[plug] [OT] - anybody read this interesting take on OFOS?

[Alex Nordstrom]

Sunday, 2 October 2005 21:36 skrev Richard Meyer:
> http://www.softpanorama.org/People/Torvalds/index.shtml
>
> Wierd interpretation of Linux and Linus .....

Fair enough if one wants to caution of the dangers of personality cults, 
but how bitter would one have to be to produce an ad hominem attack the 
length (if not the quality) of an academic thesis so rank that it 
contributes little other substance to the collective wisdom than a new 
definition for vindictiveness?

And it turns out that this is not the only strike of his genius. Another 
one of Dr. Bezroukov's attacks was aimed at ESR, who rebuked it thusly: 
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/response-to-bezroukov.html

For someone who titles himself a doctor (though it is unclear what his 
actual degree is; his supposed employer, Fairleigh Dickinson University 
in New Jersey, USA, does not return any hits when searching their Web 
site for his name), I found Bezroukov's ramblings rather incoherent, 
lacking in both presentation and research.

Maybe it's just that I, like Torvalds, come from a home of two 
journalists (and therefore, as Bezroukov writes of him and his alleged 
conspiracy to gain "superhero" status, "...inherited a journalistic 
talent..." and an understanding of "...how important is (sic) to 
project the right public image..."), but I find myself wondering about 
the author's intentions.

If the motive is sincerely to evoke sympathy for the opinions put forth, 
why adopt such a denigrating and unsympathetic tone? If the desire is 
to provide a convincing argument, why present it in such a sloppy 
manner? Could it be that Dr. Bezroukov simply needs to take a high 
school level course in academic writing?

Jerome Loisel writes a rather well-phrased response to the good doctor's 
tirades, which I think sums up the overall feeling invoked by 
Bezroukov's "paper": http://lwn.net/2000/0120/backpage.php3 (fifth 
down)

-- 
Alex Nordstrom
http://lx.n3.net/
Please do not CC me in followups; I am subscribed to plug.
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