CRN: CRN Interview: Linus Torvalds Jan 30, 2001, 17 :32 UTC (14 Talkback[s]) (6781 reads) (Other stories by Paula Rooney)
"Q: As a man with a full-time job at Transmeta, is it becoming too much for you, in terms of energy and what you can devote to development of the Linux kernel?
A: I'm lucky, or maybe I have just made the right decisions in life. Transmeta has been very supportive. When I said I needed to concentrate on getting [Linux version] 2.4.x out, the people here basically asked me what Transmeta could do to make it easier. And it does help that I've been doing this for 10 years. ..."
"Q: ...your partners -- Red Hat and other Linux distributors -- had their products ready to go in the fourth quarter of 2000. Weren't they upset when Linux 2.4's release was delayed?
A: So far, the vendor comments I've gotten have been pretty philosophical. Many of them expected it to be even later, actually, and I never got a complaint. Most of them seem to have covered the kernel development fairly well, and I think they'd have been as unhappy as I would have been if I had released 2.4.0 too early."
"Q:How much pressure did you get from Linux companies, whose profits were hanging in the balance until 2.4 shipped?
A:None at all, really. To some degree, I got "what do you think the timing will be?" kinds of questions, but absolutely no pressure. Nobody said "we'd really like it for the Christmas season" or anything like that."
