“What If Linus Torvalds Gets Hit by a Bus?” – An Empirical Study (2000)

Didn't Ballmer do a cost-benefit study on this in '07 only to determine that if you struck Linus down then he would become more powerful than anyone could imagine?

Hah, I recall very well when this was posted. It was my first introduction to the bus factor[1], and I still refer to it from time to time.<p>Segfault.org had a lot of fun jokes, just look at the front page from that time[2] which includes some future-predicting ones like &quot;Netscape 6 Special Edition To Feature Extra Ads&quot;[3] (not Mozilla as such but).<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Bus_factor" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Bus_factor</a><p>[2]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20010616172138&#x2F;http:&#x2F;&#x2F;segfault.org&#x2F;index.phtml?mode=2" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20010616172138&#x2F;http:&#x2F;&#x2F;segfault.o...</a><p>[3]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20010619114515&#x2F;http:&#x2F;&#x2F;segfault.org&#x2F;story.phtml?mode=2&amp;id=3afbfe7c-09551fa0" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20010619114515&#x2F;http:&#x2F;&#x2F;segfault.o...</a>

Some of us practiced the “Bus Factor” as a joke. But, many a truth is spoken in jest. In 2006, my first company was acquired by a Startup that got transplanted from Silicon Valley to India.<p>We were not Linuses, but as an unspoken&#x2F;unwritten pattern, we naively followed “if you get into an accident on the Mumbai–Pune Expressway.”[1] We never traveled together as we gradually relocated to Pune while still unable to give up Mumbai that quickly.<p>1. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Mumbai–Pune_Expressway" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Mumbai–Pune_Expressway</a>

Related:<p><i>What If Linus Torvalds Gets Hit by a Bus?</i> - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=37070841">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=37070841</a> - Aug 2023 (7 comments)<p><i>What If Linus Torvalds Gets Hit by a Bus? (2000)</i> - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=18794892">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=18794892</a> - Dec 2018 (107 comments)

In the history of software development, has a project ever been doomed by a bus killing the key engineer?

He hit a bus before probably. Are we talking about internal or universal serial?

Why the web archive link? (why the post at all OP?)<p>The original is archived over here on the author&#x27;s website along with the rest of his segfault writings:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.crummy.com&#x2F;writing&#x2F;segfault.org&#x2F;Bus.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.crummy.com&#x2F;writing&#x2F;segfault.org&#x2F;Bus.html</a>

First he should write a book on the architecture of the 5.x and 6.x kernels because I can&#x27;t find one anywhere.

I&#x27;m not really part of the Linux community so I feel a bit confused. It definitely seems like it&#x27;s meant in jest, though at the time of writing, there probably would have been a real concern around business continuity.<p>Am I just wildly missing the joke?

The data is old. In the account of increased population, traffic and pollution, the study should be reconducted just to be safe. The muffin factor probably has changed a lot since then and even we should propose to include his new favorites.

One from the same timeframe:<p>What if Chuck Norris gets hit by a bus? Time to buy a new bus.