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<title>The Proper Image for Linux LG #33</title>
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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<h1><font color="maroon">The Proper Image for Linux</font></h1>
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<H4>By <a href="mailto:bentson@grieg.seaslug.org">Randolph Bentson</a></H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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I get mail from folks about my book, the device driver I wrote for Linux,
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and about articles I've written for <i>Linux Journal</i>. A few months ago I got one which said, in part:
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<p>
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<blockquote><font color="navy">
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My boss is a great guy to work for ...[but he] is of the opinion
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that Linux is the work of ``college punks'' and will not
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consider it for serious work.
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</font></blockquote>
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<blockquote><font color="navy">
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He had a nightmare with the MINIX file system and is permanently
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convinced that UNIX simply cannot be trusted and that Linux is the
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work of pimply-faced sophomores with time on their hands.
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I got a good laugh out of that while looking at your picture
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and reading your bio.
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</font></blockquote>
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I can only hope his laughter was kindly.
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The opinions expressed by his boss weren't the first I've heard of
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that sort. Nor, I fear, will this be the end of it. Nonetheless, I decided to take
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a shot at confronting these claims.
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<p>
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I had suspicions that Linux contributors are a bright,
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experienced and well-educated bunch of folks. The discussions in the
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various Linux newsgroups and mailing lists aren't lightweight,
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nor is the resulting operating system. My ``feel'' of the operating
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system is that it's based on a lot of mature judgments and
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there is some theoretical grounding in what's being done.
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<p>
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I gathered up a <A HREF="./bentson.html#credits">list of contributors</A> (from /usr/src/linux/CREDITS)
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and sent off 241 notes. Partial text of this note follows:
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<blockquote><font color="green">
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I'm conducting a brief survey of fellow
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contributors to the Linux kernel.
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...
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</font></blockquote>
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<blockquote><font color="green">
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It seems that products developed by students,
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no matter how well designed and implemented
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and no matter how qualified the students,
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are regarded as having lower quality.
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...
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</font></blockquote>
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<blockquote><font color="green">
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But that's not really the case with Linux.
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Almost from the start it has been more than just a school project.
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...
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</font></blockquote>
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<blockquote><font color="green">
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I'd like to investigate the educational backgrounds and current work
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situations of the contributors.
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</font></blockquote>
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I sent my notes with some
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trepidation--I didn't want to bother folks while they were working on
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important projects, and I feared a lack of response.
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<p>
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I needn't have worried. So far I've received 103 replies,
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many of which have included a few words of encouragement.
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It seems that I wasn't the only one who wanted to respond
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to unjustified complaints about Linux.
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(Another 29 notes were returned with address errors.
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I hope to see corrections to the CREDITS file.)
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<p>
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<h3>Education</h3>
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<p>
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The level of response was the first piece of good news.
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The second was that I've been stunned
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by how strong the development team is
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with regards to both credentials and experience.
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<p>
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From these replies I found:
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<p>
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<ul>
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<li> 1 had completed just basic public education (high school)
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<li> 15 had attended college or technical school
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<li> 23 had an undergraduate degree (B.S., B.A., etc.)
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<li> 19 had attended graduate school
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<li> 15 had a graduate degree (M.S., M.A., etc.)
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<li> 9 had done further graduate work
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<li> 19 had a terminal degree (Ph.D., M.D., etc.)
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</ul>
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That's got to totally demolish the image of college hackers--at least
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the sophomore part of it. I figured I was an exception when I started working
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on the Cyclades driver while avoiding rewriting my dissertation.
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I thought, once folks were awarded a Ph.D.,
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they would be busy with research, teaching or some other interest.
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I guess Linux development may be the doctor's favorite hobby.
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<p>
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When I offered an earlier summary of these results,
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my correspondent reported that his boss wisely intoned, ``those folks
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are all academia and none of them have ever tried to run a business.''
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<p>
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<h3>Experience</h3>
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<p>
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I had sort of expected a comment along those lines and
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fortunately I had asked a few more questions in my survey.
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One hundred of the replies also reported the number
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of years spent programming or doing system design.
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<p>
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<ul>
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<li> 4 had 1 year
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<li> 10 had 2-4 years
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<li> 31 had 5-9 years
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<li> 40 had 10-20 years
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<li> 16 had 20+ years
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</ul>
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More than a few of us were programming before the integrated circuit
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came into general use.
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(Perhaps a mixed blessing--some of us may still suffer from
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post-FORTRAN syndrome.)
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<p>
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As I noted earlier, I have also felt that Linux has benefitted from a
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broad experience in its developer base.
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Linux may be a first operating system for a lucky few,
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but almost everyone (all but three)
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claimed to be at least a skilled user of another operating system.
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Eighty-three were skilled users of several other operating systems.
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<p>
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Nor was their contribution to the Linux kernel the first of that sort.
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Twenty have contributed to another operating system and
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another twenty-two have contributed to several other operating systems.
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One reported:
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<p>
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<blockquote><font color="navy">
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Speaking for myself, I had the same idea Linus did, but he beat me
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to it. (I've heard others say this as well.) I knew how to build a
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UNIX-like system from the ground up, and there was a need for it
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for PCs. (Vendors were charging exorbitant amounts for poor products
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in those days, and there was no good 32-bit development system for
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386s.) I just didn't have the time. I had been playing with MINIX
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when Linus showed up on the MINIX newsgroups, and it took off from
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there. I can tell you that though I was a student at the time, I'd
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been a professional systems programmer for many years before. So,
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I and many others knew what professional quality software was,
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as well as how to produce it. I think it turned out pretty well.
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</font></blockquote>
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<h3>Current Use</h3>
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<p>
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Finally, I wanted to know if the contributors were ``doing
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Linux'' in their careers. Eighty-two said their current employment
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was based on their computer skills. It was interesting to note that over a
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third reported their current employment supported or relied on their
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Linux development efforts. Sadly, two reported they were currently
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unemployed, but one of those also noted that he was ``voluntarily
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unemployed to have time to put my life in better order.''
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<p>
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Perhaps one significant difference between Linux development and
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academic or commercial development is the duration of personal interest.
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In an academic setting, a student typically has one term,
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or at most one year, to work on any given program.
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When programmers leave a company,
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support is picked up by someone who has no sense of what has gone before.
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There is greater continuity in the Linux community
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because of the nature of submission and distribution.
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No matter what is happening at school or
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where one works day to day, contributors can keep in touch with progress on
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their piece of the puzzle.
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One person noted, ``Personally, I did start my code in school,
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but that does not stop me from maintaining it now.''
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<p>
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<h3>Motivations</h3>
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<p>
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There are some other issues which weren't addressed by my survey.
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Although it might not seem relevant to quality and performance,
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a person's interest has a great deal to do with the outcome--it leads to
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a distinction between ``craftsmanship'' and ``work
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product''. Another person noted:
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<blockquote><font color="navy">
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``Intent'' is what I think all of these debates are
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about. In the commercial world there is only one true answer
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to ``Why are you helping develop Linux?''--``To make a
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living.'' In the Linux community I'm quite certain the answer would be
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more closely aligned to ``For me to use.'' The Linux community
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tends to be self-driven and self-motivated, and that is what leads to the successes
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and the apparent failures in our development environment.
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</font></blockquote>
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<blockquote><font color="navy">
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We are not a company; we don't have any one person,
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or group of people, setting the direction Linux will take.
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That direction is set by those with the energy
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to actually <i>do</i> something.
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</font></blockquote>
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Another motive, akin to what pushed me to first join the effort,
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was shared by another respondent who said,
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``When I wrote [my code] for the Linux kernel I was working at [my former
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employer]. Linux use there was extensive, and I wanted to give something back.''
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<p>
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Motivation leads to the final, and most significant issue--one
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which cannot be examined by a developer survey.
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<p>
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<h3>Quality</h3>
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<p>
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In a world driven by marketing, image is the basis for purchasing decisions.
