The Linux kernel trumps the moonshot by a few orders of magnitude

By this logic, janitorial work should trump the Linux kernel -- there are far more janitors out there than Linux developers. Janitors are everywhere. We rely on them all the time.<p>The difference between the lunar missions and the Linux kernel is easy to see, if you bother to pay attention. Decades of research in numerous fields were required before the Apollo missions could happen. Experts in numerous fields had to collaborate on the mission. There were no mistakes to learn from -- nobody had done a lunar mission before. By comparison, the Linux kernel only represents expertise in one particular field, it is certainly not the result of cutting-edge research, and there is nothing particularly special about writing a kernel.

Some background: "At its peak, the Apollo program employed 400,000 people and required the support of over 20,000 industrial firms and universities." Sure the Linux kernel is a valuable project but in terms of engineering effort IMHO the comparison isn't fair.

Can't cosign this one, I think its a grave underestimation of the import of a species being able to escape however briefly from their home planet.<p>100 years from now, linux will probably have gone the way of the doodoo bird, certainly by 500 years from now it will have... 500 years from now the question of whether or not man has ever set foot on the moon, and when that first occurred will still have impact

Thankfully:<p><pre><code> linesOfCode != progress </code></pre> Linux is awesome.<p>Putting people on the Moon is beyond fucking awesome.

I'm trying to come up with a pithy response, but I'm kind of speechless. Sure Linux is a triumph, but... Seriously? Is the author trolling?

The Alcatel-Lucent 5ESS switch code is larger, more mature, has probably had more developers over its lifetime, and still, pretty much, runs the whole phone network.

"This is a silly game show to play, but if I had to choose between a Saturn V with three dudes and a lunar landing module strapped to the top of it and a DVD with the Linux kernel, I’d point to the DVD as having a bigger impact."<p>I think he should have stopped after the first comma. Why compare incomparable things? Pick one axis, thing A is better. Pick another axis, thing B is better.

The author seems to have some sort of conceptualized ideal regarding <i>"The Linux kernel"</i> and it's ubiquity, even though the wide array of devices using some variant of <i>"The Linux kernel"</i> illustrates the fractured nature of Linux and its myriad incarnations.<p>Some would say that <i>"The Linux kernel"</i> is a bloated monstrosity and not a good example of technological wizardry.<p>To state that <i>The kernel is the largest, most complex collaborative effort in the history of the species,</i> while failing to note that the typical jet fighter aircraft uses systems which nearly double the SLOC of a Linux kernel, also serves to illuminate the author's scope of knowledge.<p><pre><code> *The latest F-35Bs, including Yuma’s copy, are also flying with a temporary software suite known as Block 1B. The Marines have said the jet won’t be capable of flying and fighting in real combat until it has the Block 2B software that is only now entering testing. With 24 million lines of code — 9 million more than originally envisioned — there’s no telling how long testing could take.* </code></pre> <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/11/marines-jsf/" rel="nofollow">http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/11/marines-jsf/</a>

Sorry. Wrong. If we were to undertake a serious challenge, like get to Mars, or go 100% renewable power in 15 years, I'd take that over the linux kernel any day all day.

I totally agree with this post,but the reasons people think this way is obvious. It's much easier to look at a ginormous rocket blasting off in a fiery cloud of steam and crushing noise as something BIG, than it is to see an operating system kernel as big.

I suspect a lot of us are very uncomfortable with that claim. I think the moonshot and the kernel are both independently amazing feats that don't need to be compared against one another for validation.

I think the issue is that to the average person, there is nothing inspiring about the linux kernel.<p>The space race created a large amount of respect for science/research in the public eye - something that results in more kids enrolled in science and math programs. The long tail effect of sending people to the moon is a lot hard to measure than KLOC.

Maybe I am reading this wrong. It seems to be about the US, as opposed to humanity, not having done anything important in a while:<p>"the fact that the US doesn’t have a manned spaceflight program is a step back. But then he said, “our generation hasn’t done anything like land someone on the Moon… we used to do big things.”"<p>Then he goes on to put-up Linux as an example of the US (???) having done something great? Did I read that wrong?<p>Linux is not a US development. It didn't even start in the US. It's the result of collaboration from nearly every corner of the world.<p>As for humanity not having done something great. Please. Billions of people are connected like never before via the Internet. Never in the history of mankind was the dissemination of information, knowledge and culture accessible to so many for so little. And this is just the beginning.

Erm...author isn't taking into account like any of the spinoff tech from the space race, are they?<p>Linux was a hobby OS that popped up right as legal concerns starting hurting the BSD folks, right? Had that not been the case, it probably would've been as interesting a footnote as Minix or Hurd is today.<p>Are they just feeling insecure about the kinds of problems their generation is solving?

This article incorrectly refers to Linux as an operating system.