> Perhaps, but the original conversation is about architecture, and PAE was a pretty grungy architectural wart, and the sort of thing that's very visible to the OS folks (as you say, what Linus cares about).
I suspect if he was into writing compilers (or graphics, or numerics, or ...), some of the other grungy architectural warts of x86 might annoy him too.
I suspect if you read the linked thread, you'd see exactly what he thought. He was at Transmeta at the time, and isn't exactly unfamiliar with what compiler writers get annoyed with. You may or may not agree with what he says, but he has a cogent, interesting perspective.
Well, I read the rest of his comments. There are little tidbits which are good observations, but mostly I continue to think he just disregards things which aren't in his field of interest. If I was more cynical, I might think he wanted the continuance of x86 specifically because he was working at Transmeta.
I suspect if he was into writing compilers (or graphics, or numerics, or ...), some of the other grungy architectural warts of x86 might annoy him too.