The Linus Torvalds Insult Saga

While browsing Digg the other day I saw a very interesting title reguarding Linus and his ranting about OpenBSD's user and developer praise toward security developers. As stated on their website one of their main goals is:

• Pay attention to security problems and fix them before anyone else does. (Try to be the #1 most secure operating system).

In fact, they have only had two remote holes in the default install in more than ten years.

This is impressive, but Linus does not agree with the large amount of praise given to OpenBSD's developers. He feels that all developers are equal, and all should get the same praise. He also feels that stability and security are both extremely important and the right balance make a perfect operating system.

He expressed his disagreement toward OpenBSD's select developers and users on an open mailing list by writing,

"Security people are often the black-and-white kind of people that I can't stand. I think the OpenBSD crowd is a bunch of masturbating monkeys, in that they make such a big deal about concentrating on security to the point where they pretty much admit that nothing else matters to them."

A bold, yet agreeable statement.

This was not that big of a deal that he said this. It's actually kind of expected from him.

Of course, one person came along and decided to Digg it, as did 1526 and counting users. It hit the first page of Digg and spread to many Linux forums.

I'm not sure if Linus was mad about this, or just showing his gratitude toward the large reaction to his posting, but two days later he made a post for all the wonderful Digg users to read.

Most of what he wrote is hard to comprehend because it is on a subject matter that takes an acquired understanding, but he ends it by writing,

"PS. And to get wider distribution for this message: Digg users - you're all a bunch of Wanking Walruses. And you can quote me on that. "

The man sure does know how to get his word out. As stated by a commenter on that post,

"Calling diggers "Wanking Walruses" ,though not nice, will give them attention and that is what they really want ;)"

So basically, publicity is publicity.

Now for the decision of new Ubuntu naming schemes such as Masturbating Monkey and Wanking Walrus

How does this effect your thoughts on Linus, OpenBSD, Linux, or computing in general. Do these statements make you feel like you aren't in good hands if you use Linux? Do you feel safer in the hands of Microsoft, Apple, or other operating systems? Please leave a comment expressing your thoughts.