An Interview with Lars Wirzenius

Welcome to the unexpurgated version of
Linux Journal's Linux Kernel Who's Who. If you
haven't yet seen our June 2000 issue, which features 40 profiles of
some of the kernel's pioneers (hackers like Alan Cox, Dirk Hohndel,
Mark Bolzern and, of course, Linus Torvalds), make sure you get a
copy from your nearest newsstand, or your nearest Linux Journal web
site. If you have already read the profiles, our unexpurgated
versions of the original interviews, e-mailed to each major
contributor to the Linux kernel, may reveal a few surprises and a
lot more detail.We'll be posting the original interviews here on the
Linux Journal web site for the next several
weeks. So sit back and enjoy a few words from some of the folks who
helped make Linux possible!--David PennAn Interview with Lars WirzeniusLinux Journal: How
did you first learn about Linux? What were you doing in your own
life at the time? (age, student, occupation,
etc.)Lars Wirzenius: Linus showed
me a program that had two threads that wrote A's and B's,
respectively, to the screen. That was the beginning; it evolved
into something more interesting later.I was Linus's friend and fellow student at the University of
Helsinki in 1991, when Linux started, so it was natural to follow
things closely from the beginning. See
http://www.iki.fi/liw/texts/index.html#linux-anecdotes
for some more information.LJ: What attracted
you to it, compared to FreeBSD, proprietary UNIX systems or
lucrative areas such as Windows? What made you want to help with
development?Lars: FreeBSD didn't exist
then. 386BSD did, but it wouldn't have worked on my computer, since
it required a 387 co-processor. I used SCO Xenix from fall 1991 to
spring or summer of 1992, until Linux matured enough to be a usable
environment for writing code.Windows wasn't interesting in 1991 and 1992, since it didn't
offer memory protection, and that was necessary since it made for a
much nicer programming environment.LJ: What part of
Linux were you personally interested in and working on? Are you
still involved with Linux development? If so,
how?Lars: The only code I wrote
to the kernel was a part of the printk routine, which prints out
messages to the console. More specifically, the part that formats
the message in memory before it is printed, named sprintf.Most of my efforts have gone into things like the Linux
Documentation Project, which I helped found; moderating the
comp.os.linux.announce newsgroup; and helping maintain the Debian
distribution. My own free software programming has been on the
application side, not the kernel.LJ: What was most
important to you about Linux? What's the very best thing about
Linux?Lars: The most important
reason for picking Linux over the competition was that it worked on
my computer, whereas 386BSD wouldn't have. The second most
important reason was that I could always phone Linus when I had a
problem.LJ: How important
was the GNU project, and how did the GNU Hurd factor into your
thinking? Should Linux be properly known as
GNU/Linux?Lars: The GNU project was
extremely important for Linux, because it had all the important
user-level utilities available already. The Hurd factor was large
for the first year or two, when it was still thought that Hurd
would be available quickly.LJ: What was it
like to be working with others over the Internet at a time when
several computer luminaries thought that organizing successful
software development over the 'net was difficult if not impossible?
Did you realize how revolutionary this approach
was?Lars: I don't think I ever
even thought about it. It was all so natural.LJ: What are you
doing with your life now? (occupation, family, etc.) What's a
typical day like in your life? How do you find time for work and
Linux, and how do you balance free software with the need to make a
living (or the need to become rich)? What do you do for
fun?Lars: I'm working full-time
writing free software, specifically the WAP and SMS gateway called
Kannel. My employer is
Wapit. I still maintain
packages for Debian in my free time, although not as much as I used
to, since working full-time in a quick-paced project, especially as
the team leader, is rather stressful. Therefore, I tend to relax by
having fun with friends, reading, watching movies and playing
role-playing games.LJ: Other than
Linus, who do you think has had the most influence over the Linux
community, and why?Lars: Richard Stallman,
because he keeps us on the path of righteousness.LJ: What do you
think is the most important addition or change that is needed by
Linux in order for it to succeed further? In what direction does
Linux development need to go? Where is Linux's future the
brightest? What is the #1 biggest threat to Linux
today?Lars: The biggest threat is
probably people and companies stopping to co-operate and starting
to pull too much in their own direction. I don't see anything
really big that is missing, except for desktop applications, but
even that is coming along fairly nicely.LJ: How do you
feel about Linux's current popularity? Would you have preferred it
to stay contained in the hacker community? Would it have survived
on the fringes?Lars: I think the current
popularity is very nice indeed. I also think Linux could have
survived on the fringes.LJ: Would it have
survived without the IPOs and financial backing? What impact has
the commercialization of Linux had? How do you feel about Linux
profiteering and the people who make millions off of other people's
volunteered efforts?Lars: Linux would have
survived, but the commercialization is good, as long as
co-operation continues.LJ: How can Linux
compete with MS in the desktop sector, and will we be able to hold
the commercial sector if we don't take the desktop as well? Can we
take the desktop without ruining the spirit of Linux by dumbing it
down? Where will our next areas of growth and expansion
be?Lars: We can dominate the
server market without the desktop, and for (say) software
development, we already have good enough tools, although the UI's
even for that on Windows is better. Writing a good desktop does not
require making it dumb.I'm very bad at predicting the future, so I won't
guess.LJ: How do you
feel about commercial applications being written for Linux, and
proprietary software and protocols in general? Do you run Linux
more for philosophical or practical reasons? If something that
appeared to be better came along, would people jump ship?
Conversely, would we stay with Linux even if it somehow
degenerated, took a wrong turn, or stopped
progressing?Lars: I can live with
(other) people using commercial applications, as long as file
formats are documented so that interactions with free software are
possible. Proprietary file formats or protocols are really, really
bad.I run Linux mostly for practical reasons, because it is the
environment where I feel most at home, but also for philosophical
reasons. Software freedom is important, even though I don't require
all software to be free.LJ: Do you think
the community should support only open-source/free software? How
would the community survive hard times if there were to be a lag or
down time in the continuing success of the open-source methodology?
Is the free software philosophy strong enough and with enough
adherents to pull us through?Lars: I think priority needs
to be given to free software as far as the community's support is
concerned. Companies producing proprietary software are supposed to
do their own support.LJ: How do you
feel about the different licenses? GPL, LGPL, QPL,
etc?Lars: I like the GPL best,
for philosophical reasons. Anything that makes it simple to use
supposedly free software is a good enough license. However, I feel
that the proliferation of licenses is bad in itself - any one
license can be good, but the sheer number of them is bad. People
and companies should try very hard to use one of the existing
ones.LJ: Is there a
world outside of computers? Are you ever afraid you'll wake up one
day and feel you wasted your life in front of a
computer?Lars: Since I've been having
lots of fun programming, I can't ever feel it's been wasted.
However, there most certainly is a world outside of
computers.

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