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Linux Guru Alan Cox Takes A Year Off
Posted by
timothy
on Wed Aug 20, 2003 08:58 AM
from the hit-by-the-year-off-bus dept.
from the hit-by-the-year-off-bus dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Linux guru Alan Cox is taking a year off from RedHat and kernel development to get his MBA. For years, Alan Cox has maintained the extremely stable 2.2 Linux kernel, and more or less been Linux creator Linus Torvalds' right hand man. Now it sounds like the 2.2 kernel is up for grabs to someone who is 'good at refusing patches and being ignored'..."
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Linux Guru Alan Cox Takes A Year Off
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Naww!!! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Naww!!! (Score:4, Informative)
(http://slashdot.org/)
The 2.2 kernel, which he maintains, is the one that SCO claims is free of supposed IP infringements. It is the 2.4 and later kernels which SCO claims were written mostly by SCO. (Millions of lines vs. a total of 4.4 million lines.)
Re:Naww!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://slashdot.org/)
Re:Naww!!! (Score:4, Funny)
(http://gnufans.net/)
Exactly! Alan Cox was missing all the limelight 2.4 is getting nowadays, and got pissed off.
Re:Naww!!! (Score:4, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org/)
I'm good at being ignored (Score:5, Funny)
hmmm....
Re:MBA?? AMERICA CENTRIC AGAIN!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://slashdot.org/)
It amuses me that the very first hit on google from the query "What is an MBA" [google.com] just happens to be a web site in New Zealand
Here it is: The New Zealand MBA Association [mba.org.nz]
Clearly, MBA is not an America-centric term. I suspect your definition of America Centric is "anything I haven't heard of" though.
Whew, they changed the story... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://decafbad.net/ | Last Journal: Wednesday April 05 2006, @04:17PM)
MBA? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:MBA? (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.dutchvirtual.nl/ | Last Journal: Friday August 10, @07:04AM)
Re:MBA? (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.mrsucko.org/~sirgeek/)
You mean NBA'ers get all the girls (even the underage ones).
Re:MBA? (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.fritzhollingsblows.com/)
Re:MBA? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://ghazan.hazara.org/)
Alan Cox.
Unless the HR manager is a college assistant who has Bonzi Buddy installed on her Windows laptop, Alan will get hired. I suppose some larger companies have policies to honor degrees at all levels of the management and Senior Cox is getting ambitious. In that case it kinda gets sad to see him planning to manage rather than code.
Re:MBA? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:MBA? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:MBA? (Score:5, Insightful)
And he might want to teach.
Re:MBA? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:MBA? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.inthri.com/)
The education provided in the MBA path is (to me) no more than a window into the vagaries of the management mind. A scary thought, indeed...but who doesn't wonder the "whys" of management?
Re:MBA? (Score:4, Informative)
No, it's more like "H1B holders do more work for the same money", i.e. 80 hour weeks with no complaints, on salary. And that salary will be at the bottom of the relevant scale, every time.
Further, the use of H1B holders is stupid for two unrelated reasons: you're shipping money to overseas economies, and you're training a workforce to compete against you once it returns home (which most do).
Again, using H1B workers and/or outsourcing is moronic in the long run, and is against the best interests of the United States and it's citizens.
Those are the facts, Jack.
Re:University Lecturer? (Score:4, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Wednesday March 03 2004, @05:38PM)
Re:MBA? (Score:4, Funny)
(http://www.linuxchick.org/ | Last Journal: Thursday January 23 2003, @11:50PM)
Re:MBA? (Score:5, Insightful)
Unlike the world of MCSEs and A+ certifications, you don't go and "get" a degree. You earn a degree by learning important skills. He is not going to school just to get a piece of paper. In the case of an MBA, he will learn important management skills that take many years of real-world experience to learn. In business school, that take 1 to 2 years to master many of the skills.
Perhaps he wants to start a business? He is a great coder, good at managing source code trees, but an MBA will teach him about managing a business. Alan obviously isn't just trying to improve his resume, he's trying to improve himself.
Re:MBA? (Score:4, Insightful)
I've got both, as I'm sure do many on slashdot. The two are symbiotic, not the same.
Re:MBA? (Score:5, Informative)
A good MBA programme won't take you without experience. Typical students have worked for 3 to 8 years before applying to B-school.
