Full Disclosure mailing list archives

Re: Linus summarizes state of the "security industry" with precision and accuracy.


From: Simon Valiquette <v.simon () ieee org>
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:54:06 -0400

John C. A. Bambenek, GCIH, CISSP un jour écrivit:
Who's Linus?


  Are you seriously asking that, or just trying to start a "flamefest" (in 
which case, looking like clueless is a good attempt).

  Unless you are very Junior in the computer field (and even then), you 
should have heard of Linus Benedict Torvalds.  It should be very basic 
general knowledge for someone in the computer security field, like knowing 
who is Dr. Bernstein, Bjarne Stroustrup, Denis Ritchies, Dijkstra and many 
others.  They are not necessarily directly related to computer security, 
but their contributions all have significant impact in today security field.

  Instead of telling you who is Linus, I'll tell you a well garded secret: 
most famous people are described in Wikipedia.  And even if they are not, 
It is usualy very easy to find something using Google.


  Well, probably another proof that showing a certification is not the 
same than showing expertise in a field.


Simon Valiquette



0. Torvalds Interview with Network World , 08/14/2008

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/081408-torvalds-security-circus.html

   Isn't that quite old news?  Not only the article doesn't offer anything
new, but It also doesn't give the full picture and offer very little
useful information compared to the real discussion.

  I did read the thread at this time, and there was many interesting
ideas.  If I happens to see an article that resume well the issues
involved, I'll post a link, but I won't spend much time searching, so
don't wait after me.


  By the way, Linus Torvalds is very well known to enjoy starting flames
on purpose (he calls that "flamefesting").  This time, the troll was trown
at OpenBSD, but It was too big to be taken seriously by them, so It is
mostly the security people that reacted.

  I prefer the troll he launched last year when he basically said that
Gnome is just a waste of time and than both users and developers should
just give-up and move on to KDE, which would be a much better and
productive use of their time.  It was said in 2007 directly on some major
Gnome mailing list, like his previous flames against Gnome. :o)


Simon Valiquette


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