LinusTorvalds:
LinusTorvalds: "Linux Is Much Bigger Than Me!"

Did Microsoft's Men In Black ever met Linus Torvalds? But why is he so critical of GPLv3? Why does he slam Subversion? What would happen to the kernel development if he chooses to do something else more important? These are some of the questions Linux/open source community from around the globe wanted to ask Linus. And, here is Linus candid and blunt, and at times diplomatic, answering your questions. Check if the question you wanted to ask to the father of Linux is here and what does he have to say...


By: Swapnil Bhartiya, assistant editor, EFYTimes.com


Q: India is one of the major producers of software engineers, yet we don't contribute much to the Linux domain. What do you think is keeping Indians from becoming proactive on that front? How do you feel we could encourage Indians to get involved and contribute heavily? You have a fan following in India; could your iconic image be used to inspire enthusiasts?

Linus: This is actually a very hard question for me to answer. Getting into open source is such a complicated combination of both infrastructure (Internet access, education, you name it), flow of information and simply culture that I can't even begin to guess what the biggest stumbling block could be.

In many ways, at least those with an English-speaking culture in India should have a rather easy time getting involved with Linux and other open source projects, if only thanks to the lack of a language barrier. Certainly much easier than many parts of Asia or even some parts of Europe.

Of course, while that is a lot of people, it's equally obviously not the majority in India, and I personally simply don't know enough about the issues in India to be able to make an even half-way intelligent guess about what the best way forward is. I suspect that an enthusiastic local user community is always the best way, and I think you do have that.

As to my 'iconic image', I tend to dislike that part personally. I'm not a great public speaker, and I've avoided travelling for the last several years because I'm not very comfortable being seen as this iconic 'visionary'. I'm just an engineer, and I just happen to love doing what I do, and to work with other people in publication

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