Q&A with Linus Torvalds

Daniel Gillmor, Ana Guerrero López
summit.debconf.org/debconf14/...
Linus will come by DebConf to do a small Q&A session with us.

[@zardinus1]

"If it's a bug that people rely on it's not a bug, it's a feature" Well said :)

[@ar2000]

I feel like I saw this in a game... Minecraft and it's pistons

[@ben.pueschel]

@@ar2000 Minecraft is actually a great example for this. The entire existence of the creeper was a bug, but removing it now would take away a lot of gameplay, so it's a feature now

[@Lucid_Mask]

18:44 The reaction of the guy to the left for a question about systemd is priceless 😆😆😆

[@contytub]

People keep failing to understand the differences between respect and politeness ... i can be polite by default but respect has to be earned ...

[@a_p_vox]

Thanks for that remark! I've completely ignored the word "politeness" 😅

[@DM_0X]

I dont think he ignored it. He said he was abrasive and told people not to work with him if they dont like him. Just because that isnt enough for you doesnt mean he's wrong.

[@dimensional7915]

Linus Torvalds: Valve will save the linux desktop Valve: annouces Steam deck in 2021 that runs on linux

[@chupasaurus]

Since 2016 Valve worked with CodeWeavers, the main company behind the Wine project. This made a big impact right from the get-go because they've made DirectX 10&11 support in less than a year because Valve already had a tech to translate those APIs into OpenGL for Linux ports of their games.

[@alexkiecker4175]

I feel so dirty watching this on windows...

[@alexkiecker4175]

Thats better

[@fleecky7011]

Windows: I use Windows and i'm fine with it :) Linux: (Laughs in Linux)

[@LoganT547]

IMPOSTER! JK.

[@gameradachi6347]

@@LoganT547 THERE'S A IMPOSTOR AMONG US

[@a_p_vox]

Thank goodness I watch this on Android 😄

[@pajaf0341]

As on the TedEx Video, Torwalds mentioned taste. In German: »Geschmack«. I like, how he subverts the genius-cult without downplaying his ability. Actually, Mozart was talking a lot about »Geschmack« when teaching composition to youngsters. Good taste and hard work and being recognized plus the feedback loop effects, that's it. Impressive guy.

[@SirMo]

This was great. Thank you for sharing!

[@MrJgohde]

The year of the Linux Desktop (4:55), the major problem with Linux applications (5:59).

[@electricimpulsetoprogramming]

"Respect should be earned and without being earned you don't get it"

[@temudjin1155]

Best response. Pretty Nietzschean

[@electricimpulsetoprogramming]

@@temudjin1155 That's what he said in this video, i just don't remember the exactly time.

[@urinater]

@@electricimpulsetoprogramming 18:14

[@vetrixfx9264]

I believe that everyone should be treated with respect, but that you can lose your respect if you fuck up bad. but hey thats just my opinion

[@totallyuniquelily0]

@@vetrixfx9264 I agree, but I think there are different meanings of the word respect, or I guess types or levels of respect. So you can earn more respect, but generally you shouldn't be insulted from the get-go

[@moamenabdelkawy5718]

I just love this man. Respect.

[@bhaskary2362]

Valve is finally releasing its own distro now on the steam deck, I don't know about the "its own binary" thingy but I'm glad that its finally happening.

[@_framedlife]

Valva has maintained their own distro for a while. They are rebasing it on arch instead of debian/ubuntu(?) That they previously used.

[@chupasaurus]

@@_framedlife Alpha version of SteamOS was on Ubuntu, they've switched to Debian in beta until 3.0. Even though the alpha was quite short, they still gave away the perpetual Valve games package to all maintainers of Ubuntu at the time.

[@alexhunter0815]

2024 and Debian still feels like a nightmare

[@uasco-da-gama]

14:38 LMAO

[@KegRaider]

The response was gold :D Haven't laughed so had in ages!

[@unucellply4221]

5:13 for those who are learning English, it sounds like "don't aim" but Linus was reloading and I guess he meant "If I was given the option between Debian and ChromeOS, I would get into Chromebooks"

[@elha7982]

Wow, Tom Scott has gained some weight

[@MrJason005]

there were a bunch of comments here, right? did they all get deleted?

[@nourway3639]

And that was the last time debian invited linus again

[@eeclarkutube]

So with AppImage, Snap, and FlatPak….I guess his Linux binaries argument is lessened? Also, when are they going to cast Steve Carrell as Linus in the Linux movie?

