'This is garbage and we should fix it'

NEW DELHI: Anybody who has anything to do with the word 'software' must be tired of hearing statements and counter-statements between proprietary and open source platforms; or should we say Linux and Microsoft? But there is a twist to this tale here, and this time its open source against open source.

In a recently posted article at Forbes.com (http://www.forbes.com/intelligentinfrastructure/2005/06/16/linux-bsd-unix-cz_dl_0616theo.html), Theo de Raadt, an open source pioneer and maker of OpenBSD, the open source operating system has openly adorned the most popular operating system Linux, with adjectives like 'garbage', 'bad', 'terrible.'

Quoting him, "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.'"





OpenBSD is a Linux clone that is based on a Unix variant Berkeley Software Distribution. BSD is available as FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD. OpenBSD has an edge over the rest two because of its robust security features.

According to De Raadt, one major reason behind the huge success of Linux is the support it gets from big hardware vendors like Hewlett-Packard and IBM.






"I think our code quality is higher, just because that's really a big focus for us," says De Raadt. Linux is no way near OpenBSD, and numerous 'coders' from all around the globe feed bits of code to it. Its maker Linus Torvalds seems to have lost all focus, he added.





De Raadt says BSD missed the top slot because of the lawsuit over it, which scared away developers, who chose to work with Linux and never came back even after OpenBSD got the 'legal' status. "It's really very sad," he says. "It is taking a long time for the Linux code base to get where BSD was ten years ago."

Declining to comment on De Raadt's accusations Torvalds, in an e-mail, says De Raadt is "difficult."

What could be the reason behind De Raadt's sudden outcry? Is it growing popularity of Linux? Or is he looking at some sort of an alignment with Microsoft? Linux enthusiasts, please comment.