“So are the rumors true? Is Alan Cox the heir apparent to famed
Linux creator Linus Torvalds? To find out, we asked Eric Raymond —
coder, author, cheerleader for the open-source software movement.
He answered with a gnomish scowl. ‘You are beginning to irritate
me,’ he says. Why so? ‘Because, like other journalists, you are
focused on failure.'”
“The focus, actually, is not on failure, but on a question of
succession: What happens under the eminently plausible scenario
wherein Torvalds, widely regarded as the ‘benevolent dictator’ of
the Linux operating system, and synonymous with the Linux project
in the public mind, decides to quit? Or retires to a desert isle?
Or gets sick? Or gets hit by a bus?”
“It’s a crucial question, if only because Linux has emerged as a
serious competitor to Microsoft, grabbing 23 percent of the market
for server operating systems last year, according to IDC. While
Linux poses little threat to Microsoft on the desktop, it is
gaining ground as an operating system geared for wireless devices
and Internet appliances-products the computer industry has marked
for explosive growth.”