As was the case in the beginning, Torvalds remains the leader of Linux and is responsible for maintaining the mainline kernel and pushing out its new leading-edge releases. One of the questions that has long been asked, and was asked again at the LinuxCon conference on Wednesday night, is the question of succession known as, “What if Linus gets hit by a bus?”
“I always have the same answer to that question,” Torvalds said. “I won’t care.”
On a more serious note, Torvalds noted that if he were to unexpectedly be removed from his life as a kernel developer, he believes the biggest problem would be politicking among some kernel developers.
Torvalds said that people are used to the fact that he’s hard to push around.
“At the same time, the kernel project of all the open source projects is very special,” Torvalds said.
There are other projects that have been around for a long time and still only have relatively few developers running the project. The ‘bus problem’ for Linux doesn’t exist in the same way it might for other open source efforts, in Torvalds’ view.
Read the full story at ServerWatch:
If Linus Torvalds Got Hit By a Bus Would Linux Die?
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.