[@FLMKane]

Dont forget Docker. It was pioneer in that development

[@DoubleOhSilver]

Snap is trash but the others do well at what they try to solve

[@MrCed122]

Well, it kinda helps, but also... it's still not ONE standard, it's three different standards that all work differently, aren't compatible with one another and each have their own problems (FlatPack isn''t available by default with every distribution (Ubuntu being the big one), the Snap Store is closed-source and is being maintained by Canonical, who have a tendency to kill their projects after a few years, and AppImage is mainly used with small, simpler applications, so you could argue it simply muddy the water even more. I'm also not that familiar with FlatPack, but Snap has big problems with accessing files from outside its "containers", I would guess FlatPack also have a similar problem. I think FlatPack and AppImage can coexist, but not as long as Ubuntu doesn't ship it by default since it's still the most popular distribution. That's probably only a question of time, people really dislike Snap and Canonical really angered their users by shipping a slow and unstable Firefox Snap in Ubuntu 22.04 (an LTS release), while preventing users to install a native version.

[@eeclarkutube]

@GeneralHub only theaters running Linux in the projection booth

[@18x9]

At 30:11, for solving the issue of having to write and maintain applications for each distro he said "you can solve it by linking everything statically and giving your own file system ... but you really have to do that right now" and goes onto explain why. Why don't more developers do this? Have any of you or someone you know done this, considered it, or gotten close / done something similar. Do you know any examples with more popular software? What did mean specifically by "but you really have to do that right now" and why is that the case?

[@PilliNagaVarshith23BPS113]

this guy literally changed the software world

[@BartekJuszczak]

It's interesting the point about UUID's. For my retail point of sale web app system I thought they were genius. It makes everything easier , the data structure is always just a parent has children and each thing is a unique ID. Then have a central store to retrieve data by UUID, which should have all the class fields serialized + any nested children as unique ID's. and everything also needs a 'type' like a class string. the advantage is then everything is the same. it's all children of parents and you check the type to see what to do with it . The front end is kind of done for you.. it's magical

[@SirMo]

Linus works at a low level, where uuid is slow and inefficient in terms of space usage. It's also difficult to use at that level. So he probably hates it for that reason.

[@wristocrat]

The Steve Carrell of computer geniuses

[@JoyNUND]

I didn't realize when I became a tech nerd guy just by having an internet accesible device

[@ThomasLeo]

Too funny to a key speaker ad DebConf who doesn't like debian

[@germancaperarojas4023]

Torvalds the highest payed software engineer on the planet.

[@studyguy6808]

its Mark Zucc

[@FLMKane]

Some of the audience was excessively passive aggressive in this video.

[@Rotceev]

Oh my, I just realised how he is similar to Steve Carell. They both have similar awkwardness embracing kind of vis comica.

[@tjackson1210]

Not passing any judgement or endorsement of his heated comments to developers, but the transcripts are publicly available. Similar and worse happen behind closed doors with no scrutiny.

[@DM_0X]

I think people need to grow thicker skin and quit being so sensitive. Passionate people often are more expressive when angry than others.

[@guitar81sb]

cross distro binary apps for Linux might have already arrived: flatpack and snap

[@techzone2009]

Appimage too....it is developed by Linus himself .... better than both

[@BiologyIsHot]

Except when there's like 1000 it becomes gross bloat. Also for whatever reason it's very hit whether major things are available that way. Casually browsing the repositories looks like a cheap KZbinr promo.

[@sayannandy876]

Snaps slow down everything, from the system to boot( I'd rather build from source than use that bloat) . Idk much about flatpacks. But appimages are good, with near-binary performance. But I still believe, like SystemD, there should be a universal packaging format. But I think it'll break a lot of things to implement this now.

[@rchi12461]

Snap is proprietary and spyware. Flat packs are fine. appimage is the best

[@bunkyd]

The FlatPak and Snap mentality is basically “package a mini distro with every app just so nothing breaks”. It means a simple Notepad application ends up being 200mb instead of 50kb.

[@riquiraysheriff9590]

Its hard to see sexy ,cute people in the tech world 😊

[@jakobw135]

Which HARDWARE is recommended and compatible with running Linux normally and even optimally? And which manufacturers should one STAY AWAY FROM with respect to Linux?

[@MrZix44]

Avoid Nvidia if you're worried about running "optimally". Otherwise, amd and Intel cpus and amd gpus work perfectly well on Linux (don't know about Intel gpus, never used them before)

[@Sakari_369]

Wow what suckers these guys, have some respect for the guy, not everyone can be nice when they have to write Linux code all day long, just to get your OS running so you can watch KZbin on your phone without lag. ;-)

[@viaantares]

This dude is real life Michael Scott.

