While looking for open source dive log applications on F-Droid (in preparation for my Advanced Open Water Certification) and I found an app called Subsurface and apparently it is as developed by none other than Linus Torvalds himself.
I also found this neat YouTube video of Dirk Hohndel talking about scuba diving with Linus.
Funny enough, subsurface is kinda’ the reason I switched to Linux. My computer is over 15 years old, and I really wanted to wipe it clean but I had no way to re-install windows if I did so. Even though it was BARELY usable, I was holding on to it because it’s the only way I had to download dives from my dive computer (I think I got the last one sold before switching to wireless uploads). Eventually, I found out that subsurface existed, and then I took the plunge.
Subsurface was kinda’ my first exposure to the idea that somebody(s) would take any time at all working on software that they couldn’t either sell or use to collect sellable data.
This is kinda heartwarming to see. Today I just used Subsurface to upload my dive logs to my phone and the process was great. The video tutorials even helped a bit.
Although, the cloud account registering didn’t work for me so I guess I’ll just upload it to my protondrive and upload it to my computer this way.
I learnt about it in a interview about git, he also had this necessity that no other software could fulfill and decided to create his own.
And like with git, he decided he didn’t want to continue its development and let other people to take the project because he’s a kernel guy.