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Justin Orndorff and AdTI

In the context of the recent AdTI shambles, it is interesting to note recent posts by someone writing as "Justin Orndorff" <raison__d_etre@hotmail.com>, who says he works for the Alex de Tocqueville Institution:

samba mailing list, May 18

Greetings,

I'm currently doing research into corporate contributions towards open source projects, such as Linux. One of the recent Credits Files lists Mr. Anton Blanchard as a contributor. Is Mr. Blanchard still an employee with the company?

Also, does the company have any policies regarding open source contributions by employees? If so, are there any differences between on and off the clock contributions?

Minix list, 28 April

I'm a noob. I was wondering if anyone could point me in the direction towards downloadable earlier version of Minix. Anyone?

(Why would a "noob" want to download anything but the most recent/usable version?)

linux-kernel mailing list, 12 April

Hello, my name is Justin and I'm doing some research into the specifics of Linux. Out of curiosity, who owns the Linux kernel?

Is it owned by Linus Torvalds, its contributors or the public?

Dev Hardware forums

Hello board,

I'm currently conducting some research into the history and background of operating systems. Any comments on the following questions would be welcome.

1. Describe the components of an operating system, besides the central component, the kernel.
2. What do programmers usually develop first, the compiler or the kernel?
3. Does this sequence impact the OS at all?
4. What's more complicated, the kernel or the compiler?
5. Why does operating system development take as long as it does? What are the three key things in all operating system development that take the longest to perfect?
6. Do you need operating systems familiarity to write a kernel? Yes / no? Elaborate please.
7. In your opinion, why aren't there more operating systems on the market?

It does sound a bit like he wants someone else to do his undergraduate homework, but I think that is not quite the case.

Same questions on "WebMasterWorld" and OSDev.org. (Would you think webmasterworld would be a good forum to try to find the history of Linux?)

Further information on Usenet.

Anyone considering talking to Justin or AdTI might want to read about Prof Tanenbaum's experience first.

posted Fri 21 May 2004 in /issues/adti | link

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