some interesting Torvals history and mention of Inprise---but key point in article it states that Torvals has companies he favors more than others---indication would seem Inprise is one of them still hadn't found that "needle in a haystack":)
11/15/1999
Computer Reseller News
Page 149
Copyright 1999 CMP Publications Inc.
With the Internet and DOJ breathing down his neck, who would have
thought industry titan Bill Gates would face his greatest threat from a
29-year-old Finnish programmer.
Linus Torvalds, creator and keeper of the Linux kernel, finds himself and
his operating system in the spotlight as the "other cola" in a global
software war, which is rapidly mutating into a competition between
PC-centric and device-independent standards.
This is no minor feat for a casually clad, one-time research assistant
whose professional resume lists only one corporate position. Torvalds is
currently an engineer at Transmeta Inc., a secretive Santa Clara, Calif.,
chip company that has yet to ship a product.
Linux advocates delight in another irony. "What's happening to Microsoft
[Corp.] is what they did to Netscape [Communications Corp.]," says
Arthur Tyde, executive vice president of Linuxcare Inc., a Linux VAR in
San Francisco. "Linux is better than what Microsoft offers, and it's free,
like Internet Explorer is free."
Better or not, Linux came into its own this year, finding acceptance as a
less costly, rugged alternative to Microsoft NT. IBM Corp., Oracle
Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc., Inprise Corp. and Computer Associates
International, among others, weighed in with serious support for Linux, an
unthinkable development a few years ago.
Linux has also attracted a following among corporate users. Dataquest
Inc., San Jose, Calif., projects Linux server sales will rise from 67,000
last year to more than 389,000 in 2002. And venture capitalists, who are
notably short on sentimentality, are cheering as well. Investors greeted an
IPO by Linux development company Red Hat Inc., Durham, N.C., with
enthusiasm this summer. VA Linux Research and Caldera Systems Inc.,
two other Linux companies, are planning to follow suit.
"The most important thing Linus has done is show that open source
software can really shake up the commercial underpinnings of the
computer industry," says Matt Welsh, author of "Running Linux." When
Welsh first met Torvalds and the original kernel coders at an informal
gathering in 1994, Linux was still an underground rebellion. "People
thought open source would never be taken seriously," Welsh says.
Torvalds' supporters-and there are plenty-say his even-handed and
apolitical nature was crucial to making the open development process
work. Ransom Love, chief executive officer of Caldera and a former
Novell Inc. executive, says other open source projects failed because
they lacked an effective leader. "He's an extremely honest, pragmatic and
fair individual," Love says. "He leads, not dictates or compels, and that
seems to rally people around him."
Whether he likes it or not, Torvalds has been anointed the new messiah
of the industry by his followers. "I named my 18-month-old son after
Linus," said one programmer while attending a Linux session at
InternetWorld.
As the story goes, when some Linux insiders were pushing for a more
aggressive mascot, Torvalds insisted on the Penguin. "Some wanted
sharks, lions, eagles and bears, but Linus says he liked the Penguin
because it was happy-looking and looked like he just swallowed a fish,"
says Jon Hall, executive director of Linux International, Amherst, N.H.
Not all buy the warm and fuzzy image of Torvalds as the boyish,
analytical programmer who cares more about bits and bytes than fame
and fortune. Torvalds can be tough, shrewd and willing to play hardball to
further his agenda, some say.
For one thing, Torvalds zealously guards his role as the technical overseer
in the development of the Linux kernel. He can also use an irreverent wit
to whip up a crowd. At InternetWorld, he called Sun's community
sourcing plan for Solaris a shallow gesture. "Sun's is more like a
sharecropping strategy: 'You can work on our crops as long as we can
sell them,' " he said.
Whether Torvalds can continue to lead an impartial development of Linux
in light of its growing commercial success remains to be seen. Reported
stock gifts from Red Hat and others have raised the eyebrows of some
competitors, who contend Torvalds has favorites and eventually will be
influenced by those interests.
Still others wonder how the twenty-something whiz kid, who works
part-time on the kernel, clamors for more family time and bemoans the
marketing and PR arm of his public role, can take Linux all the way to the
winner's circle.
Torvalds has taken Linux's dark-horse candidacy this far, however. And
the momentum behind Linux could be enough to carry it the rest of the
way.
November 15, 1999
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