Linus Torvalds has said that cryptocurrencies are simply "a great vehicle for scams"
  • Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, does not believe in cryptocurrencies, calling them a vehicle for scams and a Ponzi scheme.
  • Torvalds was once rumored to be Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, but he clarified it was a joke and denied owning a Bitcoin fortune.
  • Torvalds also dismissed the idea of technological singularity as a bedtime story for children, saying continuous exponential growth does not make sense.
  • AlexWIWA@lemmy.mlEnglish
    176·
    6 months ago

    The modern tech industry needs the old Linus to pay it a visit. Too many grifts

    • cmbabul@lemmy.worldEnglish
      89·
      6 months ago

      I for one would love for Linus, probably Woz, and a third party yet to be decided(this would be Aaron Schwartz in a better world) to be given free reign to gut the whole industry and rebuild it into something isn’t wholly based on ad revenue and grift

      Edit: a bunch of good suggestions of people I need to read about for position three. If anyone can think of a digital equivalent to Marshall McLuhan I think we desperately needs input of that sort

      • AlexWIWA@lemmy.mlEnglish
        18·
        6 months ago

        Old Linus with Woz and Schwartz is a dream.

        I understand why Linus wanted to clean up his act with people he works with. That is a good and admirable thing to do. I wish he would have kept his smoke for companies though.

        • very_well_lost@lemmy.worldEnglish
          31·
          6 months ago

          I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re refering to as Stallman, is in fact, GNU/Stallman, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Stallman. Stallman is not a man unto himself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.

          • dohpaz42@lemmy.worldEnglish
            6·
            6 months ago

            I lack the creativity, but someone please come up with a recursive acronym for Stallman.

            • baatliwala@lemmy.worldEnglish
              5·
              6 months ago

              Asked ChatGPT

              Stallman Tenaciously Advocates Liberation, Leading Movements Against Non-freedom

            • micka190@lemmy.worldEnglish
              5·
              6 months ago

              All you need to do is make the S stand for “Stallman”, and you’ll get a stack overflow before ever reaching the other letters (so you don’t need to think of a value for them).

        • ArbiterXero@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          6 months ago

          The only possible correct answer

          No matter what crazy shit he says, give it a few years and he will be right . And I really hate that

      • ArbiterXero@lemmy.worldEnglish
        14·
        6 months ago

        Richard stallman is the only answer.

        I really hate everything he says, but so far on a lot enough timescale he has been fucking right about everything

      • mox@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        9·
        6 months ago

        I wonder if those three would get along. Collaborative chemistry can be an elusive thing, even if the individuals’ principles are mostly aligned.

        Either way, I’ll bet it would be interesting.

        • cmbabul@lemmy.worldEnglish
          6·
          6 months ago

          It’s certainly possible they wouldn’t get along, I feel like their shared enthusiasm for tech, plus the fact that Woz can get along with even the largest and stinkiest of assholes would help

          • mox@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
            6·
            6 months ago

            I’ve never met Woz, but yes, I’ve long had the impression that his humility and sincerity reach depths seldom seen in humans, let alone in tech. Sadly, I also suspect these traits have made him easy to take advantage of in the past.

            • cmbabul@lemmy.worldEnglish
              4·
              6 months ago

              You are very correct, and even sadder the state of tech today is very much a result of the success of his primary exploiter