After re-reading both accounts, it's clear to me that Brett misunderstood Poul-Henning's argument. Poul-Henning said to "just build the damn bikeshed, I don't care what color it is," whereas Brett said, "Poul-Henning's assertion that all such ideas should be dismissed as "bikeshedding" reflects this dismissive attitude"
I read Poul-Henning's argument, which did not say that ideas should be dismissed, but rather 'just built', as attempting to contribute to a constructive spirit, and Glass's argument as defending the broken management process.
At one stage there was some uncertainty as to whether he was a bug or a feature. Apparently because FreeBSD used to have a page about him, it was decided he was a feature.
Comments
Reading that again made me wonder who Brett Glass was. Apparently, I wasn't the only one:
http://www.quora.com/Hacker-Culture/Who-was-Brett-Glass-as-n...
Brett Glass himself shows up to answer.
Fixed link: http://www.quora.com/Hacker-Culture/Who-was-Brett-Glass-as-n...
Brett Glass's statement of rebuttal here is an amusing addition to the story and worth reading (even if you probably won't be on his side).
After re-reading both accounts, it's clear to me that Brett misunderstood Poul-Henning's argument. Poul-Henning said to "just build the damn bikeshed, I don't care what color it is," whereas Brett said, "Poul-Henning's assertion that all such ideas should be dismissed as "bikeshedding" reflects this dismissive attitude"
I read Poul-Henning's argument, which did not say that ideas should be dismissed, but rather 'just built', as attempting to contribute to a constructive spirit, and Glass's argument as defending the broken management process.
Brett Glass is, of course, the patron saint of bike shedding.
He makes a pretty good case for not bothering to read his messages.
Evidently he's against net neutrality also. Cringely writes about him.
http://www.cringely.com/tag/brett-glass/
At one stage there was some uncertainty as to whether he was a bug or a feature. Apparently because FreeBSD used to have a page about him, it was decided he was a feature.
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-chat/2003-March/0...