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Hyper-Threading, Linus Torvalds vs. Colin Percival

Posted by timothy on from the local-exploit-means-other-bad-things dept.

OutsideIn writes "The recent Hyper-Threading vulnerability announcement has generated a fair amount of discussion since it was released. KernelTrap has an interesting article quoting Linux creator Linus Torvalds who recently compared the vulnerability to similar issues with early SMP and direct-mapped caches suggesting, "it doesn't seem all that worrying in real life." Colin Percival, who published a recent paper on the vulnerability, strongly disagreed with Linus' assessment saying, "it is at times like this that Linux really suffers from having a single dictator in charge; when Linus doesn't understand a problem, he won't fix it, even if all the cryptographers in the world are standing against him.""

2 of 396 comments (clear)

  1. Look, this is like the Java argument by deanj · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    The solution for this is just like the "Java should be open source" argument that people always float. "If Java were open source, we could do a fork and fix what's wrong with it".

    If you don't like what's going on with the project, do a fork of it, and fix it.

    At least, that's how the argument goes when people are talking about Java. Since this is the Linux kernel, people seem to be a bit unwilling to do the same thing.

    It's long since time that there be splits in the kernel. This whole thing with SMP is going to turn around and bite Linux if something isn't done about it soon. Other operating systems are prepared (or are preparing), why should Linux be so far behind?

    And don't make the argument that Linux isn't really that far behind. It is. If Linus had started the work several years ago, it wouldn't be as big of a problem. The trouble is Linus doesn't want it mucking up the kernel, or making it harder for other people to code for it.

    Well, doing the work to get multiple processes in kernel context (not just two or three, I mean a LOT of processes) IS hard, and it will be difficult for people to program under the new kernel rules.

    It doesn't mean the results aren't worth it though.

  2. Re:He won't fix it? by cibus · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I'd like to buy some crack from the people who moderated the parent post to +5 Informative...