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I agree with that statement in a way. Linus Torvalds wrote a kernel because he bought a PC: hardware which allowed him to do anything he wanted. Today, smartp

by chjj 14y ago

I agree with that statement in a way. Linus Torvalds wrote a kernel because he bought a PC: hardware which allowed him to do anything he wanted. Today, smartphones and mobile devices are much more popular among the youth. Could you imagine if Torvalds had been born in 1993? By this point, I'm sure he would have made something much less spectacular than Linux. Maybe he would make some pretty cool Facebook or smartphone games, and maybe a few cool web apps, but the freedom to tinker with hardware directly had been slowly slipping away over the past ~10 years. Since that avenue was becoming less available, there's a chance it wouldn't have grabbed his attention in the first place. We still have laptops/desktops which aren't locked down. Hopefully that's what the young/future version of Torvalds would have gotten interested in. But how long until you buy a laptop only to find out that it doesn't grant you root access?

mattstreet 14y ago
To be fair, it's easier these days to afford both a smartphone AND a piece of much more hackable hardware. At least as far as prices go. One of the main real reasons for Linus's success (other than say his talent) is that there wasn't a good alternative to Linux so even version 0.2 which could barely do anything by today's standards got interest and community involvement.
andrewflnr 14y ago
I'm not a Linus worshipper, but I don't think you're giving him enough credit. Even given a locked down platform, I don't think Young Torvalds would have been satisfied with a "pretty cool Facebook app". Granted, there aren't a lot of people who can just go write a kernel under any circumstances.
FuzzyDunlop 14y ago
There are still things like the Raspberry Pi, and all the things you can wire into it, which obviate the need to spend a few hundred quid on a full on desktop PC.

by chjj 14y ago

mattstreet 14y ago

To be fair, it's easier these days to afford both a smartphone AND a piece of much more hackable hardware. At least as far as prices go. One of the main real reasons for Linus's success (other than say his talent) is that there wasn't a good alternative to Linux so even version 0.2 which could barely do anything by today's standards got interest and community involvement.

andrewflnr 14y ago

I'm not a Linus worshipper, but I don't think you're giving him enough credit. Even given a locked down platform, I don't think Young Torvalds would have been satisfied with a "pretty cool Facebook app". Granted, there aren't a lot of people who can just go write a kernel under any circumstances.

FuzzyDunlop 14y ago

There are still things like the Raspberry Pi, and all the things you can wire into it, which obviate the need to spend a few hundred quid on a full on desktop PC.