Re:MBA? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://mnm.uib.es/gallir/)
An MBA has Nothing To Do With Coding Jobs (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog | Last Journal: Saturday May 11 2002, @11:36PM)
All of Alan Cox's credentials as a kernel hacker can get him is a job as a coder (software developer, senior developer, development lead, etc). In some places it may be enough to get him a job as a software architect depending on the kind of company he tries to get work at.
However if Alan wants to break into upper management or start his own company then all his l337 kernel hacking skills aren't worth a hill of beans compared to the knowledge he could get from an MBA and the doors it opens.
Funnily enough, I was just thinking about going back to school for an MBA in a year or two but wondered if it would be a bad idea for a person so interested in technical pursuits. But if Alan Cox can do it I don't see why I can't.
Thanks for the inspiration Alan.
Re:MBA? (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Tuesday May 02 2006, @01:59PM)
Re:MBA? (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://john.cavaliers.org/)
RP
This kid looks like he is... (Score:1)
(http://osrin.net/)
the truth! (Score:5, Funny)
The Truth is that Alan Cox has resigned from Linux development since he's not able to pay us the required development license (69,900$) we were asking to him. He preferred giving up instead of being sued to death as he deserves.
Cheers,
-- Darl MacBride
Re:the truth! (Score:4, Funny)
(http://www.meowpawjects.com/ | Last Journal: Monday December 18 2006, @09:12AM)
Linux thrives on it's coders not it's users.
(However a good chunk of it's users are coders and realisticly the users are head hunters for more coders)
Yester it was:
Hi I'm Timmy age 6 I made a rocket out of used toilet paper rolls.
(An impressive feat. The reason kids projects are inferoer to adult projects is available resources.)
Today it's
Hi I'm mike age 3 I fixed 37 bugs in the Linux kernel increased speed 7 times and created a feature critical to making the next generation computers possable.
Tomarow it's:
Hi I'm Steve age 2 I've learnned to steal becouse there is less chance of me going to jail for shoplifting than be sued by someone clamming they own the code I wrote.
(I was going to correct my grammer but I remembered that Steve is 2... I'll be dammed if a 2 year old has better grammer than I do.
A 5 year old yes.. but not a 2 year old)
Explain to me.. (Score:2)
(http://ck-gunslinger.deviantart.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday July 08 2004, @01:17PM)
Now I envision that each kernel steps through major revisions (2.2 -> 2.4 -> 2.6), but development continues on each revision. Is this right?
Re:Explain to me.. (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.kessin.com/wiki | Last Journal: Wednesday June 29 2005, @11:47PM)
Good Luck with your MBA Alan! I went back to finish my BA at 28 and it was not easy to do in some ways, but it was really worth it.
Summer job? (Score:5, Funny)
(http://205.205.253.95/Crackster | Last Journal: Wednesday September 22 2004, @09:57PM)
Taking Over (Score:5, Interesting)
What is the process involved in getting someone to take over 2.2 kernel and who has the final say in who is selected? I have always been curious about the more politcal side of GNU/Linux and your answers would be much appreciated.
Cheers!
Re:Taking Over (Score:5, Informative)
(http://smatch.sf.net/ | Last Journal: Tuesday May 17 2005, @04:19PM)
It's more tricky to say who will take over. Probably a kernel developer who uses 2.2 at work. Quite a few companies still use 2.2 but most kernel developers prefer to use 2.6 or 2.4. Maintaining an older kernel is boring...
Alan Cox is going to the NBA?? (Score:5, Funny)
Suggestion (Score:5, Funny)
Happy thought... (Score:3, Funny)
Cox should go to law school. (Score:1, Flamebait)
What timing. (Score:5, Interesting)
Good luck Alan with the MBA, maybe you'll get paid what you're worth (finally).
a year to get an MBA? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:a year to get an MBA? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:a year to get an MBA? (Score:4, Informative)
To Quote My Parents (Score:3, Interesting)
stupid question (Score:1, Redundant)
(http://slashdot.org/)
Re:stupid question (Score:5, Funny)
(http://ck-gunslinger.deviantart.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday July 08 2004, @01:17PM)
Re:stupid question (Score:4, Informative)
(http://slashdot.org/)
Europe, on the other hand, offers a bucketload of one-year Master's programmes; it's not limited to just MBA programmes. (I did an MSc in London that was like this.) Generally 'taught' Masters are shorter than the 'research' Masters, the latter of which are considered the priming ground for PhD programmes (in both the UK and the US). Unlike the US, though, nonMBA Masters are considered pretty good in their own right.
