Open source software and the future of the world

David M Williams
Tuesday, 05 February 2008 18:35

Opinion and Analysis

Torvalds has been to Linux.conf.au and Torvalds has spoken. During a wide-ranging interview the Linux founder speculated on the future of hardware and the control that open source offers vendors. The ramifications of this are remarkable. Come hear the word of Torvalds.

Nick Miller asked Linus Torvalds his opinion about the regular hype occurring whenever Microsoft Windows or Apple’s MacOS hit a new version, and the reply was less than flattering.

According to Linus, an operating system should be transparent to users. It ultimately shouldn’t be something that ordinary users have to care about. His view is that much of the hype is around visual elements and effects, not the genuine operating system.

This comment is consistent with Torvald’s own creation, the well-known free and open source operating system, Linux. Although available in a myriad of different packaged distributions – or “distros” – Linux itself is purely the kernel, or heart, of each distribution. The bulk of the software making up each disc is application programs, or developer tools or graphic manipulation apps or productivity suites and more – including, not least of all, a graphical user interface. Yet, none of these ancillary packages are Linux themself, and while it is true an operating system that has no software is not terribly interesting, the loss of any of these items would not diminish the functionality of the Linux kernel itself.

Indeed, it is easy to see why Linus is disparaging about flashy visual effects being considered an OS feature, given Linux offers at least two major contemporary graphical interfaces (GNOME and KDE). The operating system design does not commit itself to any specific GUI and nor are users locked into these two. There’s nothing in the design of Linux which would prohibit an entirely new window manager being constructed should any person have the inclination and ability.

Torvald’s comments are therefore unsurprising, and are consistent with his own work. However, what he goes on to say is definitely insightful.

Microsoft and Apple, he postulates, see the operating system as an important way to control the entire user environment both from a marketing and money-making standpoint. To his mind, proprietary operating systems force people to upgrade their software and hardware or they cannot take full advantage of them.

Linus returns to this theme of control when asked about the future of Linux with mobile devices. A lot of hardware in mobile devices, he says, is being produced in companies in Taiwan where the specifications and software has been pre-designed outside. The Chinese producers are restricted in terms of the hardware capabilities they create because they are working to such a specification. This specification isn’t necessarily any proprietary interface but may simply be the limits that Windows or MacOS can cater for: unless the hardware vendor is going to release their own software to manage the hardware, they must design for pre-existing and known targets, namely proprietary operating systems.

Read on to take control.

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