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发信人: linuxrat (叫我老鼠错不了), 信区: Linux
标  题: 咱们来看看LWN采访Alan Cox的记录吧.
发信站: BBS 水木清华站 (Thu Dec 30 20:23:56 1999)

呵呵, 国内很少报道Alan Cox先生的哦. 我自己把Alan Cox看成是Linux内核开发
小组的第二把手, 各位呢? 我听说过Alan Cox的一个小故事, 是关于他在内核小
组邮递列表当中说"Linus跟本不懂Linux"的话. 我看了Alan Cox的照片, cool呆了.
(Origin URL: http://lwn.net/)
=============Begin of Interview with Alan Cox====================
LWN interviews Alan Cox

   Alan Cox Alan Cox is a name that should be well known to most Linux
   users. He is responsible for much of the code in the Linux kernel,
   including small pieces like networking and SMP. He has handled the
   latter-day 2.0 releases, and serves as one of the primary conduits for
   patches into the current development kernels. He is certainly one of
   the key players in the kernel development arena.

   We thank Alan for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer a few
   questions.

   LWN: 2.2.0 has been a long time in coming. Too long, perhaps? Do you
   think the 2.3 series will be shorter?

   AC: I hope so - I'd like to see 2.4 being out early 2000 but it
   depends entirely on Linus. I do think there is a general desire for a
   much shorter turn around time for 2.4.

   LWN: What are the most interesting things that will happen in the 2.3
   series?

   AC: I'm not actually sure. It's possible to predict some things by
   looking at patches that are pending post 2.2 or in progress. The clear
   ones are 64bit file support, probably 32bit uid support and support
   for very large numbers of processes. On the device side, I'm expecting
   I2O and USB to be in 2.3. I'd hope the PCI bus/PCMCIA/Cardbus/Hotswap
   clean ups that need to be done occur. That actually has scope to
   reduce kernel complexity rather than increase it, which is a good
   sign.

   I'm not sure a lot will happen in the networking arena that is visible
   to end users - addition of DECnet isn't like to be a major win to the
   average user. ATM might well be more visible and it is about time it
   got in.

   I'm looking forward to all the palmtop support being folded in - there
   are several strands here and all of them are beginning to show clear
   unified needs.

   LWN: You seem to have taken on an increasingly organizational role in
   the kernel development process. Does that sit well with you, or would
   you rather get back to more full-time hacking?

   AC: It just sort of happened. I'm anticipating the amount of
   co-ordination will go down again now that 2.2 is basically sorted out.
   I hope so anyway as I want to get the I2O code finished, debug the
   3c527 ethernet driver I am writing and use the work the vMac people
   have done to attempt to get palette loading and floppy disks working
   on the Macintosh 68K.

   LWN: And how do you manage to process (and produce) all that mail
   every day and still get something done?

   AC: That is actually fairly easy. I've always been a fast reader and
   most of the stuff I dig through requires little in the way of a reply
   - a lot of the mail I send is just pointing people at each other to
   avoid duplication of work. Much of the rest is tracking bugs and
   patches.

   All the patch merging and bug chasing is getting something done, so
   the mail scanning is definitely not time wasted.

   LWN: Kernel development over the past year has been interrupted
   occasionally by "Linus burnout" episodes. What are your thoughts on
   the sustainability of the current development model? Is there anything
   you would change?

   AC: If I was the kernel organiser, there are quite a few things I'd do
   differently. Right now Linus applies all the patches and builds the
   trees, I'd much rather there were a group of people directly merging
   patches into the kernel tree and Linus sitting watching it and vetoing
   things rather than doing all the merge work, too.

   The model has changed over 2.1.x and it has evolved to a kind of
   compromise that seems to work very well. Linus is still applying all
   the patches but there are people now collating and feeding Linus
   tested sets of patches in small cleanly organised groups. Larry
   McVoy's new version control toys may solve some of the remaining
   problems.

   LWN: Do you anticipate taking on responsibility for the 2.2 series
   like you have with 2.0, or will somebody else have to step up for that
   one?

   AC: I never really anticipated it with 2.0.x; it simply happened
   because I was collating all the patches. My guess is that, by the time
   2.2 gets into that long term maintenance state, 2.0.x will be
   basically dead.

   LWN: If you were to point at the biggest unmet need in the Linux
   world, the project most in need of volunteers currently, which would
   that be?

