Nobel Peace Prize to Linus Torvalds: A Northwest Nobel option?

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 08:32:44PM -0500, Jason Carson wrote:
> > Interesting read, here is a small sample of the article:
> >
> > "Former Vice President Al Gore’s visit to Portland today and tomorrow
> > has prompted some Nobel Peace Prize thoughts, and in Oregon the idea
> > of nominating a Northwesterner. The prospect shot around the
> > Portland-area Linux circles (drawing some debate as well as approval
> > as it did), starting with this email from Keith Lofstrom:
> >
> > "Since the Nobel Peace Prize is often given to politicians, some
> > disagree with the choices. But it is often given to non-politicians
> > who create international efforts to change the world for the better.
> >
> > "Look at the massive international efforts represented by SC09, and
> > realize that much of it started from the work of a 21[-year-old]
> > Finnish college student named after 1962 Nobel Peace Prize winner
> > Linus Pauling. It would be fitting to honor that international effort
> > by giving a Peace Prize to Linus Torvalds, perhaps in 2011 on the 20th
> > anniversary of the August 1991 Linux announcement, or in 2012 on the
> > 50th anniversary of Pauling’s award."
> >
> > http://www.ridenbaugh.com/index.php/2009/11/18/a-northwest-nobel-option/
> >
> > --
> > Sincerely,
> >
> > Michael Lauzon
> > --
> > The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
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> >
> Not to diminish Torvalds's work but what about Richard Stallman as a
> candidate for a Nobel Peace Prize, he did after all create the GPL and
> Free Software Foundation and has worked on the tools that form a GNU/Linux
> system. The notion of a totally free operating system was his idea and
> that has what has "changed the world".

Hmm, RMS and peace price.  Not sure those go together.  He has created
a lot of hostility too.

A lot of people don't like where the FSF is trying to go (GFDL, GPLv3
for example).

Linus makes a lot more sense to me.

-- 
Len Sorensen
--
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