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Matt Mackall, another cranky kernel hacker, showed me a lot about how it's possible to say "no" to many eager changes that would have broken Mercurial and not b
by jordigh 9y ago
Matt Mackall, another cranky kernel hacker, showed me a lot about how it's possible to say "no" to many eager changes that would have broken Mercurial and not be yelling obscenities about it.
Linus is no role model. His imprecations are not what make Linux work.
- colechristensen 9y agoYou can have lots of theories about what would or wouldn't make Linux work, but the facts on the ground are that Linux is wildly successful, and Linus behaves as he does. The latter has been an integral part of the former.
- zimpenfish 9y agoCorrelation, however, is not causation. You can't say that Linux is wildly successful because Linus behaves as he does.
- forapurpose 9y agoIt's not even correlation. Correlation is: (if A then B) AND (if not A then not B) Every day, the rooster crows and the sun rises; that's not correlation. Periodically, Linus vocalizes in this way and Linux releases.
- zimpenfish 9y ago> (if A then B) That's causation, surely. > Every day, the rooster crows and the sun rises; that's not correlation. Why not? That's literally (if A then B) according to your definition.
- colechristensen 9y agoLinus created and then named Linux after himself. He runs it and has for decades. And we're trying to deny that his behavior is even correlated with Linux' success?
- alien_at_work 9y agohttps://xkcd.com/552/ https://xkcd.com/552/