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Comment by humdumb | Hacker News Reader

I think we need more open source projects that are not open to contribution from anyone. This may upset some people but will keep the bar for quality high. Linus' original work has been tarnished by too many eager but unqualified contributors.

If he had just chosen a small team, I think Linux could have been a real contender to BSD in terms of quality. It would have taken time to do, but they have had a loyal user base (of non-contributors) and demand from early on due to the legal problems with obtaining BSD and that is I think what has pushed Linux forward.

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You're asserting a lot of things without any specifics to back them up. I've been using Linux-based systems for a long time and the quality of the kernel has never posed any sort of practical issue for me.

If Linus had chosen a small team and taken his time to do anything I'm sure the Linux kernel could have ended up like OpenBSD or similar systems. A very high quality OS that takes its time to do everything to the point where users more interested in a practical OS would have looked elsewhere.

Could you define "practical OS"?

What specifically do you want this OS to be able to do? (Note that we've reached a point where no user necesarily needs to restrict themselves to a single OS. They could use different OS's on the same computer for different purposes. This was not always so easy to do. It will continue to get easier.)

The code in the Linux kernel can make adding new features harder than it needs to be. The network stack is one area that could be better designed.

I think we need more open source projects that are not open to contribution from anyone

That was perhaps the best unintentional laugh I had today.

I have done good. =D Laughing is healthy.

I probably shouldn't have phrased the statement as I did. What I meant was projects that are _potentially_ open to anyone, but which are highly selective about who is allowed to contribute.

I got your meaning, but it took a few passes for the intended meaning to parse.

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