But speculaton on what could have happened is pointless.
OTOH speculation on the future.... possibly linux in VMs or other security frameworks will be used for general and specialized purposes, until the guys running 20 VMs on their 16 core cellphones start to wonder if they would be better off with the micr
Re:So sick of this.. (Score:5, Interesting)
The thing with this is that RMS didn't invent Linux. He, among others, developed a set of tools that can be run on a number of Unix-like kernels, including Linux, but Linux itself is Linus' baby. The GNU toolset actually predates Linux itself.
A surprising number of Linux systems don't run the GNU toolset at all. When you count Busybox and similar minimalist toolsets (which are GPL-licensed but not maintained by GNU, at this point in time there might even be more Linux/not-GNU devices than there are GNU/Linux devices.
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Besides, RMS is too busy going all Rain Man at the airport to worry about eating.
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I am quite aware of how many, or how few, fucks are given. I'm just having some fun being pedantic, is all.
Congratulations Linus (Score:5, Insightful)
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"we have many cool Linux distros to choose from"
and fight over.
Linux User 1 "Why the hell would you use that distro, should be Umbongo"
Linux User 2 "Umbongo suck! Use Frisky Ferret"
Linux User 3 "Frisky Ferret? That piece of shite - you need Smint"
Linux User 4 "the year of Linux on the desktop!"
etc. ad infinitum
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What about the GNU kernel? Linux wouldn't even exist without that foundation. (I suspect the inventor of that will be forgotten, just as people have forgotten the contributions of Jay Miner, Bob Yannes, Nolan Bushnell, Jack Tramel, Dennis Ritchie, etc.) All the popular press talks about if Jobs Gates.
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They didn't port Hurd to the Emacs platform yet. That is why it wasn't as successful.
Re:Congratulations Linus (Score:4, Insightful)
Agreed, and it's the community that's so important. When you consider how versatile and ubiquitous the kernel is, you have to understand that it takes an extremely broad and diverse community of developers and other contributors to make it possible. Compare this to Microsoft, who can barely manage to port their operating system to ARM, and somehow they're raking in hundreds of billions of dollars.
Even if you cast all of Linus' software development contibutions aside, the fact that he started such a diverse and prodigious community is worthy of several awards on its own.
Congratulation to "Mr. T."... apk (Score:1)
See subject-line: Says it all!
* I'd wager it "blows his mind" to this very day that Linux took off as well as it has...
APK
P.S.=> I may "bust balls" on the "penguins" around here on /. (because of the years of "FUD" along the lines of "Windows != Secure & Linux = Secure" (since ANDROID shows us all that once a Linux (or any OS) gains "top spot" in marketshare on any given computing platform, it will be attacked rampantly, as Windows has been due to its overall overwhelming dominance of the PC Desktop
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Your parentheses are unbalanced.
Congrats! (Score:5, Interesting)
That's awesome, Linus! Congrats, you really deserve it for revolutionizing software development twice in the last two decades.
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It's really nice to see a technology revolutionist reaping some financial rewards in his lifetime, too. A check for 600,000 euros goes a long way towards setting him up for life financially, and considering his ongoing efforts to further the Linux kernel, I think we want him to be able to do that and not to worry about his next paycheck. If the Linux Foundation ever goes tits up, he won't be at risk of losing the roof over his head (and over his computers)(and over his wife and children). That's all to t
That's weird.... (Score:1)
No nomination for Microsoft?
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I believe he splits the prize with the other winner, so he only gets 600k. Nevertheless, he actually does have a pretty solid income anyways.
http://www.technologyacademy.fi/blog/2012/06/13/press-release/ [technologyacademy.fi]
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=953999 [ubuntuforums.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds#Later_years [wikipedia.org]
ah yes, the old "Millenial" prize. (Score:1)
Nothing's too menial for a Millenial.
A well deserved award (Score:2)
His original idea has brought together a large group of very smart people and his no-nonsense stile has kept this herd of cats working for a joint goal.
My congratulations with the prize and thanks for making my computer a useful tool!
Too tame to be real Torvaldsian answers (Score:5, Funny)
This is a plant by some Linux shill. Real Torvaldsian answers include calling people morons and telling them that they should just die.
Assangians Assemble! Let's get the full transcript from the BBC and see what Linus REALLY said!
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Millen (Score:2, Offtopic)
Say what 'Milllenium' is this referring to? We have been in the 3rd millenium for over a decade now.
Is thids some dating system I am not familiar with, like the Mayan calander?
This award is a TRAVESTY (Score:2, Funny)