Regarding the two decades since and the numerous exploitable x86-64 and hypervisor bugs suggests he wasn't wrong and that the tone was appropriate for the severity of the problem.
Abstraction has served us well in managing complexity before. I wouldn't abandon it out of misplaced idealism.
TDR said:
> You are absolutely deluded, if not stupid, if you think that a worldwide collection of software engineers who can't write operating systems or applications without security holes, can then turn around and suddenly write virtualization layers without security holes.
This comment wouldn't survive HN scrutiny. It's a strawman argument, and doesn't address the core point at all: does virtualization improve or degrade security, when taken as a whole?
Adam's response is great, and TDR is smart, but he's been a lightning rod for 20 years for a reason: he was doing hot takes before they were even called that, and this is a great example.
I work with a lot of great engineers with similar behavior. Their arguments are not personal, although they seem to be. They are just very passionate and care deeply about certain things (in this case operating systems security).
If you can get past the aggressive/offensive language they use and develop a relationship with them, they can be reasonable and helpful. That's been my experience.