In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald published on Tuesday, Linux Torvalds expressed his preference for Mac OS X over Windows, but described the Mac OS X file system HFS+ as “complete and utter crap.”
Nick Miller with the SMH interviewed Mr. Torvalds at last weekis Linux conference in Melbourne. When the Interview got around to Windows and Macs, Mr. Torvalds expressed some strong opinions.
Asked about the recent high profile marketing between Vista and Leopard, Mr. Torvalds offered that the hoopla is really just about the graphical shell surrounding the OS, not the real core of the OS. “The fact Microsoft tied the two together so much actually caused them problems, not just the legal problems. If you manage a thousand clients, or a hundred thousand clients which is not at all unheard of, you sure as hell donit want to point and click at them. In many ways Microsoft has had to fix the design mistakes they made when they thought the graphical approach should be a very intimate part of (Windows),” Mr. Torvalds responded.
When Mr. Miller asked if Mr. Torvalds had a favorite between Leopard and Vista, Mr. Torvalds unloaded:
“I donit think theyire equally flawed. I think Leopard is a much better system. On the other hand, (Iive found) OS X in some ways is actually worse than Windows to program for. Their file system is complete and utter crap, which is scary. I think OS X is nicer than Windows in many ways, but neither can hold a candle to my own (Linux). Itis a race to second place!”
The self promotion of Linux can be understood, but it is true that HFS+ is an aging file system. Apple seems to have recognized that with the work theyire doing on Sunis ZFS. For many Apple customers, soon wonit be soon enough.