this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2023
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Linux

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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Will we all be fucked or is there a Linus 2?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

We will switch to GNU/Hurd.

Then we will plug a USB device and remember that Hurd doesn't support that yet.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Linus is getting old and its time to pick his replacement.

And its you! Congratulations! I hope your ready

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Nothing. Linus doesn't personally do coding on the kernel, he has a team who do that and he oversees it and makes the hard decisions.

There are others who will take his place and the work will continue.

If somehow the entire kernel team shut down, Google, Samsung or some other large corporation would take it over and continue development because at this point many, many, many servers, phones, smart devices, iot, and other appliances rely on the Linux kernel to function.

It simply cannot be left to die.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

"Today here at Microsoft we are celebrating the legacy of the late Linus Torvalds by releasing a new kernel, re-written entirely in Golang using Copilot. No GPL code was touched, merely re-written, and we will offer ISOs to the coding community for free! Stay tuned for more updates, as we will be exclusively developing on this kernel going forward! This is a great day for open source!"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Golang is a Google thing, Microsoft would probably use C#

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

By then GNU/Hurd will be ready lmao

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

We've all agreed that when he dies it would be disrespectful to keep using Linux so we'll pack it up and switch to Windows from them on.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

But what happens when Bill Gates is dead?!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

We all become MacroHard

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_factor is a thing that any GOOD project or IT department considers. How many of your staff can you afford to lose if they all happen to be travelling in the same bus, on their way to eat at the same place for lunch when an asteroid inevitably punches through said bus and/or diner.

'Hit by an asteroid' is a little unrealistic. Sentenced to prison for 15 to Life has happened in the Open Source community at least once before. The project I linked to had a Bus Factor of about one. It's now 'old code using outdated APIs' and is considered obsolete.

I've personally seen legal and criminal issues for a single individual cripple IT departments before, meaning their bus factor was also way too low. I've been on trips that have been rudely interrupted by screaming executives when I came down out of the mountains into cell range because I was the only bus factor left on certain systems. Natural disaster, such as hurricanes, wildfires, and floods are very serious existential threats to even the largest of organizations.

Since Linux seems to be a good project, I can't imagine that the discussion hasn't been had, in public or in private. Millions of individuals and dozens upon dozens of big corporations depend on Linux, Open source and otherwise. If the bus comes for core maintainers or project leaders we have at least SOME backup.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

We need to consider truck-kun factor, where the developer get isekai-ed.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

"I'll Become the Strongest Adventurer in the Other World with My Maximum Level Open Source Operating System Development Skills."

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Title seems a little short...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

"Brave Hero from Finland, you've been struck by a bus and are going to reincarnate into--"

"No I wasn't. That bus CHASED ME DOWN two alleys, over a fire hydrant, into, and out of a Starbucks. It did NOT hit me. You just summoned me here."

"Err... anyway, this world needs a hero to--"

"Write hardware drivers? A kernel module? Some inline assembly?"

"Err... the demon lord... er... "

"DID YOU EVEN MAIL THE LIST? Hah.... Okay. Does this world have logic gates of any kind? I need to get this knocked out as soon as possible. I've got the entirety of the bcachefs patchset to review before 6.7 is in release."

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I would so read that book.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

We're actually on the 10th Linus now, so the next one will be LinuXI