March 23, 2001, 10:06 AM —
I've wanted to interview Linus Torvalds for some time, but with the holiday season, his new baby, and the release of 2.4 already on his plate, I knew my chances were slim at best. Timing is everything, it seems. Now that things are somewhat back to "normal," whatever that is, I tried a direct approach and appealed to his finer instincts. I've owed him a beer for almost 2 years now, so I offered him a case of Guinness in exchange for an interview. It worked.
LinuxWorld.com: After predicting that you would pass the kernel development baton to Alan Cox this year, I read an interview of yours in which you put that notion to rest, attributing such speculation to people mistaking your humor for burnout. I admit that's where I went wrong. But along the same line, is there any sort of plan for how Linux kernel development would proceed if you were kidnapped by aliens from outer space, or otherwise became unavailable?
Linus Torvalds: Oh, there's a lot of confusion here, probably because a lot of people get so hung up about "ownership transfer," when I personally don't think such a notion even exists in Linux.
