It's time to get together, drink some beer, chow some middling Chinese food, and talk shop. Figure out how to get your system working, how to get your giant brain tuned and optimized the way you want it, without any taint of proprietary software obscuring the machine's inner mysteries. I have seen him speak to crowds numbering 20,000 and higher and field reporter's queries at press conferences with aplomb, but he is most comfortable when being asked detailed questions about arcane aspects of software and hardware. Torvalds has a way of being both self-deprecating and utterly sure of himself that works well with audiences. Sitting at one of the big round tables that dot the banquet floor, listening to a smattering of hackers exchange jokes and chatter about the various Linux happenings of the day, I'm impressed at the general sense of good feeling that flows through the room.
People are happy to be here.
They're happy to be talking about obscure matters of symmetric multiprocessing performance and source control management. They're especially happy to be doing what they do, which, more and more, means hacking on Linux-based operating systems. A year later, when I hear Lee Felsenstein muse about what makes open-source software fun, I immediately think back to the night at the Four Seas. It's very, very powerful. But there's one big difference.