“As the Linux world congregates this week in New York, the
center of attention, as always, will be Linux creator Linus
Torvalds. Resting up from the long 2.4 kernel development cycle,
Torvalds took time out to exchange e-mail messages with eWeek
Senior Editor Peter Galli about 2.4 and beyond.”
“eWeek: The 2.4 kernel has been
enthusiastically embraced by users. What aspects in the kernel are
you most proud of in that regard and why?
Torvalds: I like the fact that I feel we got
the file system interfaces right … and I’ve been very happy with
how the new design turned out internally. These kinds of
infrastructure issues aren’t visible to users (except, of course,
as a result of how well it works), but it really makes it a lot
easier to maintain when there is a strong and solid architecture to
build on.”
“eWeek: But Linux still has a long way to
go before it yields the performance of high-end Unix systems.
Do you agree, and, if so, what do you plan to do to correct
this going forward?
Torvalds: I don’t worry about the
performance issues. Linux already holds the world record SPECweb
numbers. The thing that continues to be much more important than
high-end Unix systems is really more of the user interface issues,
ease of use for normal users. That’s the stuff that really
matters in the end, once you have the good, solid
foundations–which I think we do. And I think Linux is doing very
well in this area, too; the whole graphics and UI scene has pretty
much been revitalized in the last few years, and we’re doing really
well.”