[ale] Linus in wired news

[Jim]

I know it's reposting and all of that, but I couldn't resist passing
this story along. It appeared in the "Culture" section of wired news
today.


>  Penguin Plaque Honors Linux Creator
>  [arrowby Janelle Brown
>        2:25 pm PST 29 Jan 97 - The Bristol Zoo in England is
>        preparing to place a plaque in honor of Linus Torvalds, the
>        creator of the Linux OS, by the cage of a Blackfooted Penguin,
>        a group of Linux programmers announced Wednesday. The
>        penguin's sponsorship, paid by the programmers in Torvalds'
>        name, is just one example of how the Linux community has
>        united around its non-commercial OS to honor its own.
> 
>        "Linus managed to unite a whole bunch of people and to create
>        an OS that has now won an Infoworld award," says Alan Cox,
>        overseer of the Linux TCP/IP code. "He's also somehow managed
>        to stay a normal sane, non-egotistical person in the process.
>        Basically we think he's neat."
> 
>        Linux was originally created in 1991 by Torvalds, a young
>        engineering student at the University of Helsinki in Finland,
>        as a collective project to create a new, freely distributable
>        OS that could be used in place of the commercially held UNIX
>        system. For the past six years, Torvalds has organized a
>        global group of programmers, linked together by the Internet,
>        who contribute their time to refine the code. An estimated 3
>        to 4 million users have downloaded the free software from FTP
>        sites, and individual programmers can use the available source
>        code to tailor it to their needs.
> 
>        Ironically, Torvalds' public domain OS has come under attack
>        from commercial vultures, and he is currently involved in a
>        trademark dispute over the Linux name. Last summer, companies
>        using the word "Linux" in their names received letters from a
>        man named Delle Croce who had registered the name Linux -
>        three years after the OS had been created by Torvalds - and
>        was demanding 10 percent of their revenue. Torvalds and
>        several other plaintiffs are now involved in a trademark
>        dispute that will most likely last several years, and has
>        infuriated the Linux community.
> 
>        "The Linux people are a very close-knit group and vociferous
>        in promoting the operating system. They're very protective of
>        it," says Gerry Davis of Davis & Schroeder, the law firm that
>        is representing the six plaintiffs for a reduced fee. "I get
>        an email every day from somebody saying 'Thank you for helping
>        us out.'"
> 
>        Meanwhile, the penguin, which represents the Linux logo, will
>        eat for a year thanks to the Linux community. [Image]
> 
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http://www.wired.com/news/culture/story/1763.html