4 ms·

Linus Torvalds: The mind behind Linux

30 points by dankohn1 11y ago

kristoforlawson 11y ago
I watched this earlier today - really insightful. I also love that his intention was to never make something great for the industry, just something great for him. That's where the best projects come from.
server_bot 11y ago
The linked list code example wasn't something I expected to see in a TED talk :) Toward the end he mentioned Wikipedia and open academic journals - never really thought of those things as under the open source umbrella, so that was eye opening for me. A popular Wikipedia page probably touches more lives in a more meaningful, or at least more direct, way then any commit pushed to GitHub.
TerryADavis 11y ago
#!/bin/bash #This prints random words. echo "$(shuf -n 32 /usr/share/dict/words --random-source=/dev/urandom | tr '\n' ' ')" ====================== The critical thing is that you do an offering of love, first. Be witty and charming. Tip: God's favorite thing on TV is soap operas. You get back equal value like a fair barter. God says... Dalmatians whittler farmland brokenhearted creature's outpatients paleontology duel nosedove Suzanne's adornments annihilation's crayons hippy pomade's whales testicles Hegel Georges vignetted gigolo ladybugs females stalagmite's settle Horus unwelcome sandmen Clara grandstands Neptune's sticks
pier25 11y ago
So why is Linux everywhere? Is it only because it's free?
- anbotero 11y ago
  It might have been that initially. These days it’s because a whole ecosystem was created around it, and yes, most of it it’s kind of free. Think about it: if you wanted to work on something but you had to pay either for the software or documentation you need to base your work on, it’d be a blocker of sorts for a lot of people, specially if you’re just a student wanting to do a “simple” thing or wanting to test something. That’s just an example. Having a 30-day trial of something helps, but it’ll probably not give you all the answers you need.
- pvorb 11y ago
  There are many more operating systems that are free (both free as in freedom and as in free of charge). None of them became as popular as Linux.

30 points by dankohn1 11y ago

I watched this earlier today - really insightful. I also love that his intention was to never make something great for the industry, just something great for him. That's where the best projects come from.

server_bot 11y ago

The linked list code example wasn't something I expected to see in a TED talk :) Toward the end he mentioned Wikipedia and open academic journals - never really thought of those things as under the open source umbrella, so that was eye opening for me. A popular Wikipedia page probably touches more lives in a more meaningful, or at least more direct, way then any commit pushed to GitHub.

TerryADavis 11y ago

#!/bin/bash #This prints random words. echo "$(shuf -n 32 /usr/share/dict/words --random-source=/dev/urandom | tr '\n' ' ')" ====================== The critical thing is that you do an offering of love, first. Be witty and charming. Tip: God's favorite thing on TV is soap operas. You get back equal value like a fair barter. God says... Dalmatians whittler farmland brokenhearted creature's outpatients paleontology duel nosedove Suzanne's adornments annihilation's crayons hippy pomade's whales testicles Hegel Georges vignetted gigolo ladybugs females stalagmite's settle Horus unwelcome sandmen Clara grandstands Neptune's sticks

pier25 11y ago

So why is Linux everywhere? Is it only because it's free?

anbotero 11y ago
It might have been that initially. These days it’s because a whole ecosystem was created around it, and yes, most of it it’s kind of free. Think about it: if you wanted to work on something but you had to pay either for the software or documentation you need to base your work on, it’d be a blocker of sorts for a lot of people, specially if you’re just a student wanting to do a “simple” thing or wanting to test something. That’s just an example. Having a 30-day trial of something helps, but it’ll probably not give you all the answers you need.
pvorb 11y ago
There are many more operating systems that are free (both free as in freedom and as in free of charge). None of them became as popular as Linux.