Linus Torvalds Interview mit BusinessWeek

Linus Torvalds wurde von der BusinessWeek zu verschiedenen Themen interviewed.

Was macht ihn so sicher, dass Linux eine grosse Zukunft hat?

I think, fundamentally, open source does tend to be more stable software. It’s the right way to do things. I compare it to science vs. witchcraft. In science, the whole system builds on people looking at other people’s results and building on top of them. In witchcraft, somebody had a small secret and guarded it — but never allowed others to really understand it and build on it.

um dann fort zu fahren:

Traditional software is like witchcraft. In history, witchcraft just died out. The same will happen in software. When problems get serious enough, you can’t have one person or one company guarding their secrets. You have to have everybody share in knowledge.

Auf die Frage, ob Open Source eine Chance für die USA ist, antwortet er u.a.:

Other countries will take full advantage of open source, and it allows them to innovate and leave the U.S. behind — if it doesn’t innovate, too.

Dazu äussert er seine Bedenken zu Softwarepatenten und eine Menge mehr. Mal wieder typisch ist die Microsoft-Banner-Werbung über dem Artikel bei BusinessWeek.