What Linus Torvalds Told Me Two Decades Ago
It seems like he was eager to distinguish himself from the "elders" of FSF
Almost 20 years ago I wrote to Torvalds and he wrote back. It was about GPLv3. It was about his rejection of it.
Torvalds recently responded (via a Linux Foundation operative) to my assertion that Linux had become "slop". We checked the numbers/data. Some years ago he responded - via Sam Varghese from the now-defunct ITWire - to leaks I published about the campaign to cancel him. Some months ago his friend Dirk - who along with Torvalds had publicly mocked 'hilarious' "hey hi" hype - spoke about Techrights.
Linus (Torvalds) and Dirk can mock anything they want (they are grown-ups), but the very simple fact is that they read Techrights and have opinions about it.
I didn't convince Torvalds to adopt the GPLv3 (he was complaining about the likes of Kuhn pressuring him and allegedly causing some future consequences). Now, with slop, even the GPLv2 is being sort of phased out.
Linux began as a proprietary kernel when Linus Torvalds was no longer a teenager (he turned 20 just 3 days before the end of the 1980s).
Linus Torvalds is a grown-up, I still respect him, I choose to believe that he's just no longer (truly) in charge of Linux. The brand - yes. The project - no. Similarly, he was too passive about Microsoft taking over GitHub and then, inter alia or by extension, Git. Notice who makes announcements or Git releases and where.
In summary, I still have great respect to Torvalds both as an engineer and as a person. I just think he is subjected to numerous interventions and enormous external pressure (deep inside he probably realises this, but someone in his position might never admit it).
For anything "revolutionary" to happen in the sciences one must accept the risk of living in poverty like Tesla (the person, not the right-wing fanatics) and Torvalds isn't too old to "cause a stir". █