Linus in USAToday

Jeroen writes "USAToday features a nice mainstream article about Linus Torvalds, with mentions his grandfather and contains quotes from his father." The article calls him the next Bill Gates, albeit tongue in cheek.

Control

[Anonymous Coward]

One major difference between Linus and Bill: Linus doesn't so much control OS development as lead it. If you're working with good ideas, you don't have to control them to make things work.

Majorly good article

[Codifex Maximus]

As nice as it is to have articles about Linus by Linux people, it's even more enjoyable to get the opinions and views of those currently outside the Linux core crowd. It gives one a view of a different perspective; quite refreshing.

90-year-old grannies...

[cduffy]

...can't use Windows or the Mac either.

At least, those who can are mighty rare. Anyhow, simple to use depends on how you look at it. Unix is simple to use in that it's very logical; There's not half as much guesswork involved in adminning a Unix box as a Windows machine.

Great Article

[sterwill]

I usually read the "mainstream Linux" articles expecting them to be full of inaccuracies, half-truths, and a competitive slant where there often is none. But this article was an honest portrait of Linus; the family research and interviews were excellent. Can you imagine a similar exchange with Gates's relatives? I can't.

Even though they said something like "Linux is cheaper than Unix" without explaining their criteria for costly Unix, the article was devoid of that silly word "freeware!" However, they didn't touch on the freedom aspect of the software... which doesn't bother me much. I think the article was much more about Linus than his creation.

What a Keen Article

[Scott]

I'm typically not one for mainstream press, but USAToday can be pretty good at times. It was a nice story, people doing background research like that might actually get the clueless rags to come around.

Debian linux is listed as a commercial vendor

[Temperance]

When did Debian become a commercial entity? They have it listed next to red had as companies selling linux, when Debian is a non profit organization.

For once an original article, great!

[IAMNTM]

Now, what's wrong with playing with matches? :-)

Linus started with a Vic-20!

[Jacco de Leeuw]

The article says that he programmed games in the mid-70's but that can't be right. I too started on the Vic-20, around 1981 or so.

Heck, who knows I have a game by Linus on my old data tapes somewhere! ;-)

It's in the print version, too...

[Jeff Monks]

It's on page 3B of the print copy. Good one to buy and leave casually laying around...

press

[dripfeed]

think of how many copies are in airplanes
and hotel rooms.

lying with statistics

[trb]

stupid content in this article:

Torvalds, 29, is the creator of Linux, a software operating system that has increased its market share

212% in the past year.

212% of what? From 100 sites to 312? very impressive. (obviously not, but the statistic is useless).

Linux now runs on some of the most heavily used computers in the world, including research computers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and

scores of Web servers around the world.

Scores? what, 60 sites? 80? An accurate number here would have helped too.

Shortcomings of this article

[bneely]

The article does a nice job explaining that Linux is free, but I think it is important to point out why it is free. A casual reader of this article won't know the history of the GNU project, or anything about the GPL. I would like to see more articles of this nature give more coverage to the GNU project which is as much a driving force as the Linux kernel is.

Interesting article, why did they wait to print it

[cholko]

It would seem that they could have printed this type of article earlier. Were there any pro-Linux or should that be (non-MS) articles printed while the trial was on hold for the holidays?

This article is pretty much one sided... but at least its about the person for most part. People need to attach a face to a creation.

Other people work on the Linux kernel too

[GeekBoy]

Don't get me wrong. I think it's great that Linus
is getting alot of press. He's done ALOT and done
it well. He also bears a heavy burden/responsibility to
alot of people now. However, I think it would be
nice for some of these articles to mention the
other people that work steadyfastly on the Linux
kernel, like Allan Cox for one. It takes alot
of people to pull off a project like Linux. It's
a TEAM effort.