Good luck to Cox, though. I'm looking into an MBA myself and it does not look nice. Pointy heads, here I come...
swap jobs (Score:3, Funny)
As one A.C. to another.... (Score:1, Funny)
Signed,
Anonymous Coward
Papers? (Score:5, Funny)
(http://garion.tzo.com/)
Re:I know this is supposed to be funny (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.lp.org/)
No, Word is the worst possible exchange format. It is proprietary to one corporation, it is a vector for script-based viruses, the tools that read it (other than Microsoft's products) cannot do so reliabily and predictably, and much of the world's population cannot and should not be expected to afford the MS Office software.
Given, also, the recent revival of awareness about hidden information exchanged in Word documents, Word is not only a terrible format in principle, but it is a threat to privacy and security in a most fundamental way.
So, Anonymous Astroturfer, you should go back to your cube and rethink your strategy for spreading lies into the public consciousness.
For basic exhange of information, the best formats are plain text (for text, obviously) or PDF (for type-set documents). Other formats are just asking for trouble.
Re:I know this is supposed to be funny (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.lp.org/)
That's because it is true.
When will people start realizing that there are free tools to handle Word format...
Where are they? Are they 100% compatible with Microsoft's undocumented, proprietary, and volatile document format? It is impossible for these tools to live up to their promises when there is a 100% likelihood their reverse-engineering efforts came up short.
Word is the format of choice even in the free-software-world
Only when Microsoft releases a 100% complete and comprehensible document explaining every aspect of the Word formats (yes there are more than one). Given that it is not in their financial interest to do so, I can guarantee that Word will basically never become the format of choice outside of the Microsoft micro-universe.
The most likely outcome is that one of the emerging XML formats, such as that for OpenOffice.org, will become the de-facto standard for editable document exchange. By then, I hope that Microsoft will be little more than a niche figment of their former selves (not unlike SCO, soon).
Re:I know this is supposed to be funny (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.lp.org/)
Perhaps the Docbook editor being added to OpenOffice.org will provide some relief. HTML isn't totally out of question, either (except that Word screws up HTML, too). And, once OpenOffice.org picks up more steam, its own plain-text XML file format should be widely understood, too.
Non-trivial documents should be done in LaTeX or Docbook, anyway, because they are much more robust and capable than Word. Word is really only appropriate for memos or reports, at most. Textbooks and standards documents done in Word are pretty sad.
And when he gets back (Score:2, Funny)
New Maintainer: Noooooooo! Mine!
Alan: but...
Possibly the willingness to give it back should be a quilification, unless Alan wants it back as his own personal branch.
SCO CEO (Score:3, Funny)
Obviously, RedHat figures they'll own SCO soon and need someone with an MBA to manage it for them. Alan Cox to the rescue!
A year off from what? (Score:2, Funny)
(Last Journal: Sunday November 11, @09:31AM)
I need to take a year off from playing playstation, it's hard work, I need to focus on my edumcation.
Alan Who? (Score:3, Informative)
(Last Journal: Saturday May 01 2004, @04:37AM)
Dear Alan,
Thanks for the good work. We owe you one.
Sincerely,
Geeks of the World
The $699 question... (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://www.adamofgreyskull.co.uk/)
Re:The $699 question... (Score:5, Informative)
(http://theravensnest.org/ | Last Journal: Tuesday November 27, @07:07AM)
Oh, and we do get quite a few geeks applying here already for a chance to meet Alan. Most of them have seen the credit to the Swansea University Computer Society [sucs.org] in the Linux kernel boot messages.
Where's he going? (Score:2)
Vice Linus Torvalds Who? (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Wednesday October 23 2002, @05:38PM)
I've always been impressed with how much Alan Cox does for the Linux kernel.
He's technically very sharp and handles an incredible amount of incoming patches, very professionally.
For his talents, he ought to be paid handsomely, but for a number of years he's simply been a trusted chief lieutenant in charge of operations for the Linux kernel. Linus gets his mug on the magazines, while Alan Cox is pretty much known only in the geek community.
