We've all agreed that when he dies it would be disrespectful to keep using Linux so we'll pack it up and switch to Windows from them on.

GNU will spring their plan into motion for world domination, and send anyone who has said Linux and not GNU/Linux to GNUlag

We're actually on the 10th Linus now, so the next one will be LinuXI

Nothing. Linus doesn't personally do coding on the kernel, he has a team who do that and he oversees it and makes the hard decisions.

There are others who will take his place and the work will continue.

If somehow the entire kernel team shut down, Google, Samsung or some other large corporation would take it over and continue development because at this point many, many, many servers, phones, smart devices, iot, and other appliances rely on the Linux kernel to function.

It simply cannot be left to die.

A number of candidates will create their own forks and there will be a long Game of Thrones style war between different factions. After couple of weeks each distro will choose the fork they will make the default one and people will split into warring factions. After that we will enter a nuclear winter style period lasting couple of years during which 90% of post on Lemmy will be just shitposting the rival forks. After a decade or two of backstabbing, dirty politics and other drama new dictator will be selected and all will be back to normal.

His firstborn son will take over as Linus II, as is tradition.

There will not be a Linus 2, but rather there will be a peaceful transfer of "power".

Linus is not the Benevolent Dictator For Life of the Linux Kernel.

Linus has already stepped away from developing the Kernel. He did this after an incident to work on his professionalism & mannerisms towards people. Kernel development did not stop. Linus does not approve and merge every patch into the Kernel.

Rather it is more likely that the Lead Maintainer/Developer changes to Greg Kroah-Hartmon, and the project does not skip a beat.

Rest assured with something as important as the Linux Kernel: development will keep going.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_factor is a thing that any GOOD project or IT department considers. How many of your staff can you afford to lose if they all happen to be travelling in the same bus, on their way to eat at the same place for lunch when an asteroid inevitably punches through said bus and/or diner.

'Hit by an asteroid' is a little unrealistic. Sentenced to prison for 15 to Life has happened in the Open Source community at least once before. The project I linked to had a Bus Factor of about one. It's now 'old code using outdated APIs' and is considered obsolete.

I've personally seen legal and criminal issues for a single individual cripple IT departments before, meaning their bus factor was also way too low. I've been on trips that have been rudely interrupted by screaming executives when I came down out of the mountains into cell range because I was the only bus factor left on certain systems. Natural disaster, such as hurricanes, wildfires, and floods are very serious existential threats to even the largest of organizations.

Since Linux seems to be a good project, I can't imagine that the discussion hasn't been had, in public or in private. Millions of individuals and dozens upon dozens of big corporations depend on Linux, Open source and otherwise. If the bus comes for core maintainers or project leaders we have at least SOME backup.

sudo mount --bind /linus2 /linus

Think we all can agree that the only sensible choise would to convert to Tempel OS...

From what I understand Greg Kroah-Hartman would take over

For a moment I thought this post was about the LTT host. And was like they could replace him with any of his doppelgangers in the group and no one will notice.

Then the propheciced hurdnus will rise and awaken a new era of foss

By then GNU/Hurd will be ready lmao

Linus is getting old and its time to pick his replacement.

And its you! Congratulations! I hope your ready

Everyone is making jokes but the thought has occurred to me: Yes, we have an organisation in place that is ready to replace him. But, from what I understand, he IS the benevolent dictator, and he has used his power a few times to stop some changes that otherwise would be in the kernel right now. And I think that's a good thing.

When he dies, I expect his family will be sad for a while and bury him.

If he retires, his family will be pretty happy for him.

Other people will keep doing Linux stuff.

I’m training a code and language model to write Linux kernel code and provide snarky comments, of course all based on Linus’s extensive commit history.

Our AI Überherr will be pleased.

The git based AI he was secretly programming will take over and anyone who can't use git submodules without looking up the commands will die.