The Holy Quest to Flame Dave Winer Hairless...

...seems to be working.

YES, IT IS INSIDE BASEBALL, but it is strangely satisfying to watch a first-rate flame war with all the trimmings erupt in the Blogsphere. And, as is so often the case, here is Blogging's Bad Daddy Dave ("I invented you!") Winer first to the table with his signature dish of open ether cannister and K-Mart Bic:

Dave Winer:How about this. Both guys (Ballmer and Torvalds) make really shitty software. Microsoft, after decades of Windows development still can't make a robust operating system that a normal person can use. And Linux ships with every security feature wide open. An end user who actually installed it (an amazing accomplishment in itself) would end up (instantly) hosting a playground for script kiddies everywhere.

Dave, a man who while somewhat proficient at writing editors, never met an editor he liked, was not long in inhaling the flashback led by the "crunchy sarcastic goodness" of

kasia with "Someone smack me if I ever do this"

"Information that can be very easily verified as false.. at many levels, but for the sake of argument let's pretend we're talking about RedHat, undoubtedly the most popular linux distribution, which 'ships' (and has for a couple years now) with a fully configured firewall, turned on by default, and all insecure (telnet, ftp) services turned off. One less weblog for me to read.. anyone who refuses to correct an obvious error that's been pointed out to then by numerous people (yet takes the time to call them 'zealots') isn't worth my time.. Not a great loss for Dave, I'm sure, but still a disappointment to me. "

What follows in the comments is a fine flamefest of the kind they don't make any more. I commend you to them if watching the non-stop immolation of Southern California is getting you down.

Posted by Vanderleun at October 28, 2003 1:43 PM