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

  • Obinice@lemmy.world
    2113·
    1 year ago

    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.

  • AceQuorthon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    1652·
    1 year ago

    GNU will spring their plan into motion for world domination, and send anyone who has said Linux and not GNU/Linux to GNUlag

  • danielfgom@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1271·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • tetris11@lemmy.ml
      124·
      1 year ago

      “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!”

    • musicmatze@lemmy.ml
      1·
      1 year ago

      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.

      Even that is not really the truth. There are dozens and dozens of teams that actually do the development, then there are people who coordinate and maintain certain parts of the kernel, merge in patches and make decisions. And then there’s Linus who does coordinate these people.

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

      And most likely Greg K-H will take over the position that Linus has right now. He has been one of the most active maintainers and is probably “the number 2” behind Linus.

  • ExLisper@linux.communityEnglish
    1054·
    1 year ago

    A number of candidates will create their own forks and there will be a long Game of Thrones style war between different factions. After couple of weeks each distro will choose the fork they will make the default one and people will split into warring factions. After that we will enter a nuclear winter style period lasting couple of years during which 90% of post on Lemmy will be just shitposting the rival forks. After a decade or two of backstabbing, dirty politics and other drama new dictator will be selected and all will be back to normal.

    • Wes_Dev@lemmy.ml
      23·
      1 year ago

      The far future: A man sits at a table, staring at a floating hologram display. He watches as an indecipherable block of alphanumeric characters wiggles and splits into two segments. He nods slowly.

      He takes a breath and closes his eyes, broadcasting a message to everyone on duty that day.

      “Merge the request. Tell Linus#3418 that Wayland is now the default display manager.”

    • duncesplayed@lemmy.oneEnglish
      14·
      1 year ago

      Hm, he and his wife are getting on in years. If they want a son, they should probably get on that right away.

      • fluxion@lemmy.worldEnglish
        40·
        1 year ago

        He has decided it shall pass on to his eldest daughter, and he has already fulfilled his kingly duties. Long may she reign.

  • vhalragnarok@linux.communityEnglish
    851·
    1 year ago

    There will not be a Linus 2, but rather there will be a peaceful transfer of “power”.

    Linus is not the Benevolent Dictator For Life of the Linux Kernel.

    Linus has already stepped away from developing the Kernel. He did this after an incident to work on his professionalism & mannerisms towards people. Kernel development did not stop. Linus does not approve and merge every patch into the Kernel.

    Rather it is more likely that the Lead Maintainer/Developer changes to Greg Kroah-Hartmon, and the project does not skip a beat.

    Rest assured with something as important as the Linux Kernel: development will keep going.

  • chunkyhairball@lemmy.ml
    70·
    1 year ago

    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.

      • chunkyhairball@lemmy.ml
        31·
        1 year ago

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

          • chunkyhairball@lemmy.ml
            12·
            1 year ago

            “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.”

    • JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz
      32·
      1 year ago

      “Known for: ReiserFS, murder” kinda makes it sound like the dude invented both.

    • WFH@lemm.eeEnglish
      20·
      1 year ago

      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.

      Wow, incredible management skills, genius move to treat your one critical employee like a piece of shit.

      • chunkyhairball@lemmy.ml
        9·
        1 year ago

        Yeah, that was close to the end of that job. I didn’t want to be there, and that particular manager was really upset that they couldn’t just eliminate those servers. He wanted his folks trained on them, but then refused to actually let them spend any time training on them. I was a scapegoat and took the severance deal ASAP.

    • Turun@feddit.de
      6·
      1 year ago

      when an asteroid inevitably punches through said bus and/or diner.

      Or, you know there is a crash? Lol

      I’ve never heard it with the asteroid explanation. But thousands of people die every year in car crashes. Most in single occupant vehicles, but a bus can be involved too.

  • Trd@lemmy.wtf
    491·
    1 year ago

    Think we all can agree that the only sensible choise would to convert to Tempel OS…

  • mtchristo@lemm.ee
    525·
    1 year ago

    For a moment I thought this post was about the LTT host. And was like they could replace him with any of his doppelgangers in the group and no one will notice.

  • TheAnonymouseJoker@lemmy.ml
    425·
    1 year ago

    The role of Linus being a stubborn decision maker will be handed over to a competent close one to Linus. He is not letting any of the “sociopolitical” experts take over the tech role that Linux plays critical to servers, security users, militaries, governments and activists.

    • velox_vulnus@lemmy.ml
      11·
      1 year ago

      I’m looking to learn micro-kernel development to contribute to this dream of a project hehe. The GNU folks are doing a great job with Guix.

  • RagingToad@feddit.nlEnglish
    27·
    1 year ago

    Everyone is making jokes but the thought has occurred to me: Yes, we have an organisation in place that is ready to replace him. But, from what I understand, he IS the benevolent dictator, and he has used his power a few times to stop some changes that otherwise would be in the kernel right now. And I think that’s a good thing.