Hyper-Threading, Linus Torvalds vs. Colin Percival

OutsideIn writes "The recent Hyper-Threading vulnerability announcement has generated a fair amount of discussion since it was released. KernelTrap has an interesting article quoting Linux creator Linus Torvalds who recently compared the vulnerability to similar issues with early SMP and direct-mapped caches suggesting, "it doesn't seem all that worrying in real life." Colin Percival, who published a recent paper on the vulnerability, strongly disagreed with Linus' assessment saying, "it is at times like this that Linux really suffers from having a single dictator in charge; when Linus doesn't understand a problem, he won't fix it, even if all the cryptographers in the world are standing against him.""

Re:He won't fix it?

[untouchable]

Fix what?

If I remember correctly, there hasn't been a shown exploit for this yet. It's better to wait and see before fixing something that may not matter later.

Re:Dictator?

[Tjebbe]

or, to put it in Pratchett's words:

He doesn't administer a reign of terror, just the occasional light shower.

Linus and RMS

[uchi]

If Linus is the dictator, does that make RMS the court jester? On second thought, do dictators even have jesters? This does not look good for RMS.

but... but... but...

[databyss]

The all powerful Dvorak said linux had no leaders...

Re:Dictator?

[Megor1]

Now that I think of it I've never seen Castro and Linus in the same room....and Linus always seems to be smoking fine cigars...and open source software is practically communism anyway...it all makes sense now!

Micro-Managing Minutiae Mayhem

[mathmatt]

when Linus doesn't understand a problem, he won't fix it

This is interesting logic: The idea that the creator of an organization must understand minutiae and micro-manage everything that the organization does.

Interesting indeed...too bad it's fallacious. (Although it might explain what is taking Longhorn so long to come out - I can see Bill Gates searching Google for whitepapers on file systems, search algorithms, GUI's, etc.)

Re:He won't fix it?

[Threni]

That reminds me of the joke about programmers being in a car, steaming downhill with failed brakes, narrowly avoiding death, then once the car has come to a standstill suggesting that instead of seeing what went wrong they just get back in the car and `see if it happens again`.

Re:but... but... but...

[saintp]

There's only one way to find the truth: cage match between Dvorak and Percival. Whoever comes out alive wins.

Re:Micro-Managing Minutiae Mayhem

[mwvdlee]

No, that still wouldn't explain it. Bill gates searching MSN for the info would!

wow, a paper, no kidding

[l3v1]

Colin Percival, who published a recent paper on the vulnerability,

Well, it's obvious that he has to be right then, since he has published a paper on the topic, right ? Right ? Nobody else can "understand a problem", only him, since he's got a paper on it. A real paper.

All the cryptographers in the world...

[bmf033069]

"even if all the cryptographers in the world are standing against him"

Who would understand what they are saying anyway?

Re:but... but... but...

[Couldn'tCareLess]

You have a keyboard man? Where do you keep him? What does he eat?

I want a keyboard man!

Re:Linus and RMS

[AHumbleOpinion]

RMS is more like the tribal elder reminding you of your ideals - especially during those times when you consider putting them aside because they seem impossible to live up to.

No, not at all, the tribal elders would be the BSD folks. RMS is the witch doctor blowing smoke into your face telling you that it will cure all your problems. ;-)

Re:He won't fix it?

[SQL Error]

"Beware of bugs in the above code. I have only proven it correct, not tested it" -- Knuth

Hmmm. To the darkside?

[korekrash]

it is at times like this that Linux really suffers from having a single dictator in charge; when Linus doesn't understand a problem, he won't fix it, even if all the cryptographers in the world are standing against him.

So, the troops begin to turn.....Soon it will be:

Emporer Gates
Darth Linus
Steve Jabba

Who will we have to ridicule for being successful when we can no longer rally around Linus as our champion against the Empire?