Torvalds claims he was misquoted about Mac OS X

Linus Torvalds said April 8 that reports of him trashing the new Mac OS X are simply misquotes, as he has "never commented on OS X." The reports (see Resources for links) stem from early looks at his upcoming autobiography, Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary, which he coauthored with David Diamond.

The book does contain some criticism of a microkernel design called the Mach kernel, upon which the Mac OS X kernel is based. As a result, Torvalds has taken heat from Mac faithful. In an email interview with LinuxWorld.com Torvalds said: "Interestingly, the thing erupted over a fairly small passage in the book: it's not as if I spend a few hundred pages bashing Mach. In fact, I spend a lot more pages in the book complaining about how people always take me (and other 'tech luminaries,' for that matter) too seriously and get all hung up about details."

As for the Mac OS itself, Torvalds feels that its new kernel is a big step forward. "All of the interesting stuff in OS X is actually outside the kernel: what makes Macs special is not the OS (which historically has had tons of design problems, even more so than Mach ever has -- so OS X is bound to be a big leap forward), but the UI and the ease of use. Which has very little indeed to do with Mach," he said.

I asked Torvalds if the controversial passage in the upcoming book reflects the issues he debated in the early '90s with Andrew Tannenbaum -- creator of the Minix operating system used to teach kernel design. Torvalds replied, "Well, it's almost 10 years ago, and I certainly have changed my mind about many things when it comes to OSs." He then went on to say:

For example, I used to like the _concept_ of microkernels, I just disliked every implementation I had ever seen (both Mach and Minix included, which was the basic reason for the debate/flamewar in question). These days I've pretty much come to the conclusion that the reason few people like microkernel implementations is that the whole concept is flawed -- even if it sounds good in theory.

The bottom line is that although Torvalds has not directly bad-mouthed OS X, he is not surprised that he has been flamed for doing so. As he points out in Just for Fun, "tech luminaries" are taken much too seriously. Torvalds notes that, "In the end, people should have their own opinions."

Discuss this article in the Desktop Linux discussion on ITworld.com.

Resources

Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary, Linus Torvalds and David Diamond: http://www.harpercollins.com/catalog/book_xml.asp?isbn=0066620724

"MacOS X Is 'Crap' -- Torvalds," Tony Smith (The Register, April 6, 2001): http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/39/18162.html

"Torvalds Rubbishes Core of Apple's OS X," Will Knight (ZDNet UK, April 6, 2001): http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/2001/13/ns-22124.html

LinuxWorld.com

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