Gates was a jerk. Jobs was a jerk that actually did make some positive impact on the world. Linus was a jerk who’s mellowed to a pretty normal state. Woz is a fucking tech Angel/God who just generally wants good things for people.
My local Microcenter has posters of notable computer pioneers up high in the back where you can see them from anywhere in the store. Each poster has the person’s name as well as a description of something they’re most known for. Bill Gates is there as well as Ken Thompson, Robert Kahn, Robert Metcalfe, Grace Hopper, Richard Stallman, etc. I always thought that was a nice touch. Even though it’s like the nerdiest of all stores, I suspect 90% of customers are probably Windows normies and just need a computer for work or to play games and wouldn’t recognize any of them with the exception of Gates. Even I don’t recognize some of the names, like Kahn (co-invented TCP/IP) and Metcalfe (inventor of Ethernet).
Never meet your heroes. Have you ever seen the way he rages at people on the mailing list? Don’t get me wrong, he’s made some incredible technical contributions that I’m thankful for, but I have to push back against claims that he is a well-adjusted dude.
People need to understand we are all humans and stop idolizing-idealizing people, aren’t you all bored of celebrities/famous people abusing their status?
Bruh if everything I said to people was recorded and searchable, I’d seem like an unhinged egomaniac with anger issues too, but people can change, and get more mellow.
You also have to remember that he made an OS as a hobby project and suddenly everyone wanted to mess with it. It was the Wild West of decentralized project management in those days, I don’t condone any of that unprofessional behavior but I’m also not in the least bit fucking surprised that he had very personal rage-out moments as unsolicited criticism poured in from around the world, constructive and well intentioned or not. That’s a lot of unexpected pressure.
He got better, which implies to me that he wants to be a good person; and that’s all we can really ask of anyone.
True that. Andrew Tanenbaum dissing on Linux in the early days just because it didn’t conform to his ideals of a microkernel is sufficiently uncomfortable to read, imo. It’s not like Linus kept anyone from making their own open source kernel.
Not to protect so called “toxic environment”, but sometimes people need to hear what others think about them and their work, preferably without pink glasses. Hiding truth behind fake polite smile is not correct approach either.
As an example, Linus once harshly commented about breaking user space. Was it impolite to mog developer? Maybe. But nowadays in our “polite circle with pink ponies” people more easily do what they not supposed to, cause there no harsh feedback. My amdgpu crashing and taking full video stack with it each focking time. It can’t restart even if you trigger /sys/kernel/debug, like, it’s dead-dead. And that due to user space program, aka game. This shit should’t happen and yet here we are. Could it be different if Linus kept yelling at people, to reinforce fear of breaking stuff? My money on “yes”. There other examples of course, like compete disaster called “Concord”, where ultra polite environment became so forced that it kinda became toxic thing on itself and we all know the end result of it.
Cause it was disaster so big that Sony had to shutdown it within month, it even got plenty of coverage and documentaries. Realistically, there are more documentaries, than there were players online in it.
I love how just…normal…Linus is. Like…humble. Content.
Like, hey, I revolutionized the world with a pet project. Nbd.
When I was a kid I worshipped Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. I’m glad I realized later that Linus and Woz are the real heroes.
I like Ken Thompson. He wanted to play a game on a computer that didn’t have an OS that supported it so he wrote Unix.
Gates was a jerk. Jobs was a jerk that actually did make some positive impact on the world. Linus was a jerk who’s mellowed to a pretty normal state. Woz is a fucking tech Angel/God who just generally wants good things for people.
My local Microcenter has posters of notable computer pioneers up high in the back where you can see them from anywhere in the store. Each poster has the person’s name as well as a description of something they’re most known for. Bill Gates is there as well as Ken Thompson, Robert Kahn, Robert Metcalfe, Grace Hopper, Richard Stallman, etc. I always thought that was a nice touch. Even though it’s like the nerdiest of all stores, I suspect 90% of customers are probably Windows normies and just need a computer for work or to play games and wouldn’t recognize any of them with the exception of Gates. Even I don’t recognize some of the names, like Kahn (co-invented TCP/IP) and Metcalfe (inventor of Ethernet).
Never meet your heroes. Have you ever seen the way he rages at people on the mailing list? Don’t get me wrong, he’s made some incredible technical contributions that I’m thankful for, but I have to push back against claims that he is a well-adjusted dude.
not really anymore for quite a while.
he will absolutely tell someone that should know better, if they are doing a bad job, but the times of random shitstorms is over for quite a while now
People need to understand we are all humans and stop idolizing-idealizing people, aren’t you all bored of celebrities/famous people abusing their status?
Seriously, we need more people who shun fame and celebrity. Like Rick Moranis did.
Bruh if everything I said to people was recorded and searchable, I’d seem like an unhinged egomaniac with anger issues too, but people can change, and get more mellow.
He’s had to adjust quite a bit I’d say he’s thoroughly and well adjusted.
Yeah, Linus today is nothing like Linus in the 90s/00s
You also have to remember that he made an OS as a hobby project and suddenly everyone wanted to mess with it. It was the Wild West of decentralized project management in those days, I don’t condone any of that unprofessional behavior but I’m also not in the least bit fucking surprised that he had very personal rage-out moments as unsolicited criticism poured in from around the world, constructive and well intentioned or not. That’s a lot of unexpected pressure.
He got better, which implies to me that he wants to be a good person; and that’s all we can really ask of anyone.
True that. Andrew Tanenbaum dissing on Linux in the early days just because it didn’t conform to his ideals of a microkernel is sufficiently uncomfortable to read, imo. It’s not like Linus kept anyone from making their own open source kernel.
Is that not normal for IT professionals?
Not to protect so called “toxic environment”, but sometimes people need to hear what others think about them and their work, preferably without pink glasses. Hiding truth behind fake polite smile is not correct approach either.
As an example, Linus once harshly commented about breaking user space. Was it impolite to mog developer? Maybe. But nowadays in our “polite circle with pink ponies” people more easily do what they not supposed to, cause there no harsh feedback. My amdgpu crashing and taking full video stack with it each focking time. It can’t restart even if you trigger /sys/kernel/debug, like, it’s dead-dead. And that due to user space program, aka game. This shit should’t happen and yet here we are. Could it be different if Linus kept yelling at people, to reinforce fear of breaking stuff? My money on “yes”. There other examples of course, like compete disaster called “Concord”, where ultra polite environment became so forced that it kinda became toxic thing on itself and we all know the end result of it.
So yea, not a fan of that.
Which one is that? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concord
Clearly meant the ship. /s
I meant recent game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concord_(video_game)
Cause it was disaster so big that Sony had to shutdown it within month, it even got plenty of coverage and documentaries. Realistically, there are more documentaries, than there were players online in it.
If it’s any consolation I also worshipped Carmack and Zoid Kirsch (credited then by deadname)…
What’s wrong with Carmack? I’m genuinely curious.
I think his joining Meta to work on VR was… an interesting decision.
But then he quit.
It’s not like he joined in the early startup days. Carmack knew (or could have known) full well what a shit company Meta is.
Nothing…I was hoping to have some childhood heroes I can still keep.
Which one?
I was actually going to comment on that as well but I didn’t remember the exact history of git.
His newsgroup post announcing Linux is legendary, though.
Or are you referring to his guitar pedals?
You shouldn’t worship anyone.