The Linux community

Linus Torvalds is asked:

How is the Linux community? Is the open source project still going strong?

It’s never been cohesive - in many ways it’s misleading to call it a community. Some are involved due to the ideology, most are involved because there’s some area they are using or interested in and they don’t necessarily care about anyone else. But it turns out there are enough shared (interests). Everybody wants some of the same things: stability, performance.

The companies involved… have different areas of interest, like embedded devices: for them it’s important that Linux stays small. Other people are working on machines with a thousand CPUs. It’s surprising that it works at all!

Interview with Linus Torvalds in Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald.