[lug] Did Linus really not write Linux?

[Jordan Crouse]

On Mon, 24 May 2004 09:20:35 -0600
Ferdinand Schmid <fschmid at archenergy.com> wrote:

> As a scientist I do have to say that Linus should have given proper credit to
> prior art.  AT is correct about that.  Linus did what AT had done before - he
> implemented Unix himself to avoid dealing with the greedy Unix companies.

I'm sorry, but go back and read Tanenbaum's articles.  This is just not true.  Tanenbaum wrote Minix as a teaching exercise.  I doubt nobody is exactly sure what Linus's real motivations were, but it wasn't as though free alternatives wern't available.  If Linus had bought into the early GNU philosophy, we would be HUG (Hurd Users Group) memebers.  Not to mention, the BSD/Bell lawsuit was just resolving itself around that time, so that alternative was available as well.

I am convinced that Linus didn't borrow from anything but the musings of thousands of professors that have been refining kernel concepts since the beginning of digital time.   If applying those concepts in a pratical manner is a ethical crisis, then its something that anyone who ever picked up the Dinosaur book is guilty of.  I know I am. 

Regards,
Jordan