DebConf 14: QA with Linus Torvalds

Why HN readers recommended it

HN returns to it as Linus's own explanation of why shipping software on Linux is hard and why he dislikes GPLv3.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel

Adnan Hodzic

Topic

linux software distribution

Format

interview

Level

intermediate

HN recommenders in dataset

7

HN mentions in dataset

20

Recommendation years in dataset

2014–2021

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

• And to really drive the problem home, distributing binary packages for Linux is a complete nightmare. Linus Torvalds just laid out a whole bunch of the problems at DebConf14. [VIDEO] Go watch it. But some of the highlights: - .deb vs .rpm misses the whole …

• Just listen to this. I bet you will recognize the speaker. [VIDEO] It is 100% to the point and nothing has changed in 6 years since (and not only on debian), except that the mess is being solved by docker. Which is crazy. And windows …

• It is best practice and I wish it was common practice, but there's a lot of friction in the way and some people will actively work against you. Static linking glibc is painful because the former maintainer has some strong opinions: [LINK] Most distros force …