Linux Going Green
Torvalds: Linux ready to go green
The infrastructure and tools required to make Linux a green operating system are now in place, according to Linus Torvalds, who was in Melbourne this week attending Australia’s largest Linux conference.
In an interview at the linux.conf.au conference, Torvalds admitted that Linux was lagging behind on power-management and energy-diagnosis tools.
“It is an area we were pretty weak in a few years ago and just building up the infrastructure took a long time, but now we are at a point where we have most of it done,” said Torvalds.
“That doesn’t mean we are done. Now we have an infrastructure in place… we have the tools to measure power and notice when the power is higher and why that is, which is pretty important. Before, it used to be a black box,” said Torvalds.
Linux safe with or without Linus
Speaking about the future of Linux, Torvalds said he is pleased that there is no more pressure on the kernel due to its stability and the community of people helping to keep it maintained.
“We are still working on a lot of stuff, especially with new hardware. But I think, on the whole, a lot of the basics are there. What we work on is better maintainability, improving code so we can add features more easily,” Torvalds said.
When asked about retirement, Torvalds said he has no intention to move on and, even if he did, users would be “unlikely to notice”, as the operating system has such a strong support community.
“The question comes up but it is not something I really worry about. There are other people who could take over what I do. I would like to think that they would be worse at it, but it is not like [Linux] would go away or be in trouble,” said Torvalds.
Celebrating the death of DRM music
Torvalds also revealed he is glad to see the apparent demise of music protected by digital rights management (DRM). In an interview last year, Torvalds said he believed DRM was a “lot of hot air”, a comment that he said has now been proved right.
“I think I have been vindicated somewhat. DRM is so anti-consumer that I don’t see it really ever taking off,” said Torvalds.
Torvalds’ comments come just weeks after Sony BMG said it will begin selling music without any copy protection. EMI, Warner Music Group and Universal have also already begun dropping DRM in the US.
by zdnet
Reference: Linux is a a family of Unix-like computer operating systems that are based on the Linux kernel. The Linux kernel is implemented in so called Linux distributions that can be used on a personal computer or on a server. Examples of such distributions are Ubuntu or PCLinuxOS.
Linux is one of the most prominent examples of free software and open source development; typically all underlying source code can be freely modified, used, and redistributed by anyone.
The name “Linux” comes from the Linux kernel, started in 1991 by Linus Torvalds. The system’s utilities and libraries usually come from the GNU operating system, started in 1983 by Richard Stallman. The GNU contribution is the reason for the alternative name GNU/Linux.
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