Wow! He’s Quick …

Being I wrote him a long message, and he simply answered the direct questions, I’ll share it here:

Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 18:11:51 -0400
From: “Eric S. Raymond” To: David Pierron
Subject: Re: One Simple Question, Well, Two
User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i Organization: Eric Conspiracy Secret Labs X-Eric-Conspiracy: There is no conspiracy

David Pierron:
Question #1: I learned of you directly from a movie called “Revolution OS” as well as everyone else in that movie besides Linus Torvalds … As I watched it again recently, I started poking around the Internet and found web sites, etc … But I have noticed that on these sites, I really see no reference to that movie. Is Revolution OS not held in any sort of high regard?

A lot of people like it. But that doesn’t mean it needs to be mentioned everywhere.

Question #2: Why didn’t the GNU project ever finish their project (kernel) even after the availability of Linux?

Conflicting objectives, poor leadership, and a development group that was too small and inbred.

Eric S. Raymond

I still wonder why no one picked up on that project … If not for the simple fact to have a choice between a monolithic GNU and a GNU micro kernel? Then again, I can picture Linus in his smug way saying ‘why bother when I have already written a more efficient kernel?’ … Not to say he’s a smug individual, but he does have a way about him that I think you know when he’s answering a question that he thinks he need not be answering … Anyway, now I have something to say to Letterman when I make the trek on up to New York City … but, I will never go … so … it remains here …

ESR Email

Well, I sent off an email to Eric Raymond asking a couple questions that I was wondering about … I tried not to be too long in that I usually type very long email messages … I have been doing research on those people who talked in the Revolution OS movie … I am realizing a history that went on while I was doing other things like playing with IBM Mainframes and Minis … eventually to the Micros and the rest is history for me … So, now I choose to get into the Linux/FreeBSD world … and I am not only realizing the benefits of the models, I am also realizing the philosophy behind them … We’ll see if he replies … and we’ll see if I can share that with anyone … Eric reminds me a lot of my brother Bill … Bill certainly was in this league of distinguished gentlemen and I’m certain could have accomplished the same if not more … but he like myself worked on IBM Mainframes … But, when I inherited his PCs from his New York apartment, one of them had and old Red Hat version on it … We never talked about Linux … only C and Assembler …