By Ingrid Marson, 20 June 2005 08:50
NEWS The founder of the OpenBSD operating system has criticised the quality of Linux software claiming that it is full of code hacks, according to reports.
Theo de Raadt, the founder and lead developer of the open source operating system OpenBSD, said Linux developers should work to improve the quality of the code, according to an interview in Forbes.
"It's terrible," De Raadt reportedly said. "Everyone is using it, and they don't realise 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.'"
Linux is lower quality than OpenBSD and many parts of Linux are "cheap little hacks", added De Raadt.
OpenBSD is a secure Unix-like operating system that is popular among system administrators running firewalls. De Raadt told ZDNet in an earlier interview that it maintains its high code quality through rigorous code auditing and by spreading major code changes across three six-month releases.
"We are the software auditing kings - we go through code a lot to make sure there are not many bugs," said de Raadt.
Various studies in the past have praised Linux for its code quality compared with proprietary operating systems. A study in December 2004 by code analysis company Coverity found that the Linux kernel had only 985 bugs in 5.7 million lines of code, significantly fewer than the 5000 bugs that would be expected in a commercial program of similar size.
Another study in 2003, which compared the implementation of a networking component in different operating systems, found that the Linux defect rate was 0.1 defects per 1,000 lines of code, compared with a defect rate of between 0.6 and 0.7 in general-purpose operating systems, according to software inspection service company Reasoning.
De Raadt also criticised hardware makers such as HP and IBM for using Linux as an unpaid workforce, rather than spending money to develop their own version of Unix.
HP, IBM and Sun have come under criticism before for their work with the open source community. Jesús Villasante, the head of software technologies at the EC's Information Society and Media Directorate General, said last month that big companies such as HP, IBM and Sun are using the open source community as subcontractors rather than encouraging the community to develop independent commercial products.
Speaking at a debate on open source innovation at the Holland Open Software Conference in Amsterdam, Villasante said: "IBM says to a customer, 'Do you want proprietary or open software?' Then [if they want open source] they say 'Ok, you want IBM open source.' It is [always] IBM or Sun or HP open source."
The full Forbes interview with De Raadt can be read here.
Ingrid Marson writes for ZDNet UK
Comments
There are 11 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
The OpenBSD project most certainly has its merits, but Theo de Raadt's character is not one of them. He comes across as one of those people who should shut up and let his (excellent) work do the talking.
And besides ehr... didn't he say he never, ever used linux?
2. Matt G
Regardless of the state of Linux code, why does De Raadt, a member of the open source community, feel the need to publicly berate fellow members of the community.
To have De Raadt simply bad-mouth a very popular O/S (which his O/S is "competing" with, if there is such a thing in the open source community), is ridiculous. I'm sure the linux developers (many of whom develop linux in their "spare" time) are quite happy that such a prominent member of the community has decided that their product is inferior to his.
3. anonymous
Accusations seems baseless. After reading the article, I knew why openBSD is not used by many, "i am the great" attitude of its creators.
4. Peter Risdon
De Raadt is famously abrasive. Google for him and read his attacks on other open source developers (there was a big spat over FreeBSD scsi drivers a few months ago when a bunch of OpenBSD developers bombed the freebsd-questions mailing list for a few days. Even his own colleagues say he is not "nice", but then, he isn't trying to be nice.
OpenBSD is the code audit king. Their firewall - pf - and OpenSSH have been incorporated into a number of other projects. They do really good work. A lot of commercial DSL routers are running OpenBSD in disguise. But this sort of stuff from De Raadt is just routine. It shouldn't be ignored, but then again it shouldn't be taken more seriously than it deserves.
5. John Sniadowski
Looks like Theo de Raadt's ego has been inflated recently or perhaps this is more than a hint of envy at the success of Linux.
However you look at it throwing rocks at alternative sources that has a far wider audience is not going to win friends and influence people.
Ultimately all we get are school playground antics of "my source is cleaner than your source", a bit like my dad is bigger than your dad!
Time to grow up Mr de Raadt!
6. anonymous too
A bizarre and pointless statement from the BSD camp.
Attacking a competitive product is the last act of someone who thinks their product cannot stand up on it's own merits.
7. anonymous
At one point in its history (and possibly for MOST of its history) IBM salesmen were forbidden to berate and belittle the opposition's products. They were supposed to SELL the IBM product, not talk about the competition.
Of course, this "ignore the competition" attitude permeatted the whole company eventually until, in the 90's, the opposition and competition nearly killed IBM off for good.
I'm sure that there is a lesson in there somewhere for all of us. Maybe De Raadt is doing us all a favour by ensuring we do not become complacent and start believing our own propaganda.
I will continue using Linux although I have no doubt that the code quality could be improved - it is software after all. There is always room for improvement and whilst the bug rate is five times smaller than comparable products, why shouldn't we aim to get it 10 times smaller, 20 times smaller?
8. anonymous
At one point in its history (and possibly for MOST of its history) IBM salesmen were forbidden to berate and belittle the opposition's products. They were supposed to SELL the IBM product, not talk about the competition.
Of course, this "ignore the competition" attitude permeatted the whole company eventually until, in the 90's, the opposition and competition nearly killed IBM off for good.
I'm sure that there is a lesson in there somewhere for all of us. Maybe De Raadt is doing us all a favour by ensuring we do not become complacent and start believing our own propaganda.
I will continue using Linux although I have no doubt that the code quality could be improved - it is software after all. There is always room for improvement and whilst the bug rate is five times smaller than comparable products, why shouldn't we aim to get it 10 times smaller, 20 times smaller?
9. Simon Bazley
De Raadt seems to have missed one of the most significant reasons why 'open source' has take off in recent years. The GPL means that once a popular project has gained momentum and commercial company that wants to continue that momentum MUST inject their cash into the project at a global level. The BSD licence relies on the moral beliefs of companies in a similar position.
De Raadt says he has 60 people in his team working on OpenBSD. Great, who is paying for them? If I as a company wanted OpenBSD to support 'insert future technology name here' and am prepared to pay for it, whats more likely: I pay De Raadt to solve the problem for the global community, or I product ClosedBSD, based on OpenBSD and run my own team.
There aren't 3 different versions of BSD by coincidence. Each one was probably spawned because of a difference of opinion between senior developers, such as himself.
Linus probably has other things to think about (like living), but at least we only have 1 linux, and when a problem is fixed, code is rewritten or a new feature added, its avaliable for everyone.
I think De Raadt has missed that point, and made the fatal step of believing his own bullshit. I suspect he has an ego the size of a small moon.
10. Gonzalo
De Raadt must have been locked in a closet for two years. His statements were true a few years ago when Linus was not doing a very good job of monitoring code changes. However, IBM and others came in and cleaned up the kernal quite a bit and this was the basis for the allegations by SCO. One has to be crazy to take on IBM on a patent issue! IBM recently filed numerous Linux patents. The Linux of today does not resemble the code of yesterday.
11. anonymous
Doctor !!!
Leave Linux alone.,
Nobody is perfect !!!
Incldes u and ur SO CALLED AUDITED Code ;-)