Criticizing Linux is like criticizing a minority group - if you do that, you'll have the NAA(L)CP, ADL, etc. all over you.
This guy will have the Linux geeks all over him (although they probably don't read Forbes, since many of them think money = bad). Just like the woman journalist who wrote something bad about Linux a few months ago, and the Linux geeks got hold of her home phone number and started harassing her there.
"These companies used to have to pay to develop Unix. They had in-house engineers who wrote new features when customers wanted them. Now they just allow the user community to do their own little hacks and features, trying to get to the same functionality level, and they're just putting pennies into it," De Raadt says.
I've been saying this for years. These kids spend their college years writing and developing software and giving it away, then after they graduate they cry because no one will pay them to do it! Why? The kids behind you are still doing it for free, so why pay you?
Based on what I have seen, Linux is a superior operating system - and I'm a Windows user!!!!
Can't wait to try an install!
I think most guys will give BSD its due, its the best Open Source OS out there. It is more secure, more stable, and has a pretty nice license. Saying all of this does not make linux a sub par OS, linux is on par with pretty much anything out there.
Of course it is!
Linux is for everybody.
(*rimshot*)
I'm going to the corner now and will be feeling awful for the very bad thing I just did :D.
It's worse. It's for hobbyists. ;)
Sounds an awful lot like government welfare programs, don't it?
De Raadt is pointing out a phenomenon that every programmer has faced at one point or another: a choice of whether to re-architect and clean out the accumulated crap of a multitude of design decisions addressing different problems; or simply to work with what you've got, and work around the incompatibilities.
Open source stuff is exceptionally vulnerable to this, as by intent the open source designers are scattered hither and yon, making design decisions that first and foremost serve their own needs.
The re-architecting decision is really daunting, but eventually everybody ends up having to bite the bullet and do it. Linux is no exception. De Raadt undoubtedly has a personal agenda here, but I think he's probably correct about the need to clean things up.