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Comment by atmosx | Hacker News Reader

That's just Theo being himself (and the OpenBSD community by extension) alienating yet another user.

A reason IMHO that OpenBSD has never reached the level of notoriety of FreeBSD is Theo's childish behaviour. I can understand a 20-something insulting someone like that, but not Theo.

ps. I didn't quite understand the Linus reference, but anyway.

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the OpenBSD community gladly alienates those types of users. for "us" (I speak only for myself as a decade+ user and supporter), it's a qualitative game, not quantitative.

Then please explain Linux's extreme level of notoriety despite Linus Torvalds' equally combative attitude.

GPL + Linus rants are funnier to read.

Linus' rants are usually (if ever?) not targeted at newcomers, but at people who know him well (and vice-versa).

Different project structure, I think. You'll likely get told off by subsystem maintainers or even kernel janitors before that. If it gets to Linus, it must have been something unnerving.

This can be interpreted both ways, however. Where Linus will be more elusive, Theo will have no qualms with just barging in and telling you to read the source code, ivory tower be damned. Almost as if he sort of respects even newbies enough to slap some quick advice to their face.

A funny example is here: http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.os.openbsd.misc/212565

> A reason IMHO that OpenBSD has never reached the level of notoriety of FreeBSD is Theo's childish behaviour.

A minor reason, perhaps. There are other, more serious concerns.

such as?

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