   AC: That's always a hard question to answer. One problem is that, as
   Fred Brooks observed, adding man power to a late software project can
   actually make it later. This is true with free software as well.

   Clear areas that could do with more work are better GUI tools for the
   kernel facilities. A nice graphical ISA PnP manager is one example.
   Others include some end user friendly tools for the new 2.2 bandwidth
   control and management functions.

   The free software world doesn't really, however, work like a managed
   corporate structure. If someone is going to do something as a
   volunteer, it has to be something they find fun. Watch freshmeat and
   also for calls from people like the FSF (eg they are currently after
   more documentation people) and see if something tickles your fancy.

   LWN: What do you think was the most significant event in the Linux
   world in 1998? Any idea what will be the most interesting development
   of 1999?

   AC: The most visible one was clearly the sudden discovery of Linux by
   the suits and very much tied to the Mozilla event. I'm not sure what
   surprises 1999 will hold. Microsoft's current attempts to commit
   corporate suicide are bound to have some effect on the Linux world in
   1999. Whether they will be the most significant is hard to tell. The
   other one will be if large PC vendors start to make machines with
   Linux or no OS available. The recent fun with the Windows Refund saga
   will undoubtedly help this. It's actually important that it becomes
   easy to buy a machine without an OS. It would be bad for people like
   the FreeBSD community if most of the people fighting for OS choice
   simply said "OK, now you can have Linux" and left it at that.

   My guess is 2000/2001 will be when the really big stuff happens. That
   I suspect is the time scale for big Unix vendors to begin openly
   switching to Linux. For vendors whose revenue stream is primarily
   support and hardware, the math is simple enough.

   LWN: Along those lines, what are your thoughts on the future of the
   BSD variants? Will Linux be their undoing? Is our relationship with
   the BSD systems what it should be?

   AC: I don't think Linux will kill FreeBSD. I can see one of Open or
   NetBSD dying. At one point, I'd assumed NetBSD was doomed but it has a
   very definitely stayed alive.

   In the longer term, I expect that Linux will help them. Supporting the
   Linux kernel API (something they already do fairly well) will give
   them the same application base that Linux is creating. With SCO, BSDI
   and apparently Solaris going to support the Linux kernel API, we
   should see a lot of applications for Linux running just fine on
   anyone's favourite OS.

   LWN: How do you feel about the increasing corporate interest in Linux?
   Does Linux risk "losing its soul" as some people fear?

   AC: Linux has always reflected its user base so I'm sure that some
   parts of it will turn more corporate. I don't actually see it as a big
   problem. No large corporation can "own" Linux or take away the right
   to freely distribute and change it.

   Personally I don't mind if someone releases a Linux distribution aimed
   totally at corporate IT managers. I'm sure the technical community
   will use words like "boring, out of date, slow to change" about such a
   distribution. I've met corporate IT managers - words like "boring and
   slow to change" have them excited.

   Linux already has this spectrum - from the corporate style Caldera
   use, through the "easy to use/install" of Red Hat and the "pure and
   free" vision of Debian. It's richer for it now; I don't see why it
   should be poorer for it in future.

   LWN: We all have much fun reading Telsa's diary. Any hints for others
   who want to be hard-core hackers and stay married too? And how did the
   battle of the cuddly penguins end up, anyway?

   AC: There is a difference between being a hacker and the "socially
   inadequate computer geek" vision of the press. It's definitely true
   that there is a lot of overlap. A lot of good hackers are, however,
   members of the human race and know what is going on in the real world.

   The thing that I suspect matters most is that Telsa is more important
   to me than sitting in front of a computer reading email.

   As to the penguins, they are currently all sitting on top of the
   printer paper in a sort of group hug. Now that I have a Wai Yip
   penguin to compare with the Linuxmall and other penguins, I should
   probably write a cuddly penguin review.

   Eklektix, Inc. Linux powered! Copyright 1998 Eklektix, Inc. all rights
   reserved.
   Linux R is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds

================= End of Interview==============

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| 以无法为有法，      |  拳本无法，有法也空；  |  我爱GNU/Linux,    |
|   以无限为有限       |    一法不立，无法不容。|     因为我爱自由！ |
|                      |                        |                    |
|   截拳道宗师-李小龙  |        意拳宗师-王芗斋 |     土人  Linuxrat |
|======================+========================+====================|

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