Linus didn't write Linux

[KernelPanic]

Prepare for a long post...

Some ATDI loony, who doesn't seem to know his arse from his elbow with regard to NIX, seems to think that Linus Torvalds did not write Linux.

Claims Debunked By Eric Raymond:
 

quote: Judging by these excerpts, this book is a disaster. Many of the claimed facts are bogus, the logic is shoddy, some of the people you claim to have used as important sources have already blasted you for inaccuracy, and at the end of the day you will have earned nothing but ridicule for it.

I'm going to be charitable and assume that this mess is the result of honest error (rather than, as some are now charging, a paid hatchet job). Accordingly, I suggest some corrections here. Be aware that I will publish this critique if I am not swiftly convinced that those corrections will be incorporated.

The problems start in the abstract. Software is not composed of interchangeable parts that can be hodded from one project to another like a load of bricks. Context and interfaces are everything; unless it has been packaged into a library specifically intended to move, moving software between projects is more like an organ transplant, with utmost care needed to resect vessels and nerves. The kind of massive theft you are implying is not just contingently rare, it is necessarily rare because it is next to impossible.

I have been part of the hacker community for more than 25 years now and am one of its most expert historians. If we were in the habit of stealing code, I would know

[KernelPanic]

and Torvalds....

 

quote:
"Ok, I admit it. I was just a front-man for the real fathers of Linux, the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus."

Thus begins a characteristically Torvaldsian e-mail to LinuxWorld News Desk sent by Linus Torvalds in response to our invitation to comment on the sensationalist claims this morning that he isn't, after all, the inventor of Linux.

"They (for obvious reasons) couldn't step forward to admit that they had gotten bitten by the computer bug, and had been developing a series of operating systems on their own during the off season. But when they started with Linux (which they originally called Freax - they do feel like outsiders, you know, and that's a whole sad story in itself), they felt that they could no longer just let it languish in obscurity. They started to look for a front-man, and since Santa Claus is from Finland and thus has connections to Helsinki University, and the tooth fairy claimed 'He's got good strong teeth,' I got selected."

"Since then," Torvalds continues, "I've lived a life of subterfuge, always afraid that somebody would find out the truth. I'm actually relieved that it's over, and that the Alexis de Tocqueville Institute has finally uncovered the lie. I can now go back to my chosen profession, the exploration of the fascinating mating dance of the common newt."

In a PS he adds:

"Btw, did you know that newts have more offspring if you play the harmonica to them during their mating rituals? It's true."

And in a PPS:

    Btw, I do believe that somebody took over adti.net.

    I don't think the Alexis de Tocqueville institute ever had humor (they certainly used to take themselves very seriously), but their site today is filled with jokes.

    Maybe they forgot to pay their DNS registration fee, and some enterprising person decided to play a joke on them? Or maybe their clocks are running a month-and-a-half late?

    Or is it really unintentional?

    Linus

 

[flap]

quote:Even the FSF faction that thinks proprietary code is evil has repeatedly and publicly condemned piracy and stealing other peoples' code

Looks like Raymond got his facts wrong as well. The FSF has never (at least not anywhere that I can see) condemned "piracy" - in fact they go out of their way to say the opposite. The FSF objects to the term "piracy" specifically because it implies copying software is immoral; an opinion with which they disagree. Neither would they condemn "stealing other people's code" as they don't believe in the misleading concept of "intellectual property" (unlike Raymond) and so don't see code as being "property" that can be owned and stolen.