I would think that it is their job to ask. They may or not apply any
   pressure, but I would think just about everyone of significance at
   least gets a request.

   It is like hitting on people in a bar. You may get told no a whole lot,
   but every once in a while, someone says yes.

   -Lance

   --
   Lance Cottrell
   [1]loki@obscura.com
   On Sep 19, 2013, at 12:48 PM, CypherPunk <[2]cypherpunk@cpunk.us>
   wrote:

     On 09/19/2013 02:39 PM, Tom Ritter wrote:

     Torvalds responded "no" while shaking his head "yes," as the
     audience broke into spontaneous laughter.

     Is there any indication he took the question seriously and wasn't
     just
     making a joke?  This is a lot to conclude from a single sentence.

     While he certainly could have been being humorous, I can't see why
     he
     would have indicated 'yes' for any reason. I mean, he could have
     made a
     funny comment or something sarcastic or any number of other
     responses.
     The shaking his head yes while saying now would seem to indicate
     that
     he's been told not to say that he's been asked.
     It would seem logical that he would have been approached though. I
     mean,
     they want total tech coverage. Why would Linux escape their
     attention?

References

   1. mailto:loki@obscura.com
   2. mailto:cypherpunk@cpunk.us