Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Linux For Losers According To De Raadt

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the fair-and-balanced dept.

elohim writes "Theo has some scathing comments about Linux in his new interview with Forbes Magazine. From the article: 'It's terrible...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."'"

10 of 1,314 comments (clear)

  1. "Scathing" != "Untrue" by grub · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Linux For Losers According To De Raadt"

    Nowhere in that article does he say "Linux is for losers" or use that label. The headline of the story rhetorically asks that question, way to generate flamebait, Forbes & Slashdot editors!

    Now I'm going to get a coffee and enjoy the comments which will probably not differ much from "Theo is teh ghey! L12nux r00lzzzzzz!!!"

    --
    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:"Scathing" != "Untrue" by Pandora's+Vox · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It must be hard to be devoted to the unloved stepchild of the Open source movement, and have to watch as everyone worships Linux.

      is it just me, or isn't openBSD the unloved stepchild because of the assholishness of some *cough*theo*cough* of the developpers?

    2. Re:"Scathing" != "Untrue" by beq · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well yes, BSD did get some benefit from Windows using the FreeBSD TCP stack - it got an assurance that 95% of the computers in the world would have a functional TCP stack - not a small thing.

      The goals of the BSD license and the GPL are different, folks. The BSD license is all about building technology that can be come the standard everywhere. The GPL is about building a permanent ecology of free (as in freedom) code. A GPL project can pick up and use BSD-licensed code, and release said code under the GPL if they wish (provided they retain the copyright notices). The reverse is not true.

      --
      -Brendan
    3. Re:"Scathing" != "Untrue" by John+Fulmer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Funny. I rarely hear Linux-oriented people (including myself) badmouth *BSD. I don't think I've *EVER* heard anyone really badmouth BSD. It's a great, solid operating system, which tends to be fairly conservative in its goals and design decisions. I would never say anything negative about someone just because *BSD was their OS of choice.

      I wish the opposite were true. Linux is a solid, popular, full-featued *nix clone with a different design philosophy. It also works very well. I wish that some of the *BSD people would just deal with it and get on with their lives.

      jf

  2. Classy Response to Theo by Linus Torvalds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From the article:

    Torvalds, via e-mail, says De Raadt is "difficult" and declined to comment further.

    I must say, Linus really comes across as a classy, quality person. It takes mature restraint to deal with "difficult" people like Theo, and Linus does so with class.

    1. Re:Classy Response to Theo by Linus Torvalds by JohnFluxx · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually the worst part is that Theo is often right, which means you do have to actually listen to him rather than the easier just ignore him.

  3. Theo has never run Linux by pebs · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The funny thing is he has never run Linux. Quoting this interview:

    Theo de Raadt: I don't know. I have never run Linux.

    --
    #!/
  4. And how would he know? by jdaluz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In a NewsForge interview a couple of days ago de Raadt was asked about technical comparisons between Linux and BSD and replied, "I don't know. I have never run Linux."

    http://os.newsforge.com/os/05/06/09/2132233.shtml? tid=152&tid=8&tid=2

    Suddenly, he's an expert on how bad Linux is?

  5. Re:What I don't like about BSD by grimwell · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ah, grasshopper... take a bath. Data hygiene is a good thing.

    Funny, the default mixing of apps and OS in linux distros is what I dis-like the most about linux.

    Keeping added apps seperate from the OS highlights the beauty of *nix over windows. With everything you installed after the OS in /usr/local, you can re-install the OS(e.g. partition corruption, junior admin fubar'ing, etc) without having to re-install your apps.

    Trust me, I've been there. Windows admin hoses OS, I re-install OS and I'm done. The needed apps are already in place & configured. /usr/local , /opt is a good thing.

    --
    If the govt becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law, it invites man to become his own law, it invites anarchy
  6. Theo's being a goober this time by Roadkills-R-Us · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He blames Linux marketshare on the BSD lawsuit. I'm sorry, but in this case, he sounds foolish. The way BSD was developed and promoted a decade ago had far more to do with Linux' acceptance than the BSD lawsuit.

    At the time, *very* few businesses used Linux. Well under 1%, probably more like 1% of 1% of 1%. At any rate, if you wanted to use a free *nix OS, you had three choices besides Linux:

    1) Paying a commercial BSD license fee (BSDi). This was a bit expensive for an individual, and even the commercial version didn't have drivers for a lot of the better hardware (like reasonably new Dell servers).
    2) Writing your own device drivers for anything unsupported.
    3) Sending a BSD vendor equipment so they could write your driver.

    I wish I could remember which prject was which for #2 and #3. Whichever group was #2, when I asked on the net about a SCSI driver for our server (a friend and I were starting a business on the side), I was flamed by a core BSD developer for not just writing a driver. HELLO! I need to run a business, not write drivers!

    I tried really hard to make BSD work on our hardware. I finally gave up and tried Linux at another friend's suggestion. It just worked.

    Linux caught on with individuals, then with startups and small projects in larger companies, and only in the past 3-4 years has started to matter in the corporate marketplace at large.

    The BSD community chased people away (that's not an indictment of the community, it's just the effect of how things were handled).

    There's an old adage that says, "Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door." Even if that were still true (it's generally not), when you start beating them in the head with the mousetrap, don't complain when tehy don't buy it.

    I'm not sure if Theo is merely ignorant of history, or is simply choosing to ignore it. Either way, he's in trouble. Those who ignore or forget the lessons of history are doomed to what? Repeat it. Theo's helping screw up BSD's chances all over again.