Ask The Linux Foundation's Executive Director Jim Zemlin What You Will 58
In addition to sponsoring the work of Linus Torvalds, The Linux Foundation supports and promotes a wide variety of resources and services for Linux. Their recently released 2014 Linux Jobs Report surveyed more than 1,000 managers and corporations, finding in part, that the demand for "Linux Professionals" was up 70% from last year. Jim Zemlin is the Executive Director of the Linux Foundation and he has agreed to answer any questions that you have about the report and the state of Linux in general. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one question per post.
Oblig (Score:1, Troll)
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Well, for me it was 2005. What, you think I should care what *you're* using on *your* desktop? How does that affect me? Most of the software I want to use comes in Linux-native flavors, and most of the rest runs fine under WINE.
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What year will be known as The Year of Linux on the Desktop?
Answer: Next Year! ALWAYS it is next year...
But it's closer than cold fusion, which is at least a decade out..
Fragmentation (Score:5, Interesting)
Regarding Linux kernel...
Is there a fear of some kind of fragmentation after Linus leadership ends ?
I'm not saying Linus will stop leading anytime soon, but this will happen one day for sure.
Maybe not a fear, but concerns, ..., call it.
Why Not Zoidberg? (Score:1)
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No. [wikipedia.org]
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I want to know what he thinks of the new SlashDot beta
He thinks it sucks. Everyone thinks it sucks.
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Don't be hyperbolic. Plenty of people have no desire to visit Slashdot and couldn't care less.
Red Hat's #1 customer is the Pentagon (Score:1)
Is there an impact on Linux, is the development being influenced by US Department of Defense and NSA?
Conspiratorial view on Linux security: [wordpress.com]
Keeping the eco system coherent (Score:5, Insightful)
Is the Linux foundation doing anything to insure the various distributions each incorporate the improvements done in the various distributions?
I'm worried about the long term branching side effects. We have Debian, Red Hat, Oracle, and others adding functions and improvements.
What is being done to insure both hybrid vigor and "re-mainlining" of promising branches?
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No, that's planned for NEXT year...
it's ALWAYS next year..
Stallman (Score:2, Funny)
How many times has Richard Stallman emailed you to tell you it should be called "The GNU/Linux Foundation"?
Driver support (Score:2, Insightful)
One thing I'm curious about - is the Linux Foundation keeping a tab to ensure that driver support is there for as many devices as possible under Linux, so that the chances of something not working under Linux is minimal? This is obviously not an issue w/ Windows, since device manufacturers target it for their devices, but one can easily see devices not being recognized by Linux. Sometimes, the recognition may vary from one version to other, or distro to distro. What, if anything, does the Linux foundatio
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ALSA is part of the kernel. PulseAudio is a userspace layer that works with ALSA drivers (in the kernel) to route and control sound from sound-producing processes to hardware devices. For almost everyone these days, it works just fine.
Fight against patent trolls & FUD spreaders? (Score:2, Interesting)
There is a number of companies that have been attacking Linux with patent claims and FUD to make the OS less attractive to manufacturers and even companies acting as end users. Some even demanded fees or a tax for the usage of Linux to avoid litigation, reaching secret agreements instead of invalidating the patents or working around them. This doesn't benefit Linux at all, leaves it under a bad light and leaves a uncertainty that a company can get sued anytime for using the OS in their products. Why does th
Uniformity b/w distros (Score:2)
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Can the Linux Foundation set up a definition where things just have to be in certain locations, regardless of distro, and certain commands that just have to work, regardless of distro?
like lsb? [linuxfoundation.org]
When will Linux install and auto-compile based on (Score:1)
When will Linux auto-detect the 'static' components of the hardware and do an install with a kernel compiled and optimized for that hardware - along with a vanilla kernel for emergency backup? (Something like Gentoo does)
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When will Linux auto-detect the 'static' components of the hardware and do an install with a kernel compiled and optimized for that hardware - along with a vanilla kernel for emergency backup? (Something like Gentoo does)
Never - it is not in a general distros best interest. It is hard enough keeping on top of the kernel bugs with a signle configuration in use, let alone customising it to everyones hardware. Anyway, when it comes to drivers, the optimisations you can do are "dont load drivers you dont need", which is what already happens
political barriers to functionality (Score:5, Interesting)
There are many things Linux can't do thanks to political barriers, not technical ones. An example is backing up or just playing a copy protected DVD. CSS and region encoding are easily overcome. It's schemes like ARccOS that cause difficulties. Another example is the mess NVidia and AMD/ATI have made of graphics drivers. Theyve pledged to improve, but they've dragged their feet so much one wonders how serious they are. Maybe no legitimate business will ever again dare to pull stunts like Sony's music CDs with the root kit, and Turbo Tax's fooling around with the zero sector of their customers' hard drives, but they aren't yet scared or enlightened enough to stop trying other crap.