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Even if a good image could be established for Linux
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by listing credentials or tabulating years of experience,
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I'd be reluctant to shift to that level.
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I'd much rather see acceptance and popularity for Linux
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based on quality and performance.
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<p>
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Even though I hadn't asked specific questions on this topic,
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a few people offered comments.
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One note seemed to identify, however obliquely,
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on what may be the key to Linux's success.
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<p>
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<blockquote><font color="navy">
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In general, my experience is that most software I have seen which
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was developed by students is not of the professional quality I would like to see.
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On the other hand, much of the commercial software I have seen, which was developed
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by professional software development companies, is also not of the professional quality I would like to see.
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The difference is most people do not get to see the internals of
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commercial software.
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</font></blockquote>
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Developing on this theme, another wrote:
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<blockquote><font color="navy">
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The reason Linux is stable and usable
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is not because of its student programmers [or lack thereof].
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It is because of the overwhelming feedback that
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ALPHA and BETA testers provide. When you read the Linux kernel,
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you will find many parts are poorly structured, poorly written and poorly
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documented. However, people dared to test it and report their problems;
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Linus and friends respected the error reports
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and went ahead to fix them. That is why it works so well.
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</font></blockquote>
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<blockquote><font color="navy">
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In addition, psychology sometimes causes weird effects.
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If a user discovers a bug in his system,
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reports the bug and sees it fixed eventually,
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that user is happy because he was treated with respect.
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Most likely, he is even happier than he would be
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in the bug-free case.
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</font></blockquote>
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We not only need to bring the CREDITS file into an accurate state,
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but we also need to acknowledge the thousands who have contributed to Linux
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by using it and sharing their discoveries--good or bad--with others.
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<p>
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Peter H. Salus reports the UNIX philosophy in <i>A Quarter Century of
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UNIX</i> as:
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<ul>
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<li> Write programs to work together.
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<li> Write programs that handle text streams, because that is a
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universal interface.
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</ul>
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I'd like to close by adding another entry,
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suggested by UNIX and dominant in Linux:
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<p>
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<ul>
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<li> Write programs you enjoy.
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</ul>
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<h3>Postscript</h3>
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<p>
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I just received a note from the person who sparked the original survey.
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He reports:
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<blockquote><font color="navy">
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I took my ``hand-me-down'' Linux box, an
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unimpressive 75MHz Pentium with 64MB RAM and a tiny 600MB HD to work. My
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boss was amazed that office applications such as StarOffice were
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available and was quite impressed when I read a Word
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document with StarOffice and then converted it to HTML. Samba was another
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revelation. Overall performance impressed him. In a few crude tests, it
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outperformed a ``commercial'' system running with 128MB RAM, dual
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200MHz processors and all ultra-fast/ultra-wide SCSI drives.
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</font></blockquote>
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<blockquote><font color="navy">
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After a couple of callers indicated an interest in UNIX versions,
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we checked the price of current systems. My boss decided
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Linux was indeed priced right, and asked me to start on a port.
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</font></blockquote>
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It looks like we've won one more away from the dark side.
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<p>
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<a name="credits"></a>
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<h3>Credits</h3>
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<p>
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Linux kernel developers are self-reported in the file
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/usr/src/linux/CREDITS.
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If their names weren't entered there, I didn't find them.
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Furthermore, there are many more who contribute by testing various
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development releases and reporting on the problems.
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Sometimes they even report possible source code corrections,
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but they aren't included in the CREDITS file.
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<p>
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Linux consists of much more than just the kernel.
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There are a host of related programs,
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such as those which are broadly distributed by the
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Free Software Foundation for UNIX and other
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operating system users, and others which support
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only Linux.
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<p>
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It would take significant effort to identify all those
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who have contributed to make Linux a success.
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The Debian project reports who is working on that distribution,
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but that's not enough.
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I'd like to see a CREDITS file in every package and tar file.
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I'd appreciate hearing of efforts along this line.
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<center><H5>Copyright © 1998, Randolph Bentson <BR>
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Published in Issue 33 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, October 1998</H5></center>
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