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It can be said that if you claim to love something, set it free. If you come back to it, perhaps you did love it; if you don’t, perhaps you never really loved it at all. Linux is still waiting for some to return; if they ever will.
Although he throws a fit the moment he even believes a person is even thinking of saying something retarded (aka something he disagrees with), there’s no doubt about it, Linus Torvald has a care for Linux that seems to be everlasting. Linus loves Linux.
Linux also obviously loves Google as well. In Feb of 2010, ITPro wrote an article entitled. “Linux’s Linus loves the Nexus One”. In July of 2012, Zdnet wrote an article entitled,”Linus Torvalds reviews, loves, the Google Nexus 7 “. Google has now introduced their premium priced Chromebook Pixel and yes, you probably guessed it, TGDaily reports that Linus Torvalds, “Linux founder loves his Chromebook Pixel“. You may even be surprised to hear this one, but according to the title of a CultofMac article, “Linux Creator Linus Torvalds: I Love My MacBook Air!”. Albeit, Torvald does say in the article, “when it comes to Apple, it’s really just the Air that I think is special [the hardware that is].”
Although, Linus obviously has an appreciation for Google products, I believe that it’s still very fair to also conclude that Linus still loves Linux. Thus showing that having multiple loves in IT is a possibility.
There’s a defector in the Linux camp though. One that was deep inside the friendly Linux borders. In fact, he’s a co-founder of what can probably be said to be one of the most popular distributions of Linux yet created. That distribution is Gnome and that person is, Miguel de Icaza.
On March 5th, Miguel wrote what on first sight seems to be a candid blog post on how and why he came to stop using Linux and ended up using Mac. De Icaza claims that:
* He used Mac while working at Novell.
* He went on a trip. He left his Linux machines behind while on the vacation.
* Mac just worked for him, and
* From that point on, “using the Mac [became] a part-time gig” for him.
* He then, “stopped turning on the screen for [his] Linux machine during 2012” and he no longer even bothered to plug it back in after moving to a new residence in October of 2012.
I think it’s fair to say, that’s not how you treat something you love.
Even Linus Torvald loves and appreciates other systems, but what reason does Miguel de Icaza claim for completely abandoning the Linux camp? Well according to de Icaza, “the fragmentation of Linux as a platform, the multiple incompatible distros, and the incompatibilities across versions of the same distro were my Three Mile Island/Chernobyl.”
If I may, I need to be a bit candid as well and say that, Miguel’s reason for completely leaving Linux just doesn’t add up to a, complete reason.
In September of last year we wrote an article called, “Miguel de Icaza vs. Linus Torvalds: Why Linux Desktop Distributions Continue to Thrive”. In the article, Torvald’s spoke out giving his opinion on de Icaza in saying that, ”The gnome people have their problems. They do seem to like to blame pretty much anything but themselves” and they “seem to be in total denial about what their problem really is. They’ll wildly blame everybody except themselves. [Miguel de Icaza's] article seems to be a perfect example of that.” Torvald’s was referring to another de Icaza blog in which Miguel was slamming Linux in other ways.
With all due respect to Miguel, we’ll have to agree with Torvald on this one. It seems as though the Gnome group may have experienced quite a bit of disillusionment as Linux has grown, but not in the direction hoped for, especially by Miguel.
Compare even Mark Shuttleworth and Miguel de Icaza. Shuttleworth is pushing Ubuntu (a fork of Miguel’s, Gnome) into mainstream society with the power of a steam engine. “Spain Deploys 220,000 Ubuntu Desktops In More Than 2,000 Schools, Servicing 600,000 Student is but one example of many… Sure we admit that Shuttleworth has billions of dollars to assist where needed, but the point is this:
Miguel’s complete abandonment of Linux doesn’t seem to come because Linux in itself has failed, but perhaps because his dreams of Linux have failed.
Though that may seem candidly harsh, it’s not intended to be so. Only truthful. Torvald, Shuttleworth and numerous distros are making headway year after year as Linux overall sees growth and improvements, as it also achieves what others in the Linux field hadn’t in years prior.
You can call it a guess, but it’s quite probable that Miguel has a few more reasons for his abandonment of Linux. Reasons, that he has still yet to actually disclose.