With all the talk about Linux fragmenting, and debate over whether it will ever scale to the enterprise, the man who started this whole fracas remains a pillar of calm through it all. We talk to Linus about the changing Linux community, his thoughts on the future of Linux, and how his life has changed in the past two years.
Though leading the Linux community has been likened to shepherding cats, the closest thing we have to a lead cat-juggler is the man who wrote the Linux kernel, Linus Torvalds. But Linus is taking a less public role as of late, in part because he’s settled down with his wife, two daughters, new car (a BMW Z3, thank you very much), and a new house in Silicon Valley. Also, he’s been punching the clock at Transmeta Corp. as well as working some rather long hours to get the much anticipated 2.4 kernel finished and out the door — a release that was originally expected in December of 1999.
Linus took the time to meet with Linux Magazine’s Adam Goodman, Robert McMillan, and Jason Perlow at last August’s LinuxWorld Expo in San Jose to tell us what he sees in Linux’s future. Also in attendance was regular contributor Lee Gomes.
Linux Magazine: Do you picture yourself as the leader of Linux?
Linus Torvalds: Yeah, but it’s not in the charging sense where I’m holding the flag while the troops follow me as hard as they can. I’m not even a manager because being a manager implies that you have some kind of job. Linux is more of a huge…
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