Many software and hardware companies feel they can safely ignore libre OSes. Worse, some still view libre as antithetical to standard business practices, and a death sentence for their business if they so much as use it. To them, libre is hippie pinko Communist. The walled gardens of the likes of Microsoft and Apple are philosophically more comfortable. They don't just accidentally create software that cannot be easily ported, they purposely do that.
How do you get businesses and people to play ball with libre software? I want the attitudes that go with intellectual property and copy protection to die, and the very concepts to be so abhorrent that no self-respecting business will ever again think it an ethical and righteous thing to do. Freedom of speech and religion are accepted and enforced. Freedom of knowledge deserves the same.
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Network Security (Score:2)
What if anything do you think Linux should do to improve network security?
The reason I ask this question is runtime environments allow and require (depending on the tools your using) programmers to be experts in memory management and systems programming, but by and large the vast majority are not. This leads to zero day exploits hiding in various applications - including application layer parts of the OS. Is anyone giving thought to prevention, instead of chasing bugs after the fact, and what will that lo
Should your foundation fund development of a new (Score:2)
security model? One that will allow users to invoke lightweight sandboxes for untrusted applications like browsers? Linux has the opportunity to be the leader in this field. Should your foundation push for it?
Consolidation vs. Freedom of Choice (Score:4, Interesting)
The current situation: Distributions galore, a profusion of system initialization versions from simple to incomprehensible, a plethora of desktop metaphors (probably stopping this year and next year from being The Year of the Linux Desktop),
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I know Linux is all about freedom, especially freedom of choice, but is The Linux Foundation doing anything actively to encourage consolidation instead of fragmentation to avoid the situation Randall Munroe describes in xkcd [xkcd.com]? The current situation: Distributions galore, a profusion of system initialization versions from simple to incomprehensible, a plethora of desktop metaphors (probably stopping this year and next year from being The Year of the Linux Desktop), ...
You
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Why does Linux seem like a solution looking for a problem?
Because you obviously don't know how to ask the right questions and have failed to understand history. Where do you think Micro$oft would be if they hadn't had a better target to shoot for? Linux, if nothing else, is that target. So like it or not, Linux has helped even Windows users get better software.
Also, LInux is used more in consumer devices than you might imagine. Linux is light weight, consumes less resources and provides excellent network support which makes it ideal for routers, "smart" TV's, p
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When will Linux be as easy to install as Windows? (Score:3)
That's one of the main reasons I have never even tried to get into Linux on my own...
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Textual interaction with programs is the default, which is perfectly normal to a programmer, but completely opaque to the uninitiated.
No it isn't; your post sounds like you just stepped out of 1997 at the very latest. My wife uses Linux every day, and has absolutely no clue how to use the command line. Thanks to KDE, she doesn't have to; for web browsing, working with office documents, basic file management, and other basic computer uses, it serves her purposes perfectly, without all the annoyances and he
Which sucks more (Score:2)
Which sucks more, systemd or slashdot beta?
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Which sucks more, systemd or slashdot beta?
Dice overlords!
Yeah, I know, off-topic. Back under the bridge. [mumbles obscenities in multiple languages]
Riddle me this... (Score:3)
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Kernel Documentation (Score:3)
What is being done to improve the Linux Kernel documentation in both structure and completeness?
A good white paper was already written about what needs to be improved and yet the mailing list discussions are just endless bike shedding. Here is the white paper:
https://www.kernel.org/doc/ols... [kernel.org] There appears to be no person who the buck stops with. Furthermore based on 3 years of reading the mailing list I seriously doubt more than 2-5 people on the mailing list actually understand what good documentation is, let alone how to write it.
User representation with the Linux Foundation (Score:1)