To Linus it's not just business

I was trying to reconcile Sun's current rah-rah support for open source with Linus' posts which continue to show his distrust of the company, leading to Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz' famous dinner invitation.

The answer is simple. Linus is a programmer. He's not a politician, not a businessman. Linus has a history with Sun, under Scott McNealy, which has given Linus a Microsoft-like distrust of the company.

It's personal. Schwartz would like it to be business, but like so many programmers, Linus Torvalds has a memory. Fool him once shame on you, fool him twice...won't get fooled again.

For years before Schwartz became CEO of Sun, Sun's attitude toward Linux, and toward Linus Torvalds, was to say the least patronizing. To say the most, it was condescending and two-faced.

Politicians can forget such things, businessmen can forget such things, strategists can forget such things. Why should programmers be expected to forget such things?

Linus Torvalds knows what he is. He's a programmer. He likes what he is, and why shouldn't he?

Why should a gung-ho programmer schmooze strangers in an amphitheater when there are great code problems waiting in his or her cubicle? It's like expecting Banksy to drink wine with you at an art show, or Thomas Pynchon to sign your book at a Barnes & Noble.

Among tech's leaders, Linus Torvalds is Cincinnatus. To me he's a role model.