Is Linux For Losers?

Forbes.com ^ | 06.16.05 | Dan Lyons

[Willie Green]

NEW YORK - Theo de Raadt is a pioneer of the open source software movement and a huge proponent of free software. But he is no fan of the open source Linux operating system.

"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.'"

[martin_fierro]

Ruh Roh

[Paladin2]

" 'This is garbage and we should fix it.' "

This pretty much sums up most peoples approach to software written by others (i.e. what an idiot, I could obviously do much better).

[Paladin2]

" 'This is garbage and we should fix it.' "

This pretty much sums up most peoples approach to software written by others (i.e. what an idiot, I could obviously do much better).

[goldstategop]

Actually the proprietary Linux systems like Xandros, Linspire and SUSE are doing quite well. The latter two are sold at CompUSA.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Paladin2]

" 'This is garbage and we should fix it.' "

This also applies to most of what Mr. Lyons writes.

[EagleUSA]

Actually the proprietary Linux systems like Xandros, Linspire and SUSE are doing quite well.
-----
Agreed -- I use the Suse distribution regularly for technical applications, internet surfing, servers, and other chores. Bill is, and should be worried about the growing market share of Linux...

[SteveH]

Does this belong here?

Umm, probably just a translation error from the original Finnish...? ;-)

[TheGeezer]

I don't use Linux anywhere, but as a DBA and CNA I am under the impression that Linux is very stable and is great for hosting databases. Isn't Novell about to go all-SUSE, running Netware NDS, basically, on SUSE-Linux hosts? Is the author a Microsoft mole?

[machman]

Uh oh, am I a loser from posting this from the old Dell PIII I got for nothing last week and then FTP installed SuSE 9.2 on for free?

In the MS world I should go out and buy Win XP for what, $200, and put it on a machine that might be worth $100? Sorry Bill, no way.

[mikegi]

The "does this belong here" source comment is fine. All programmers write stuff like that except, maybe, for pretenders who think they're god's gift to programming.

Mike

[dread78645]

BSD guys are a lot like Linux guys, except they have kissed girls. <

;->

[kezekiel]

De Raadt makes a rival open source operating system called OpenBSD.

So, Linux-bashers will come to all the wrong conclusions, not having RTFA. This isn't an anti-open source or anti-Unix piece. It's yet another round of the intra-Unix holy war, only instead of Debian vs. Red Hat vs. Mandrake vs. Ubuntu vs. yadda yadda, it's BSD vs. Linux.

[ikka]

Just a note: nowhere does de Raadt say that quote "Linux is for losers" unquote... this is a question posed by the author in a bid to get more notice. Too bad, since Forbes used to be far and away, above tabloid journalism.

[isthisnickcool]

Way back when we used SCO on Intel we ran into Linus and watched the initial development around his core. It was fun back then to see Linux grow. To watch all the activity on the old IRC. I think this was about 1991.

After a few years Linux became a pretty stable OS. I've never had a kernel panic from a Linux box. We once had one old Slackware system with and external DPT raid array run without a reboot for almost 3 years. And it was under load all the time. The drives were constantly spinning.

FreeBSD is good stuff. We built some of out first firewall/NAT machine using it. FreeBSD is solid. So is the latest Microsoft server stuff for that matter.

Linux "arrived" a long time ago in Internet time. Heck the post office gas been using it for OCR scanning for YEARS.

[The Great RJ]

Microsoft's success is not so much on the quality of their product, but on being at the right place with the right strategy to dominate the market.

How Windows came to dominance is much like how VHS beat out Beta for the video tape format in the 1980s. While Sony's Beta was technologically superior to JVC's VHS format, JVC chose to license the use of this to all comers. Sony decided to keep Beta proprietary. While VHS machines proliferated and dropped in price, Sony Beta machine stayed expensive and rare.

Microsoft used the same open license strategy, while rival operating systems like OS2 and Apple stayed proprietary. Windows machines proliferated and dropped in price and Windows came to dominate the market. Upstarts like Linux have little chance of supplanting Windows despite Windows' flaws, because the switching cost for businesses currently using Windows would be too high for the benefit gained by using some other operating system.

[Capt. Tom]

This pretty much sums up most peoples approach to software written by others (i.e. what an idiot, I could obviously do much better).

Or another way of looking at it: "A camel is a horse assembled by a committee." - Tom

[xcamel]

Only a non Linux person would write this crap - probably on a mac with OSX - oh wait that **Linux** (free BSD at it's core). I've been using Linux in various forms for 9 years. Wondoze (which I beta tested from ver 2.0 on) can't hold a candle.

Happily posting with FC3 and KDE 3.4.1-1.0.fc3.kde using Kernel 2.6.11-1.14_FC3smp

:-)

[cloud8]

> Actually the proprietary Linux systems like Xandros, Linspire and SUSE are doing quite well.

Micro Center sells Tiger for $130, SUSE 9.3 for $100, and Linspire for $30-$100.

I was given a Dell PII with a wiped hd and downloded Knoppix 3.8 for it. Total cost, $0. BSD might be suitable for developers, but I have to say I'm very happy with my Linux box.

[clyde asbury]

..Sony's Beta was technologically superior to JVC's VHS format...

This is the New York Times conventional wisdom.

"Superior." Consumers didn't agree. If they had, they would have switched.

The same applies to operating systems. When a better OS comes along, Windows will be dropped in no time. Superior for most consumers' needs, not experts' opinions.