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
loki@obscura.com



On Sep 19, 2013, at 12:48 PM, CypherPunk <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?