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发信人: linuxrat (竹剑居士*农大历史上最差的学生), 信区: Linux
标  题: [专访]Linus Torvalds看亚洲Linux发展[FWD]
发信站: BBS 水木清华站 (Fri Feb 18 11:49:33 2000)

URL:http://www.feer.com/_0002_24/linux.html
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===转载文章开始===
                         Interview: Linus Torvalds
     _________________________________________________________________

                    Issue cover-dated February 24, 2000
     _________________________________________________________________

   Linux began in 1991 when Finnish computer-science student Linus
   Torvalds developed a computer-operating system for fun. He wrote about
   his project on the Internet, and other programmers jumped on board.
   Linux has made Torvalds, who still oversees Linux development, a hero
   to many software programmers. Torvalds spoke to the Far Eastern
   Economic Review's G. Pierre Goad from his home in Santa Clara,
   California, where he works for Silicon Valley chip-maker Transmeta.
   This is a longer version of the interview than appeared in the print
   edition:

   On Linux in Asia:

   One of the things that I think is the most important about Linux is
   people get to do what they want with it. This is important, especially
   in Asia. Finally you can have real Asian software companies doing
   their own work.

   I talked to some engineers from Malaysia and some from Korea. What
   kind of surprised me was these people were really excited about Linux.
   They said that they could finally actually control their own destiny
   and that made them feel much more proud about what they did. I find
   that to be very encouraging from both a social viewpoint and also
   obviously from an egotistical viewpoint.

   I remember five years ago I would go to Japan and people would show me
   localized versions of Linux and it looked like nothing I was used to.
   I was pretty surprised. It's very easy to explain. The openness made
   it much easier for people who really cared about language issues. What
   usually happens is that when a software company grows larger,
   initially they cater to the U.S. and they don't care about the
   external market at all. When they're much, much larger, at that point
   it becomes, 'OK, we have to do it.' The Linux approach is anyone who
   wants to improve it can improve it. It can be any kind of
   localization. It doesn't have to be language.

   On Linux as a tool to spur software development in China:

   It certainly is a possibility. It's not a done deal and maybe
   something else comes along. But right now I think Linux is one of the
   strongest ways for countries like China to get their software
   industries up and running.

   Right now there's not very much respect for copyright in general in
   China. You've got the same problem in Russia. There are certainly a
   lot of people who worry about that. At the same time my own personal
   viewpoint is that China doesn't care about copyright protection. They
   can't afford to. They have to build up their own infrastructure in
   order for copyright to really become meaningful. I'm fairly optimistic
   that Linux can help build up that infrastructure.

   I used to think that cost was the major issue for a Third World
   country and then my Dad was stationed in Moscow for three years. He
   said that in Russia, cost is not an issue. Apparently, very few people
   buy licensed copies. I think a much bigger deal is people get to make
   their own modifications and feel like they're part of making things
   better.

   On software security:

   These days you're pretty much screwed unless you can verify on your
   own that software actually does what it's supposed to do. And this is
   partly why open-source software is popular.

   On the future of Linux:

   I think what happened a year, a year-and-a-half ago, is Linux got kind
   of a critical mass. The next two or three years, I'm hoping it will
   happen on the desktop. The desktop is the hardest market. At the same
   time it's by far the most interesting. Linux is so much closer to
   being a real product in the desktop market that I'm very optimistic.
   The issue has always been applications, and the Web has made that less
   of an issue.

   People are finding Linux much easier to use even when they're coming
   from a Windows background. What's so nice about it is, I always
   thought the desktop was a realistic target but nobody else agreed with
   me. Nobody ever said to me, 'Hmm, I can actually see that happening.'
   These days many people still don't think it's going to happen but
   they're hedging their bets. Commercial success has helped a lot;
   partly it's helped the perception issue.

   On the success of Linux:

   It's scary. It's wonderful. It's been quite a ride. I started out
   doing it just because I enjoyed the technology. And it just got even
   more fun when it became more of a social thing where a lot of the
   stuff I do is human interaction.

===转载文章结束===
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//sigh, 专职做转载啦, 所以签名档也变变, 否则老是手工敲那么多次键, 会
累死的。 Unix类系统出来那么多的小工具不就是为了省事情么?
我转载的一切文章, 版权归相应的作者所有。

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