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Linus Torvalds: 'I'm not a programmer anymore'
Linus Torvalds, Linux's creator, doesn't make speeches anymore. But, what he does do, and he did again at Open Source Summit Europe in Lyon France is have public conversations with his friend Dirk Hohndel, VMware's Chief Open Source Officer. In this keynote discussion, Torvalds revealed that he doesn't think he's a programmer anymore.
So what does the person everyone thinks of as a programmer's programmer do instead? Torvalds explained:
I don't know coding at all anymore. Most of the code I write is in my e-mails. So somebody sends me a patch ... I [reply with] pseudo code. I'm so used to editing patches now I sometimes edit patches and send out the patch without having ever tested it. I literally wrote it in the mail and say, 'I think this is how it should be done,' but this is what I do, I am not a programmer.
So, Hohndel asked, "What is your job?" Torvalds replied, "I read and write a lot of email. My job really is, in the end, is to say 'no.' Somebody has to say 'no' to [this patch or that pull request]. And because developers know that if they do something that I'll say 'no' to, they do a better job of writing the code."
Torvalds continued, "Sometimes the code changes are so obvious that no messages [are] really required, but that is very very rare." To help your code pass muster with Torvalds it helps to ''explain why the code does something and why some change is needed because that in turn helps the managerial side of the equation, where if you can explain your code to me, I will trust the code."
In short, these days Torvalds is a code manager and maintainer, not a developer. That's fine with him: "I see one of my primary goals to be very responsive when people send me patches. I want to be like, I say yes or no within a day or two. During a merge, the day or two may stretch into a week, but I want to be there all the time as a maintainer."
That's what code maintainers should do.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Wednesday October 30 2019, @01:42PM (6 children)
So his idea of fun is answering emails all day every day, and suggesting pseudo-code to developers who are still sharp? Shit, I guess he hasn't reached the final stage yet - which is to be completely fed up with computers and get out of this stupid job to do something else more rewarding. Me, I've never been as famous as he is and never will be, but I reached that stage 15 years ago. I don't want anything to do with computers anymore: the excitement of one's early years in this business is quickly replaced by the grind, and the unending litany of the same stupid issues cropping up again and again.
I guess Torvalds can't let go of his baby that made him famous. But I can't imagine he's still really having fun maintaining it...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 30 2019, @02:11PM
Linus doesn't have incompetent management holding him down. That's the difference between him and the rest of us.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 30 2019, @03:54PM (4 children)
Like another poster, I actually feel bad for him. I've been looking for a development job for a few years and what I see is that there are basically three types. Juniors, managing juniors, and janitors cleaning up after the other two. There seems to be no room for experts and experts aren't going to be happy in any of the other types.
Apply for a job as a junior and you'll constantly be fought against by those who feel threatened that you know something they don't (ie everybody).
Apply for a job managing juniors and you'll just be frustrated to no end at what they can't do and having to be responsible for the results.
The most dangerous, though, is landing in a janitorial job, because you'll never get out. Nobody respects the janitor. Not at the job where you're cleaning up an endless stream of messes, not at a prospective job where you're selling that as experience. You're fucked. Either figure out how to sell your own software or go stock shelves at Target.
At least Linus has the money that Linux brought/brings in. Still needing to work and not being able to find anything worth doing is making me consider jumping off a bridge.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 30 2019, @03:59PM (3 children)
Gather up your life savings, buy supplies, and live in a shack in the woods. Hunt and eat deer, wolves, bears, etc.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 30 2019, @04:38PM (2 children)
Don't limit yourself. Hunt and eat deer, wolves, bears, tourists, etc.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 30 2019, @08:33PM (1 child)
No no no no no, the tourists are there for the bears and wolves to eat...you don't want to be catching anything sketchy by directly hunting and eating the buggers directly...best let the bears and wolves convert the long pig into bear and wolf and hunt them, butt naked, using only a Swiss army knife...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 31 2019, @12:25PM
That's not very eco-friendly. Do you know how many tourists it takes to grow a bear or wolf to full size, and what the carbon footprint of that many tourists is? It is much better to eat the tourists directly.