Linus Torvalds rates his own words 'incoherent ramblings of a crazy old man'

Linux lead Linus Torvalds has labelled his last pronouncement on the state of the kernel "the incoherent ramblings of a crazy old man." Torvalds' criticism of himself came after his prediction that the last seven days would be a slow time for kernel development. "So in the rc2 announcement notes I thought we might have a slow …

[theOtherJT]

"Why would you say that?!"

...the words that immediately follow statements like: "It's working perfectly." or "This project is going really well." or the perennial favourite: "How hard can it be?"

Nice to see it applies to the father of Linux too.

[Anonymous Coward]

His classes are working

Self deprecation.

So those people management classes he was taking seem to be working?

[don't you hate it when you lose your account]

Re: His classes are working

I'm starting to worry he's been switched with one of those shape shifting space lizards that run the world :)

[non gelatinous user]

Re: His classes are working

best comment today... helped this distressed canadian..merci pour l'humeur..

[malfeasance]

Re: His classes are working

I don't think it's the classes.

Linus historically (been | appeared) the type of person that can admit when he's wrong. It's just that he's not often wrong in the things that he's the subject matter expert in (you know, like the kernel). I think there's a phrase "Strong opinions, weakly held" that could be used to describe him.

[DavCrav]

Re: His classes are working

"Linus historically (been | appeared) the type of person that can admit when he's wrong."

He just states when people are wrong. Sometimes the person is him, mostly it's not.

[Ebbe Kristensen]

Linus is mistaken...

He's not old.

[cipnt]

Re: Linus is mistaken...

He's not young either

[Mike 125]

Re: Linus is mistaken...

>Linus is mistaken....... >He's not young

Oh FFS. *google google* Hmmm. You're both right.

These times are making crazy old men of all of us, and that includes all sexes, colours, and variations.

Linus sounds (dis?)comfortingly human.

[Pascal Monett]

Re: Linus is mistaken...

He was apparently born in 1969, which makes him three years younger than me.

That means he's old enough to know that he's not young any more.

Trust me.

[DavCrav]

Re: Linus is mistaken...

"That means he's old enough to know that he's not young any more."

But also young enough to know he's not old yet. That's the reason the word 'middle-aged' exists.

[Just An Engineer]

Re: Linus is mistaken...

I always wondered exactly when "middle age" started. I think i just skipped over it and went straight to old.

[DavCrav]

Re: Linus is mistaken...

"I always wondered exactly when "middle age" started"

Middle age is when your age starts to show around your middle.

Apparently it's by Bob Hope. I know it from a very old board game called 'The Game of Quotations'. I was a child when my parents bought that, and to play it I had to learn all these quotations by people I had no understanding of. Who on Earth is Zsa Zsa Gabor? asks a ten-year old.

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought Linux was finished and compete...

...like Windows is.

Have I missed something?

[Cynic_999]

Re: I thought Linux was finished and compete...

I have never heard anyone state that Linux was finished. I do however hope that Windows soon will be.

[Chronos]

Exactly what is needed.

Linus is doing an exceptional job, let's not fool ourselves. The "problem" he has is honesty. That will ruffle feathers when he's outwardly honest but it also means he's capable of not taking himself too seriously and can backtrack and correct without worrying about "PR".

Let's not be too quick to ridicule this as it's something from which a few people in real positions of power could take notes.

[naive]

Re: Exactly what is needed.

If there was a Nobel Prize for applied technology, he should be awarded.

It is, below the line of sight of the mainstream, an operating system that helped creating the world we know today, enabling Big Tech to create their platforms without bleeding to death due to payments for MS Cals before they became mature. Also in many other Tech applications it is mainstream, since not glued to the architecture of an Intel based PC like some other OS.

[DavCrav]

Re: Exactly what is needed.

"If there was a Nobel Prize for applied technology, he should be awarded."

I suppose there would have to be some years where Don Knuth wasn't the recipient.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Crazy Old Cat Man

Has Linus got a Cat?

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Old Git

Surely if Linus is "Old", then he can rightly be called an "Old Git"?