I don't know, BSD seems to attract a lot of people who seem self-congratulatory that they're not using Linux, just like how MacOS has been the Anti-Windows since circa 1995.

My theory is that it's straight-up due to how many people use Linux compared to other non-Windows OSes and the fact the average people have more say (or think they do) compared to The One Apple Way. Any large group will have assholes, and the number of assholes is a simple percentage of the total.

My personal experience is that BSD people by and large care about Linux mostly out of necessity, but nonetheless they're still knowledgeable about both. Mostly they're angry whenever the Linux community feels the need to reinvent yet another square wheel (as was mocked in the OpenBSD 5.2 release song), because it slows them from doing their own innovations and necessitates them to emulate Linux's interfaces.

In contrast, a disturbingly large number of Linux users remain willfully ignorant about other Unices and, worse, they attack them without knowing the first thing about them.

But yes, Linux users are dominant, so more idiots overall.

So because BSD attracts people who seem self-congratulatory that they are not using Linux it begets a productive non-asshole environment?

The parent poster was stating that OpenBSD also has a strongly opinionated leader at the top (Theo de Raadt) who has been known to rant and rave like the best, yet unlike the Linux community the OpenBSD community as a whole does not behave like that and ships functioning code quickly and efficiently.

The Linux community is mostly just like the BSD community. It's just larger so there are numerically more assholes because the proportion is constant.

> But then by this logic, OpenBSD should also be a dysfunctional mess

Theo is unsavory but not abrasive. He is very principled and well-spoken.

Linus doesn't care who he offends, and he wears that chip on his shoulder with pride.

Is that the same Theo who threw a tantrum because nobody notified him ahead of time of some OpenSSL vulnerability after he specifically declined an invitation to be on the cross-distro security mailing list where such notifications get posted?

http://lwn.net/Articles/601958/

> Theo is unsavory but not abrasive.

What is your definition of unsavory? I have seen him be blunt, but that is a long way from unsavory.

I love Theo, but a lot of people have differing ideologies from him, and as well all know that isn't okay in the OSS ecosystem.