25 years with one project: what inspires and surprises Linus Torvalds

With VMware head Dirk Hondel at LinuxCon + ContainerCon + CloudOpen China in Beijing, Linus Torvalds discussed with almost two thousand people what motivates and surprises him in his work and how novice open source developers find work. Linux.com published fragments of this conversation.

What is most surprising in the development of Linux

“It’s interesting that the code, which I thought is stable, is constantly improving. There are things that we have not changed for many years, and then someone came in and improved them or sent error messages to something that I thought no one used. We have new equipment, new functions that are in development, but after 25 years we will still have old, very simple things that people care about and continue to improve them. ”
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What motivates

“I really like what I do. I like to wake up and go to work that is technically interesting and difficult without being too tense. Therefore, I can do it for a very long time. I feel that what I do is really different from everything else and that it matters not only to me. ”

“Sometimes I took a pause at work. But every time I rest for too long, I get bored. When I go diving for a week, I look forward to returning to work. I never had the feeling that I needed more rest.

Future Linux guide

Our system has not yet worked out a quarter of a century, but we already have a strong team of maintainers. We complain that we do not have enough helpers - this is true. We have only a few dozen of top maintainers who do the daily assembly work. This is a strong team for an open source project. And since these people do not get younger with time, we have new employees. It takes many years before a new developer becomes a top maintainer. So I don’t feel that we should really worry about this process and Linux in the next 20 years. ”

Will there be a replacement for Linux

“Maybe some new aggressive project will come to the market and show that it can do better what we do, but I don’t worry about it. There were a lot of very successful Linux forks. What makes people not think of them as forks is that they are harmonious. If someone wants to make a product that will change everything and make the kernel much better, it seems to me that he should do it. It may seem like a bad idea to me, but you can prove that I am wrong. ”

Thoughts on git

“I’m very surprised at how widespread Git is. I am pleased, and this confirms my understanding of the distribution of development. At the same time, looking at most other version control systems, I can say that they are quite difficult to create. It seemed to me that the system would be limited mainly to the core, since it is adapted to what we are doing. ”

For the first three to four years, Git’s discontent was mainly due to its unusual and difficult to use. About five years ago, something changed. Quite a lot of projects and developers began to use Git, because it has ceased to be unusual. She has become what people are used to. They started using the development model and felt that using Git meant nothing would be damaged or lost. ”

“In some circles, Git is better known than Linux. Linux is often hidden - on Android-smartphone you have Linux, but you don’t think about it. With Git, you know that you are using Git. ”

Fork linux

When I sat and wrote Git, the main principle was that the developer should be able to use the codes of the base of the software project as a start for another, as well as leave and do something on their own. If you have “friendly” forks — such as those that prove that I was wrong and are doing something interesting that improves the core — in this situation, someone can go back and declare that he really improved the core, and the negative is not will be. I will take these improvements in the code and use them. That is why you should encourage forks and simplify the return to the main good project.

How to get started as an open source software developer

“I was always motivated and knew what I wanted. They never told me what to do. I'm not sure that my example can be useful for other people. There are a ton of open source projects, and if you are a novice programmer, find what interests you, what you can do for weeks. Get acquainted with the code so closely to become an expert in the code snippet. It does not have to be the whole project. No one is an expert on the entire core, but he knows the specific area well.

If you can be part of the community and customize patches, then it’s not just coding, but also the social aspect of open source. You establish connections and become better as a programmer. Basically, you show yourself - “I made these improvements, I’m a promising programmer and I’ll go far in my community or at work.” You need to spend a certain amount of time studying the project, but there is a huge potential: not only in terms of a career, but also to get an amazing project in your life. ”