Linus Torvalds on the "four-letter word" called "innovation"

I think there's a lot of truth in Linus Torvald's derisive comment about innovation, and the software industry's fetish with it.

I think that "innovation" is a four-letter word in the industry. It should never be used in polite company. It's become a PR thing to sell new versions with.

It was Edison who said "1% inspiration, 99% perspiration". That may have been true a hundred years ago. These days it's "0.01% inspiration, 99.99% perspiration", and the inspiration is the easy part. As a project manager, I have never had trouble finding people with crazy ideas. I have trouble finding people who can execute. IOW, "innovation" is way oversold. And it sure as hell shouldn't be applied to products like MS Word or Open office.

Amen. Looking around the industry, there's very little "innovation" going on. The iPhone's interface? Sure. Vista (or, for that matter, Apple's Leopard)? Nah.

These are incremental technology advances backed by good execution. Microsoft isn't Microsoft because it makes "innovative" technology. It's Microsoft because it tends to keep the trains running on time.

Microsoft's problem now isn't innovation on the web. I have little doubt that its online services are as good, or nearly so, as Google's. It's that it doesn't seem to know how to execute a web-centric business.

In open source, we need more talented executors to achieve dominance. Sure, we can innovate, but that's not really the point.

[lostatsea]

The only people I know who keep their trains running on time are the Swiss. Microsoft is what it is because for two reasons, not because they're any better at execution than anyone else. . 1. MS used FUD to achieve critical mass, 2. Most of the computing population are lemmings afraid to insist on a working, reliable solution.

A day doesn't go by that I'm not dealing with either one of my or my clients Windows XP or Vista problems. So I can't really enjoy the train ride... I'm always called on to fix something that broke or never worked right in the first place.

Interesting that everyone at our local physics department uses OS X... they ARE rocket scientists and know they can't afford to wast their time diagnosing Windows problems.

[lostatsea]

The only people I know who keep their trains running on time are the Swiss. Microsoft is what it is because for two reasons, not because they're any better at execution than anyone else. . 1. MS used FUD to achieve critical mass, 2. Most of the computing population are lemmings afraid to insist on a working, reliable solution.

A day doesn't go by that I'm not dealing with either one of my or my clients Windows XP or Vista problems. So I can't really enjoy the train ride... I'm always called on to fix something that broke or never worked right in the first place.

Interesting that everyone at our local physics department uses OS X... they ARE rocket scientists and know they can't afford to wast their time diagnosing Windows problems.

[lostatsea]

The only people I know who keep their trains running on time are the Swiss. Microsoft is what it is because for two reasons, not because they're any better at execution than anyone else. . 1. MS used FUD to achieve critical mass, 2. Most of the computing population are lemmings afraid to insist on a working, reliable solution.

A day doesn't go by that I'm not dealing with either one of my or my clients Windows XP or Vista problems. So I can't really enjoy the train ride... I'm always called on to fix something that broke or never worked right in the first place.

Interesting that everyone at our local physics department uses OS X... they ARE rocket scientists and know they can't afford to wast their time diagnosing Windows problems.

[lostatsea]

sorry for those duplicates, but the Jive Software kept indicating there was an error with the post... and I am tenacious ;)

[alegr]

All these years, Jive software has been piece of No.2 matter, never mind that it's "open source" and is using the greatest thing after sliced bread, currently known as Java. One may ask: why it always doesn't work? MS never touched it, so why? Another question: why Cnet is still using that? Somebody got a kickback?

[odubtaig]

Thanks Matt, you've just made me feel a whole lot better about a little project I'm working on :o) It won't be glamarous and it certainly won't win any awards for innovation but I do expect it to be useful.

[pbookman]

Right you are. Innovation does not happen because you want it to, it happens when it happens almost as a surprise. "Damn, look what we did! Who'da thought!" Execution and focus are what one can strive for and manage against. It is what makes for the long-term successes.

"Innovation" is just a marketing hypeword.

[alegr]

For many CEO types, "execution" involves not what Linus means, but a firing squad, sorry, I mean HR team visit.