> I can't find a hire date for Poettering, but it's possible what you are thinking of is PulseAudio which was started in 2004, and was also controversial in the beginning (there's a trend here with Poettering...)

People complain about Poettering because he's Poettering and about his projects because they are his projects. It's very rare that I see anyone providing any valid criticism, that is not some Red Hat conspiracy bullshit, the Unix philosophy "This is the way it's always been and that's by definition perfect" argument or the portability (read: I don't want obscure-OS-that-nobody-cares-about-or-invests-any-resources-in left behind so please don't take advantage of innovation in the kernel) argument.

What should be controversial is how incredibly shitty and unfairly Poettering is treated by the community.