Linus has the most unique programming career ever. It’s good for us that he became the impartial foul-mouthed emperor of fat penguins. If he were still great at programming but not so good at leading, i wonder what would have happened to Linux.
This interview makes me wonder what’s going to happen after he’s gone. You could say that he’s set up whoever succeeds him for a tough act to follow. But no one necessarily has to succeed him in any way.
I’d imagine that Linux kernel would be governed by a council like the Rust project.
God please no. The BDFL model is vastly superior when it comes to consistency and quality. Committees fuck everything up.
If Linus’s tenure prematurely ended then Greg KH would take his place.
I thought maybe the title had been misspelled and it was supposed to say “selflessness and trust” but nope, Linus goes into great detail about how being selfish helps open source projects. I agree with the points he’s making though, great interview. This bit is so relatable:
I’ll happily sit in front of the computer the whole day, and if the kids distract me when I’m in the middle of something, a certain amount of cursing might happen.
