PIC.
Twelve years after doing the unthinkable and freely offering the Linux
program to all comers, Linus Torvalds is a folk hero, writes Fran Spencer.
Linus Torvalds is standing patiently in the gardens of the University of
Western Australia, waiting for a newspaper photographer to finish his work.
As the official session winds up, others move in from the sidelines with
their own cameras, keen for a photo with one of the most famous names in
the computing world or just a few quick words with the guru.
All up, it's a couple of minutes before he can make his way back to
complete the interview. "They do this," he shrugs as he takes a seat again.
The 33-year-old is probably the closest thing the geek world has to a folk
hero . . . the man who, as a student at Helsinki University 12 years ago,
wrote a world-class computer operating system and set it free.
Rather than copyrighting the Linux code, Torvalds published it on the
Internet and invited others to offer improvements.
Most importantly, Linux has continued as it began - a free program - and is
available to users without charge on the condition that any improvements
are also uncopyrighted.
This has made Torvalds and his creation rather unpopular with Microsoft,
creator of the world's most widely used operating system, Windows.
Microsoft's rhetoric in the battle against what it appears to see as the
biggest threat to its stranglehold on the world's desktops was toned down
late last year, after the company decided its attacks on "open source" had
backfired.
Torvalds appears to find Microsoft's angst over open source, and Linux in
particular, more amusing than troubling, but warns that the battle could
get serious. "If you're the dominant player it's really hard to attack
something that's done by people who just like doing it, and as an industry
it's politically not very sensible to attack it," he said. "On a PR side
they've tried to attack Linux and it hasn't been very successful . . .
(but) there's always the worry they will try using the laws about IP
(intellectual property), which is very scary in the US, and that could end
up being a very ugly situation."
One of Microsoft's key arguments against a widespread take-up of Linux is
that it is unsustainable commercially, and it theorises that developers
will walk away from the system in search of the pay packets offered by
proprietary systems.
But Torvalds dismisses those claims, pointing out that the incentive for
sellers of proprietary software such as Windows is to churn out new
versions on a regular basis.
"That's really not supporting your business very well, so the demand for
open source has been around for a long time," he said. "A good example is
most of the Internet's infrastructure, which is built on open-source
programs . . . (the move to open source) has been going on for several
years now."
Microsoft's announcement last week that it would give foreign governments
access to its source code has been dismissed by critics as more of a
marketing ploy than a genuine move to open up its systems, but Torvalds is
not convinced.
"I wouldn't call it a cynical ploy, they are probably in the situation
where they are told governments have a good reason why they think having
source available is a security requirement . . . I think the cynical part
comes mainly from the fact that it's a lot of code," he said. "If it's not
out there all the time it's not physically possible to go through it, so if
you have the appearance that governments have the opportunity to send a few
gents to go through the code, that's not how software works.
"In that sense I think it's pretty cynical to think you can allow people to
have a big enough look for it to actually mean anything, but it's
interesting . . . they obviously are feeling a pressure from governments
who are worried there may be stuff there they need to be concerned about."
He is involved in ongoing development of the Linux system, but additions
and improvements by others have whittled his contribution down to a small
percentage.
While his hands are still on the controls, he is not working towards a
long-term goal. "I did have a goal but I reached that in late '91 . . .
it's nothing like what Linux is today."
Torvalds turned his back on the massive LinuxWorld conference in New York
last week to attend Perth's Linux.conf.au 2003 gathering, where he appeared
onstage on the opening day in a penguin suit. The 400-odd strong crowd in
Perth offered a very different audience from the 17,000 high-powered
delegates expected in New York, but Torvalds said he was happy with his
choice.
-West Australian
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/01/27/1043534002640.html
