Tag: quotes

On submitting trivial patches

Hacker News points to this Linux kernel patch, done by a 4-year old.  With some assistance, of course, but still impressive.  And while the story is cute, the comments are even better.  In particular, a link to this email from Linus Torvalds, talking about the importance of the small and trivial contributions.

To me, the biggest thing with small patches is not necessarily the patch itself. I think that much more important than the patch is the fact that people get used to the notion that they can change the kernel – not just on an intellectual level (“I understand that the GPL means that I have the right to change my kernel”), but on a more practical level (“Hey, I did that small change”).

Linus Torvalds loves GPL

Slashdot links to this CIO article, which quotes Linus Torvalds on the importance of the General Public License (GPL):

“FSF [Free Software Foundation] and I don’t have a loving relationship, but I love GPL v2,” said Torvalds. “I really think the license has been one of the defining factors in the success of Linux because it enforced that you have to give back, which meant that the fragmentation has never been something that has been viable from a technical standpoint.”

and:

“The GPL ensures that nobody is ever going to take advantage of your code. It will remain free and nobody can take that away from you. I think that’s a big deal for community management.”

On managing Linux kernel development

The Linux kernel is one of the largest collaborative software projects in the history of the world and has almost nothing in the way of formalized management structure. We have people who have a strong operating systems background who have been contributing code, and then we have people like me. I have a background in fruit fly genetics and yet someone lets me get close to the Linux kernel; this seems wrong. And then we have people who are genuinely kids in their bedroom. It’s a miracle it works as well as it does. We should be astonished that we’re able to get it so right so much of the time.

Matthew Garrett