Reading11

    I do not know if he means to be, but Linus is a funny guy, it has been a long time since I have laughed out loud while reading a book. I related a lot to his fear of speaking, I feel like I have tried all the tricks to get over it, but it never works. I am not sure he truly gets over it, but I think he does a good job regulating it, at least for a free trip somewhere. Another cool development although he did not speak much about it, was his family life. He said, “Being a father seemed like the most natural thing in the world”. Before, I did not picture him as a family guy simply because I did not picture him as a people person, it did not seem like that was of utmost importance to him. It is funny the way things work though because Tove found him, they married and had three kids. Regardless of work or Linux, he seemed to care for them and be present in their lives. 

    Linus seemed like a simple man, in that he did not ask for much and in return did not do much either. A go with the flow type of guy, which I believe also translated through to his successes. He was never focused on money, but when it became involved, especially when accepting stock from Red Hat, he realized things were a little more serious than he expected. I feel like he simply thought of it as cool to receive postcards from people everywhere and fix bugs in his office and that never changed. Regardless of the money he seemed to stay strong with his beliefs and not take the easy 10 million dollar deal he was offered as opposed to the Red Hat stock. He did not chase after the money and with his earnings, he spent it wisely, for the sake of his family and fast cars. This go with the flow trait allowed for people to do as they would with Linux and in a way fight his battles for him. With a dislike for people who imposed their beliefs onto others, Linus was sure not to. However, instead, it was almost as if he would let people hash it out between themselves. I felt like that really aided in the expansion of it all because it was not that he did not care, he definitely had strong opinions, but I think he understood that it was a part of the process in a way. Linux was meant to be shared, altered, contributed to, and used in a plethora of ways, and he did not bother to make himself present in all of the various ways.  

    Linux was a huge success undoubtedly, it seemed to happen quickly considering the mass impact it has. I do not know if there will be another success story as big as Linux at least anytime soon. Maybe because things are not as they used to be. I do not know much about the past but today, in my opinion, there is a lot of recreation with not a lot creation. For example, changing the colors, fonts, other small features of things or social media site that are the same just on a different platform like tik tok vs reels vs shorts. I do not believe those are the types of contributions made that truly led to the success of Linux. I would agree that hackers mixed with a love to share and create (not recreate with a hint of create), is the power that came from the community Linus curated in the early days of Linux that carried on. 


 

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