Linus Torvalds talks about commercial users of open source code

Last week, Linus Torvalds continued with an extensive email interview with Jeremy Andrews, founding partner and CEO of Tag1.

In the first part of the interview in April, Torvalds discussed everything from Apple's ARM64 chips and Rust drivers, to his own Fedora-based work-from-home environment and his thoughts on the early days of Linux. But the second part offers a deeper insight into how Torvalds thinks, a personal insight of what I will sharea with other project maintainers and some ideas on how to get companies to help grow the business.

Linus revealed how he proceeded when the project started:

“I still remember the early days, when people sent me arrangements, and I didn't really apply them as arrangements, but I read them, that I understood what people wanted to do and that I did it myself. Because that's how I started the project, and that's how I felt more comfortable and that I knew the code better ”. Linus also explained that it was important to learn to delegate: “I stopped doing it pretty quickly, because I'm basically lazy. I got really good at reading the patches and finding out what they were doing, and then I applied them. "

Linus he also strove to remain unbiased as Linux grew and became more successful:

“I very consciously did not want to work for a Linux company, for example, I kept Linux for the first decade without it being my job. This is not because I think business interests are bad, but because I wanted to make sure people saw me as a neutral party and I never felt like "the competition." «

While open source has seen great success, many of the larger users, such as businesses, do little or nothing to support or contribute to the open source projects they depend on.

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“And many of the big tech companies that use the kernel end up being actively involved in the development process. Sometimes they end up doing a lot of inside work and they're not very good at pushing things back (I won't name names, and some of them are really trying to do better), but it's actually very encouraging to see big companies that are involved in such very open in basic upstream development and they are important members of the community ”.

When asked if open source is sustainable or not, Linus replied:

"Yes. Personally, I am 100% convinced that not only is open source sustainable, but for complex technical issues you really need open source just because the problem space ends up being too complex to be handled by a single company. Even a large and competent technology company. "

Key to success for maintainer of open source projects: "be there ALL THE TIME" and "be open"

When Andrews wanted to know what makes an open source project successful, Linus admitted:

“I really don't know what the key to success is. Yes, Linux has been very successful and it is clear that Git has also started on the right foot, but it is still very difficult to attribute it to a deeper cause. Maybe I was lucky? Or was it because of all these people who needed these projects, I was the one who stood up, did the work, and started the project? «

But Linus will finally explain »some practical and down-to-earth points that I personally consider important if you are an open source software manufacturer«. Recommend that a person in charge of an open source project be "present" at all times.

“You have to stay, you have to be there for the other developers, and you have to be there ALL THE TIME. You will run into technical problems and it will be frustrating. You will be working with people who may have very different ideas about how to solve these technical problems. And the technical problems are the easy part, because they usually have technical solutions, and you can often say quite objectively 'this is better / faster / easier / whatever' '.

The other key that Linus explained is to be "open," "to be open to other people's solutions. and not having this very clear and inflexible idea of ​​how things should be done. But Linus denounces one of the ways of being open:

“It's really easy to create a kind of 'clique' of people, where you have an internal clique that discusses things in private, and then you really only see the bottom line (or marginal work) in broad daylight, because all the important things They have happened within a company or within a core group of people, and outsiders find it difficult to penetrate these clicks and often even have a hard time seeing what is happening in that core group because it was so private and exclusive.

“This is one of the reasons I really like open mailing lists. It is not a list of "invitations." You don't even have to register to participate. It is really open. And practically all development discussions should be there. "

Speaking of other specific skills required for successful open source projects, Linus explained his experience. According to him, “it is not the result of planning and reading management manuals, etc. Most things happened on their own, and the structure we have today comes not from a written organization chart, but from people who have just "found their place." As mentioned above, Linus recommends delegation of tasks. He also mentioned communication skills as "very important."

Source: https://www.tag1consulting.com


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