So Theo De Raadt seems to have a problem with the Linux community, from what I’ve seen today in Forbes Magazine. I don’t know if it’s rampant bitterness or some sort of social claustophobia caused by the rapid contraction of his Magical Fairy Island or something, but he seems to be channelling some kind of bitter spirit from beyond the grave:
“It’s terrible,” De Raadt says. “Everyone is using it, and they don’t realize how bad it is. And the Linux people will just stick with it and add to it rather than stepping back and saying, ‘This is garbage and we should fix it.’”
Well, a strong serve at least. This leads me to wonder why, if “Everyone is using it,” why the people who are at least as smart as good ol’ Theo (and if Everyone is using it, statistics are in our favor) aren’t seeing problems drastic enough to warrant this amazing level of refuse-based corrective action? Curious.
It continues:
De Raadt says his crack 60-person team of programmers, working in a tightly focused fashion and starting with a core of tried-and-true Unix, puts out better code than the slapdash Linux movement.
“I think our code quality is higher, just because that’s really a big focus for us,” De Raadt says. “Linux has never been about quality. There are so many parts of the system that are just these cheap little hacks, and it happens to run.” As for Linus Torvalds, who created Linux and oversees development, De Raadt says, “I don’t know what his focus is at all anymore, but it isn’t quality.”
Hmm. Well, judging from what I’m seeing, what is being focused on at this point in some of the newer kernel work is adding features that users are asking for. I guess this is what happens when your codebase expands beyond a niche market and people actually start using it? Funny thing, people have a variety of hardware that they like to have support for, and I imagine that wider usage in applications leads to more features being needed at a kernel level as well. I’ll admit that I’m no developer, but I certainly know enough to know that more support for more hardware is more gooder. Quality indeed might take some time, but for an ivory tower programmer to start lashing out against something getting things done in real-world environments just comes off to me as sanctimonious and high-handed.
And, speaking of sanctimonious and high-handed…
Lok Technologies, a San Jose, Calif.-based maker of networking gear, started out using Linux in its equipment but switched to OpenBSD four years ago after company founder Simon Lok, who holds a doctorate in computer science, took a close look at the Linux source code.
“You know what I found? Right in the kernel, in the heart of the operating system, I found a developer’s comment that said, ‘Does this belong here?’ “Lok says. “What kind of confidence does that inspire? Right then I knew it was time to switch.”
Dr. Simon Lok apparently has no problem in coming to the conclusion that an informal peer review process with informal code commentary isn’t very proper. Oh dear me. I suppose code comments should be written in proper Latin? Chicago-style structures? I’ve heard from unspecified sources that Dr. Simon Lok can’t even wipe his ass unless the toilet paper has been blessed by at least two Oxford Dons, at least one of whom has handled a lampstand that was once in Tolkien’s office. It seems likely!
