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.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Torvalds expresses disdain for security-focused developers who prioritize it above all else, using offensive language to describe the OpenBSD group. He views their singular focus as impractical.
- In plain terms
- He dislikes security experts who ignore everything else to focus only on protection.
- What can you take from it?
- Over-prioritizing one aspect of software can neglect other essential needs.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How should security be balanced with other goals?
- What makes a community culture healthy?
Another view
The language used is highly offensive and undermines the validity of the technical disagreement.
More from Linus Torvalds
I think people can generally trust me, but they can trust me exactly because they know they don't _have_ to.
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