Geodog

Linux Torvalds on Conferences

I was just finishing Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary tonight when I ran across the following passage at the beginning of the last chapter. I immediately thought of my good friend Stavros the Wonder Chicken, and one of his recent rants. I usually save quotations for my linklog, but since I couldn't find this one online, and considering the exalted nature of the source, I decided to reproduce it here. I don't exactly agree with ii, but I enjoy it, and I hope you enjoy it too, STWC:

Is there anything more obnoxious than business prognosticators? Those self-important types who pretend to know where the insane technology amusement ride will take us? I guess they serve a good function. They populate the panel discussions and keynote speeches of the indistinguishable technology conferences that seem to crop us like unpleasant, inedible mushrooms in your flower bed. People hoping to cash in on technology trends spend thousands of dollars to hear them speak at technology conferences. It keeps an army of hotel workers and food handlers and bartenders honestly employed, so I suppose they serve a purpose.

-- Linus Torvalds

Unfortunately, this was the best piece in the book. Linus' code is better than his prose. As he himself says elsewhere "I'm hopeless when it comes to documentation." It's not a bad book, it's just a short article's worth of information on Linus Torvalds puffed up into a book. The kind of book that I might buy in paperback at an airport bookstore before a transcontinental flight and leave on the plane for the next passenger at the other end.

If you are interested in a good history of Linux and open source, I highly recommend instead Glyn Moody's Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution. It is a highly readable book that covers the main events in the creation of Linux, and explains many of the internal controversies that can be very puzzling to newcomers, such as why a lot of people prefer the term GNU/Linux, or what the difference is between Free Software and Open Source. It also has capsule biographies of many of the leading lights in the Open Source movement. An interesting and fun read.