[@sheldonkerr]

"I've seen some tech projects get so politically correct that they're no longer about the project." - It's seven years later and boy how that cancer spread.

[@jocm99]

Antix and Rust Foundation shaking to their core

[@seankent1963]

What am I watching?

[@Dudik28]

I have always disliked all the package managers crap too. Why does every single Bob the developer have to make his own stuff that barely works? It's stupid. It only segregates the binaries. And don't get me started on the dependencies.

[@techzone2009]

Common in all software dev (including me) Over weight gain 😁😁😁

[@Adamthegeek70]

I love Linus, and I have always thought the world needs to get thicker skin. The idea that it is ok to be so weak that other peoples words can break you. Baffles me and it is pathetic. Like Linus... I just don't care.

[@haxpor]

"Thick skin is a good thing to have"

[@sammyvincent6701]

Cannot think of a less charismatic man

[@therealchonk]

What applies the most for open source: communism, socialism or capitalism.

[@ergpopler413]

communism. Communally developed software which is made to benefit the collective rather than the individual, is developed without necessary monetary compensation and is ran by the developers rather than some big rich billionaire.

[@therealchonk]

@@ergpopler413 I know, I just wanted to see if someone would be stupid enough to answer with something else.

[@AkashAgrahari92]

@@therealchonk yay! you win!

[@adamrezabek9469]

I would argue that it is also capitalism. People doing stuff they enjoy, while respecting property

[@temudjin1155]

@@adamrezabek9469 agreed 100%

[@Ali-wf9ef]

The guy with xen project T-shirt was super annoying

[@samc4531]

I dunno how Linus can talk about thick skin when he really can't be touched

[@Ali-wf9ef]

Some people are such snowflakes, like he curses in emails, so what?

[@FLMKane]

Clearly they aren't gamers. They've never experienced COD flamewars.

[@techzone2009]

Stop making distribution ..just support one or two distro ...

[@LoganT547]

Linus doesn't make the distros, communities and companies do. The reason there's so many is because there's something for everyone and everyone has different tastes and needs.

[@electricimpulsetoprogramming]

@@LoganT547 Well said.

[@adamrezabek9469]

that's kinda like going to producer of flour and saying "stop making different breads. Just make one or two and make them properly"

[@Obbliteration]

He calls himself abrasivebut he is simply a bad person that everyone must tolerste because of what he created. People like him get fired very fast as normal employees.

[@Joe-uc9kf]

In which way do you have to deal with Linus? Is your employer forcing you? Is there no other project for you to work on? Do you love the Linux kernel so much? Have you created something at your work place, which people should respect you for, at least a little bit?

[@Obbliteration]

@@Joe-uc9kf I'm just making an assesment based on the endless opinions he has stated. It is very clear cut what he thinks because he says so himself. It like dr house basically an asshole everyone must tolerate because of his skill. I dont respect such people, just tolerate them. Also linus has already apologized for being like this. Took the bonehead long enough....

[@Joe-uc9kf]

@@Obbliteration He is no asshole at all. He just grew up with a different level of political correctness than is common nowadways. And I find people, who have no skill or ambition, but still demand respect, much more dangerous to the world than people like Linus, who bring the world forward.

[@Obbliteration]

@@Joe-uc9kf What he does has nothing to do with political correctness. It is just rude and tactless.

[@themole4534]

Really? Of all the people, Linus toravalds... Well ... from my own perspective and those closest to me have seen for years from this man does not warrant him this take. Nor does this make him a terrible person for having said traits. As you said with the House comparision, you don't have to like him but you can't go around slandering someone and throw baseless accusations over just some people's trivial intereactions/past experiences with this guy. If it were all true, he wouldn't be sitting position to be talking in open panels or conventions as much and would basically be exiled from the linux community in a simliar manner of richard stallman. (Spoiler: was a political correctness issue) I feel people easily get offended these days over how some show criticism towards others, and don't stop and think to see where the expression or said criticism stems from. And as final note; you don't always have to like/tolerate a person's expressed opinions/behaviour on a problem/topic no matter how big important they are. Just walk away and continue to do business as usual unless it becomes a serious issue. In all seriousness though you can really just ignore this comment if you aren't too deep into this. I'm no mesiah but just a *NOT* lone stranger on the web. Not sorry for typing a dissertation and in talking in 3rd person though. lol