> There was a degree of central organization since the project leader, Linus Torvalds, approved kernel changes and set the philosophical tone, but Linux probabl

> There was a degree of central organization since the project leader, Linus Torvalds, approved kernel changes and set the philosophical tone, but Linux probably could have survived the removal of its leader. It was decentralized enough to have no single point of failure. I submit that Torvalds' genius could be subdivided into technical heft vs. laissez faire management. He made the in-vs-out calls more or less optimally, and leveraged the "libertaian" feel of the GPL, without getting bogged down by FSF ideology. It was a small target to hit. The pattern might be less difficult to replicate now, but would a Theo de Raadt be able to carry the torch? Torvalds nailed the timing/location problem.