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Torvalds explains why the kernel is special

In this one minute video, the creator and maintainer of the Linux kernel, Linus Torvalds, explains what makes his pet project so special. On the second day of Linux.
Written by Munir Kotadia, Contributor and  Chris Duckett, Contributor

In this one minute video, the creator and maintainer of the Linux kernel, Linus Torvalds, explains what makes his pet project so special.

On the second day of Linux.conf.au in Sydney, Linus Torvalds spoke about what makes coding the kernel different from creating "real" applications.

"I have always felt that the thing that makes the kernel special is it never does anything on its own ... It has no agenda. It is at the mercy of all the "real" programs that actually do something for the user.

"I try to see what are the issues that users have with programs and what are things that we in the kernel can help them do better," he said.

Torvalds also talked about why "unfriendly" kernel developers are making it more difficult attracting new blood. Click here to see this three minute video.

In addition, he revealed he was surprised by the resilience of the 2.6 Linux kernel to "invasive" changes. Click here to watch the two minute video clip.

To all Linux users, this video is presented in Flash 8 and has been tested successfully for use with Linux systems running the latest Flash plug-in for Linux (ver. 9.0). Currently, this version is not available from Adobe for those running 64-bit Linux.

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