I hope Alan's MBA brings him the money he deserves. However, Linux kernel development will hiccough a bit more without him releasing all these 2.6.x-ac? kernels.
I expect Alan's realised... (Score:2)
(Last Journal: Friday August 01 2003, @10:00AM)
Given his talents, I expect he feels he can better achieve his goals by working at the political layer, rather than hacking code at the coalface.
Either that, or Red Hat have said something like "y'know, we'd like to make you VP of ... but it won't look good if we do that and you don't have any demonstrable business qualifications". ;-)
Good luck to him - we need more technically clued folks in the former group!
--
all that will be viable is lawyers and finance (Score:1, Interesting)
Alan is VERY smart. Is his quote above the real reason, why he seeks an alternative career opportunity? Tech as a profession is dead if you're living in the first world.
Welsh!!! (Score:3, Interesting)
No doubt he will breeze throught the MBA, but learning welsh is another matter, its a really really hard language to learn.
For example in most languages you have to learn how the verbs change in the sentance, but in welsh the nouns change too! For example the welsh word for Wales is Cymru, but when you say Welcome to Wales, "Croeso i Gymru", the C changes to a G. My patents both tried to learn and found it very hard. But then Alan may be like a lot of Welsh people who learnt welsh at school and has forgotten it since in which case picking it up again might not be too bad.
Tom.
Alun is ment to be a lazt bum (Score:1)
(http://www.wubbleyew.com/blog | Last Journal: Wednesday May 26 2004, @02:29AM)
It will be interesting to see how he copes this time around. And whether he will make it to the 8:30 lectures on a monday morning (I have been told they used to have them but i am not old enough to remember).
I do suppose he has Telsa to kick him out of bed now though. LOL
the way things are going... (Score:1)
Hey Alan, Thanks for Everything (Score:1)
(http://www.pragmatictech.com/)
What company will he be *starting*? (Score:1)
What business is he going to start?
There are really two reasons to get one of these...you either want to climb the corporate ladder or you need to study the things needed to become an entrepreneur.
I suppose "personal edification" could be a third...but naaaah...it's an MBA after all!
Which B-school, Alan? (Score:1)
I'm curious as to which B-school Alan will be attending. Will it be in the Raleigh/Durham area? Full time? Part time/evenings/weekends?
Available local options for the MBA degree are:
I just started the evening program at UNC myself (the wife is one year into it). It'll be a very intense two years, but it'll also be worth every last dollar and minute.
Oh well. If you're in Chapel Hill, Alan, show up and say Hi to the evening class of 2005. Once we meet, I'll gladly introduce you once I recover from all the fainting.
Re:Which B-school, Alan? (Score:4, Funny)
I'm curious as to which B-school Alan will be attending. Will it be in the Raleigh/Durham area?
Eh! Last time I looked Alan lived in Swansea, in Wales, you know the United Kingdom? Despite appearances to the contratry, we have not yet picked the country up and moved it across the Atlantic to become another State...
Al.Life after Linux (Score:3, Interesting)
This group is very small. What will happen when significant percentage of them loses interest in further kernel development? What will happen if Linus himself moves on?
And how does Linux situation compare to other OSS projects - Apache, BSD?
Payment (Score:1)
(http://www.saklig.net/)
I'd be good at ignoring patches and people... (Score:2)
(http://www.earlconsult.com/)
OT: Current forture at foot of page (Score:1)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Sunday August 10 2003, @06:00AM)
Coincidence? or one of the
New language (Score:3, Funny)
(Last Journal: Friday December 08 2006, @04:42PM)
Is that related to Lisp?
Annoyed? (Score:1)
A job opening? (Score:2)
Muther McRae! (Score:1)
(http://127.0.0.42/)
400 posts and nothing intelligent written at all..
Re:Wow! (Score:1)
(http://operagost.com/ | Last Journal: Monday May 01 2006, @12:08PM)
Re:Suggestion (Score:1)
(http://tmp.opaquecafe.com/ | Last Journal: Saturday February 08 2003, @11:13PM)
Re:Well if it's up for grabs... (Score:1)
(http://jesperbrodersen.dk/ | Last Journal: Friday July 18 2003, @07:09AM)
Re:Wow! (Score:1)
(http://www.ivanhawkes.com/)
Re:For a second I read... (Score:1)
Re:I nominate... (Score:1)
Re:MBA? (Score:1)