5 ms·

It is not a tribute. It is obviously a sarcastic joke cued by the coinciding version numbers. I am not sure how good Microsoft was at systems programming at the

by hristov 13y ago

It is not a tribute. It is obviously a sarcastic joke cued by the coinciding version numbers. I am not sure how good Microsoft was at systems programming at the time, but I guarantee you Linus has very little regard for Microsoft's systems or any other type of programming acumen and is not about to start making tributes to Microsoft.

shadowfox 13y ago
> Linus has very little regard for Microsoft's systems or any other type of programming acumen Perhaps true. On the other hand: http://www.osnews.com/story/21887/Linus_Microsoft_Hatred_Is_a_Disease_ http://www.osnews.com/story/21887/Linus_Microsoft_Hatred_Is_...
- dandrews 13y ago
  This photo of Linus always makes me smile: http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2009/10/torvalds_windows_7.jpg http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2009/10/...
  - i386 13y ago
    Whenever I think of Linus, I recall being at LCA to witness to Linus being 'dunked' for charity http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bclhry9F9Bc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bclhry9F9Bc
hnriot 13y ago
Obviously the version number is the reason, but tribute vs sarcasm, that's tough. It lacks any actual sarcasm, so I think Linus might have inadvertently made it a tribute, by mistake. While I like linux, and I am writing this on an Ubuntu 13.10 install, there's really nothing very innovating about Linux, for anyone that has a unix history, it's just another variant, like the myriad of other ones [1]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Unix_variants http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Unix_variants
- derleth 13y ago
  Right, like how there's nothing innovative in automobiles now; they're all still on four wheels and controlled with a steering wheel and pedals. I mean, come on!
  - HNJohnC 13y ago
    Well...to be fair there really isn't. Perhaps in some new high tech Japanese supercars but the average car rolling off the assembly line in Detroit is about as innovative as a ham sandwich. Many cars still have incandescent light bulbs in them and the latest in-car tech is less innovative than 90% of the tech you find at a Toys-r-us store.
- hristov 13y ago
  Your second paragraph is off topic and obviously wrong. I will not go into why it is wrong because it is off topic, but I cannot let patently false throw away statements stay unchallenged. Some poor soul may actually believe you. Regarding your first paragraph, you cannot make a tribute inadvertently. The definition of the word tribute requires a certain intention. In layman's terms, if Linus did not intend something to be a tribute, then it is not a tribute.
  - hnriot 13y ago
    So, you're saying... absolutely nothing, just being Linux fanboy. That's fine. So, it seems like you're agreeing with me, that Linus was making a tribute to windows? It's unclear what you're trying to say really.
- harshreality 13y ago
  You're setting quite a high bar for innovation if anything that "looks like unix" is not deemed to be innovative. There's plenty of innovation in every modern "unixlike" OS. IllumOS, Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, to take some common examples, have each taken different paths in different functional areas, and rarely is one objectively worse than any other unless you have the constraint of a particular set of hardware to run the kernel on and/or software to run under the kernel. Filesystems, for instance. ZFS and Btrfs (to a lesser extent, mainly because it's years from being feature complete) are innovative compared to earlier mainstream filesystems. Yet, a typical desktop user would not notice any innovation. Typical users are not concerned with snapshots, sending snapshot diffs between devices, or scrubbing a raid array for errors. ZFS has been criticized for being a resource hog, and both have been criticized for being slow. There are always trade offs. Getting a modern filesystem with COW and block checksums or hashes has performance costs, particularly on rotating disks. The only thing a desktop user will notice about a 5 year old computer running linux or BSD with a ZFS or btrfs filesystem is that it's slow. Slowness isn't innovative, right?
vacri 13y ago
An entrepreneur can recognise a competitor without it being an attack of some form. Why does it have to be sarcastic? It's just a humorous acknowledgment of coinciding numbers - "Hey, '3.11' is a number that has significant history elsewhere in the computing world" Certainly 3.11 is more evocative a number in that context than 10.4 or 6.1 or 3.0.

by hristov 13y ago

shadowfox 13y ago

> Linus has very little regard for Microsoft's systems or any other type of programming acumen Perhaps true. On the other hand: http://www.osnews.com/story/21887/Linus_Microsoft_Hatred_Is_a_Disease_ http://www.osnews.com/story/21887/Linus_Microsoft_Hatred_Is_...

dandrews 13y ago
This photo of Linus always makes me smile: http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2009/10/torvalds_windows_7.jpg http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2009/10/...
- i386 13y ago
  Whenever I think of Linus, I recall being at LCA to witness to Linus being 'dunked' for charity http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bclhry9F9Bc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bclhry9F9Bc

hnriot 13y ago

Obviously the version number is the reason, but tribute vs sarcasm, that's tough. It lacks any actual sarcasm, so I think Linus might have inadvertently made it a tribute, by mistake. While I like linux, and I am writing this on an Ubuntu 13.10 install, there's really nothing very innovating about Linux, for anyone that has a unix history, it's just another variant, like the myriad of other ones [1]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Unix_variants http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Unix_variants

derleth 13y ago
Right, like how there's nothing innovative in automobiles now; they're all still on four wheels and controlled with a steering wheel and pedals. I mean, come on!
- HNJohnC 13y ago
  Well...to be fair there really isn't. Perhaps in some new high tech Japanese supercars but the average car rolling off the assembly line in Detroit is about as innovative as a ham sandwich. Many cars still have incandescent light bulbs in them and the latest in-car tech is less innovative than 90% of the tech you find at a Toys-r-us store.
hristov 13y ago
Your second paragraph is off topic and obviously wrong. I will not go into why it is wrong because it is off topic, but I cannot let patently false throw away statements stay unchallenged. Some poor soul may actually believe you. Regarding your first paragraph, you cannot make a tribute inadvertently. The definition of the word tribute requires a certain intention. In layman's terms, if Linus did not intend something to be a tribute, then it is not a tribute.
- hnriot 13y ago
  So, you're saying... absolutely nothing, just being Linux fanboy. That's fine. So, it seems like you're agreeing with me, that Linus was making a tribute to windows? It's unclear what you're trying to say really.
harshreality 13y ago
You're setting quite a high bar for innovation if anything that "looks like unix" is not deemed to be innovative. There's plenty of innovation in every modern "unixlike" OS. IllumOS, Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, to take some common examples, have each taken different paths in different functional areas, and rarely is one objectively worse than any other unless you have the constraint of a particular set of hardware to run the kernel on and/or software to run under the kernel. Filesystems, for instance. ZFS and Btrfs (to a lesser extent, mainly because it's years from being feature complete) are innovative compared to earlier mainstream filesystems. Yet, a typical desktop user would not notice any innovation. Typical users are not concerned with snapshots, sending snapshot diffs between devices, or scrubbing a raid array for errors. ZFS has been criticized for being a resource hog, and both have been criticized for being slow. There are always trade offs. Getting a modern filesystem with COW and block checksums or hashes has performance costs, particularly on rotating disks. The only thing a desktop user will notice about a 5 year old computer running linux or BSD with a ZFS or btrfs filesystem is that it's slow. Slowness isn't innovative, right?

vacri 13y ago

An entrepreneur can recognise a competitor without it being an attack of some form. Why does it have to be sarcastic? It's just a humorous acknowledgment of coinciding numbers - "Hey, '3.11' is a number that has significant history elsewhere in the computing world" Certainly 3.11 is more evocative a number in that context than 10.4 or 6.1 or 3.0.