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I have to wonder if Linux would even be remembered other than as a footnote at this time without his forceful personality being in the mix. Many things fail wh

I have to wonder if Linux would even be remembered other than as a footnote at this time without his forceful personality being in the mix. Many things fail when they get pecked to death by ducks. His forceful personality carried the day on many occasions.

eridius 8y ago
You can be forceful without being an asshole about it.
- tomohawk 8y ago
  Sure, but can you be successful in the context in which he was successful? He succeeded against all odds, and has done something great. He's no saint, but none of us are. Like it or not, who he was was instrumental in this success. The parts you admire and the parts you disagree with.
- sonnyblarney 8y ago
  In reality, being 'forceful' will almost always be perceived as being kind of an asshole. BUT - there's a world of difference between being 'forceful perceived as jerk' and 'demeaning and needlessly insulting or derogatory'. Never a reason to put people down. In Linus' 2008 speech at Google talking about Git, he said he created it partly to avoid politics - he can just have people copy his stuff into their own repo and go off yonder and not have to deal with them.
paulddraper 8y ago
Or maybe his brashness was irrelevant. What would Steve Jobs have been known for if not for his turtleneck? /s
- danso 8y ago
  I agree it's mostly pointless to argue one way or another what Linux would be in a hypothetical timeline in which Linus was less rude/brash. But it seems ironic to bring up Jobs as a counter-example, because he most definitely was known to be an asshole who said and did things far more reprehensible than what Linus has been accused of. But Jobs has no shortage of first-hand witnesses who testify that his force of personality (e.g. the reality distortion field) was pivotal to Apple's success. I'm a Church of Woz worshipper myself, but it seems clear he would not have (reluctantly) agreed to quit his anonymous HP engineering job to join Apple, had Jobs not literally thrown a crying tantrum (and IIRC from one of his biographers, he did this in Woz's own home).
codeulike 8y ago
Many things fail when they get pecked to death by ducks. Haven't heard that idiom before, but its interesting.
hfdgiutdryg 8y ago
I have to wonder if Linux would even be remembered other than as a footnote at this time without his forceful personality being in the mix. He probably would, because he's a fairly prodigious developer working on hard problems. He was already noteworthy long before the modern era of the Internet, simply for getting early Linux working. Being a jerk didn't create Linux and git. Hard work did.
kyberias 8y ago
Creator or Linux wouldn't be remembered other than as a footnote? What?

eridius 8y ago

You can be forceful without being an asshole about it.

tomohawk 8y ago
Sure, but can you be successful in the context in which he was successful? He succeeded against all odds, and has done something great. He's no saint, but none of us are. Like it or not, who he was was instrumental in this success. The parts you admire and the parts you disagree with.
sonnyblarney 8y ago
In reality, being 'forceful' will almost always be perceived as being kind of an asshole. BUT - there's a world of difference between being 'forceful perceived as jerk' and 'demeaning and needlessly insulting or derogatory'. Never a reason to put people down. In Linus' 2008 speech at Google talking about Git, he said he created it partly to avoid politics - he can just have people copy his stuff into their own repo and go off yonder and not have to deal with them.

paulddraper 8y ago

Or maybe his brashness was irrelevant. What would Steve Jobs have been known for if not for his turtleneck? /s

danso 8y ago
I agree it's mostly pointless to argue one way or another what Linux would be in a hypothetical timeline in which Linus was less rude/brash. But it seems ironic to bring up Jobs as a counter-example, because he most definitely was known to be an asshole who said and did things far more reprehensible than what Linus has been accused of. But Jobs has no shortage of first-hand witnesses who testify that his force of personality (e.g. the reality distortion field) was pivotal to Apple's success. I'm a Church of Woz worshipper myself, but it seems clear he would not have (reluctantly) agreed to quit his anonymous HP engineering job to join Apple, had Jobs not literally thrown a crying tantrum (and IIRC from one of his biographers, he did this in Woz's own home).

codeulike 8y ago

Many things fail when they get pecked to death by ducks. Haven't heard that idiom before, but its interesting.

hfdgiutdryg 8y ago

I have to wonder if Linux would even be remembered other than as a footnote at this time without his forceful personality being in the mix. He probably would, because he's a fairly prodigious developer working on hard problems. He was already noteworthy long before the modern era of the Internet, simply for getting early Linux working. Being a jerk didn't create Linux and git. Hard work did.

kyberias 8y ago

Creator or Linux wouldn't be remembered other than as a footnote? What?