Linus praises ‘good fragmentation’

"Open source," according to Linus Torvalds, "forces people to live in harmony, even when they don't want to." The Linux community will not catch the "Unix Disease with lots of resources going the wrong way (through vendors catfights)". Java is dying too, because it's catching the Unix Disease, Torvalds says. During his Linux World Expo keynote this week, Torvalds attempted to answer the 64 billion dollar question: what happens if Linux fragments -- and degenerates into Unix-style factionalism? This is, he says, "such a negative question". It also misses the point. There is nothing wrong with fragmentation per-se, he says. Various iterations of Linux -- anything from Linux for Supercomputers to Linux for Fridges -- will serve customers with different needs. This segmentation is "really a good thing", and the modular strengths of Linux serve this approach well. Unsurprisingly, Torvalds is against Linux Balkanisation at the technical level, but he sees little danger on score: after all, the "open source model is very anti-fragmenting", he says. ®