Father of Linux Linus Torvalds Becomes US Citizen

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[citation][nom]killerclick[/nom]I think the two party system is serving the US and the UK pretty well. Yes, there are many people who complain but look at the bottom line. The US is the richest, most powerful, most influential country in the World, no civil wars for 140 years, no megalomaniacal dictators and as far as superpowers go, I'd rather have the US than China, India or Russia. Just don't let it go to your head...[/citation]

The UK? You should go back to school ASAP.
 
[citation][nom]Dirtman73[/nom]The two-party system, while admirable on paper, is highly flawed in the US. When both sides are owned and controlled by the money-makers, PACs, and corporations, why the hell does it matter who you vote for ultimately? Throw in a corrupt voting system (electronic), and you've got a recipe for tyranny.[/citation]
Exactly the point I was trying to make.
Democracy is great, in principle.
How it is executed is the fundamental issue, ask any of the tens of thousands who were disenfranchised in the 2000 election if they think the system is perfect or not - I bet the answer is no...
 
... and now the big Linus haz a small vote... or... may be ho wants to program the voting machines... that would be nice... an opensource voting application...
 
[citation][nom]cadder[/nom]Wasn't the majority of the creation done by guys at Bell Labs? Linus rewrote part of it and put his name on it.Nevertheless, we have many freedoms here in America, including the freedom of leaving and going back to Finland if he thinks it is so great.[/citation]
We also have the freedom to be arrogant and tell people to go back to their countries whenever a fault is pointed out. Woohoo!
 
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

We are a Republic. Not a democracy. As was pointed out by jsc. There is a difference.

Ben Franklin saw this coming long long ago:

"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic." - Ben Franklin

And totally off topic, his other greatest quote =)

"To find out a girl’s faults, praise her to her girl friends."
 
- I originally signed after entering my comment, but it's not here. If the original comment eventually shows up, just disregard one of the two 😀 -

We do NOT have a democratic republic, but rather constitutional republic. It is a republic in that we elect people to certain federal positions. It is constitutional in the our constitution spells out, as well as limits, their specific powers. There's really nothing "democratic" about it. Should you desire to see a democratic republic in action, I suggest you look towards the PRC and DPRK.
 
No, he did not copy anything from Bell Labs. He wrote the entire kernel purely from scratch. It was a class project while he was in school, but has evolved to what it is today.
Click to expand...

I've sat down at a Linux machine and used all of the commands that I learned when I used to use Unix machines, so something had to be copied from Bell Labs. What are the odds that he would have come up with all of the same commands and same syntax on his own? Like he just dreamed up "ls -l" one night in his sleep?
 
[citation][nom]cadder[/nom]I've sat down at a Linux machine and used all of the commands that I learned when I used to use Unix machines, so something had to be copied from Bell Labs. What are the odds that he would have come up with all of the same commands and same syntax on his own? Like he just dreamed up "ls -l" one night in his sleep?[/citation]
So instead of using commands already familiar to computer users, he should've made up new ones? Were talking code, not UI or syntax 😛
Not being able to use commands known in the unix world would be like banning cars from different manufacturers to use compatible or even remotely similar steering mechanisms.
 
[citation][nom]cadder[/nom]I've sat down at a Linux machine and used all of the commands that I learned when I used to use Unix machines, so something had to be copied from Bell Labs. What are the odds that he would have come up with all of the same commands and same syntax on his own? Like he just dreamed up "ls -l" one night in his sleep?[/citation]
Are you going to tell me that Windows is a copy of UNIX because I can use "cd" on it as well?

If anything, Linux "copied" Minix, not UNIX.
 
@The US is the richest, most powerful, most influential country in the World?

Not anymore! Check out the latest poverty ratings: 14% plus rate could easily qualify for a place in the developing world list :)

@superpowers go, I'd rather have the US than China, India or Russia. Just don't let it go to your head...

Again, sorry, not anymore because it is becoming more and more evident that (at least) this 21st century belongs to Asia; neither to US nor EU :)
 
[citation][nom]akula2[/nom]Check out the latest poverty ratings: 14% plus rate could easily qualify for a place in the developing world list[/citation]

Haha, yes but the definition of poverty in the US is different than in other countries. In the US it's $26000 for a family of five which is an income most Russian or Chinese families can only dream about. And I was talking about the US in total, not the living standard of its poorest citizens which by the way is a consequence of economic inequality. Sure there are more poor people but there are more billionaires as well.


[citation][nom]akula2[/nom]Again, sorry, not anymore because it is becoming more and more evident that (at least) this 21st century belongs to Asia; neither to US nor EU[/citation]

Asian countries are gaining influence but they still have a long (looong) way to go. Btw, I was stating my preference not predicting the future, I was saying I'd prefer the US to be the sole superpower than any of these other countries.
 
Of course, there indeed are numerous political parties in the US, and always have been, but it has generally been a two party system. The two parties, however, have changed over the years, occasionally an upstart party supplanting one of the two established parties. There is no reason to believe that it will always remain Democrat and Republican. I'm sure the Anti-Administration, Federalist, Democratic-Republican, Opposition, Whig, Jacksonian, Anti-Jackson, etc. parties assumed they would stay in power too. These were not obscure parties, but were at one time one of the two major parties.

This polarization was indeed by design, though it was by no means a unanimous decision. Jefferson absolutely hated the electoral college. Hamilton loved it. It does cause the trend toward a two party winner-take-all system, but obviously change of parties in power can and does happen, just at a much attenuated pace. Some, like Torvalds, look at that as a "flaw". Others look at it as a stabilizing factor necessary for long term survival of the republic. Rapid change of political power is not necessarily a good thing. Consider the ease in which the Nazi Party rose to power from the relative political chaos of the Weimar Republic.
 
Of course, there indeed are numerous political parties in the US, and always have been, but it has generally been a two party system. The two parties, however, have changed over the years, occasionally an upstart party supplanting one of the two established parties. There is no reason to believe that it will always remain Democrat and Republican. I'm sure the Anti-Administration, Federalist, Democratic-Republican, Opposition, Whig, Jacksonian, Anti-Jackson, etc. parties assumed they would stay in power too. These were not obscure parties, but were at one time one of the two major parties.

This polarization was indeed by design, though it was by no means a unanimous decision. Jefferson absolutely hated the electoral college. Hamilton loved it. It does cause the trend toward a two party winner-take-all system, but obviously change of parties in power can and does happen, just at a much attenuated pace. Some, like Torvalds, look at that as a "flaw". Others look at it as a stabilizing factor necessary for long term survival of the republic. Rapid change of political power is not necessarily a good thing. Consider the ease in which the Nazi Party rose to power from the relative political chaos of the Weimar Republic.
 
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