pudge's Journal: Tevanian Should Resign

(With no apologies whatsoever to The Seattle Times.)

Computer executives are recruited and retained for their judgment and credibility. Apple's chief technology officer Avie Tevanian fails CEO Steve Jobs in both areas and should resign.

Tevanian's poor judgment in handling the scandalous security hole in Mac OS X's URL protocol handlers destroyed his credibility with stockholders and contributes to the erosion of Apple's standing among consumers.

Marketing director Phil Schiller acknowledged as much Friday. Schiller said Apple failed to recognize how important the bug report was. That failure goes beyond the single report to the image and values of Apple and its products.

Tevanian's departure would not be about appeasement of anti-Apple critics or a failure to manage public relations. Tevanian sits atop a chain of command that suffered a grievous breakdown in a key element of the troubled Mac OS X: focus on security.

These holes should have been all the more controlled because they are leftover from the "Classic" Mac OS. Everyone, from the employees in documentation to the highest echelons of the 1 Infinite Loop, was amazingly tone deaf to the troubling holes -- holes that were known as early as February.

Central to the way a computer company does business is its authority over -- and responsibility for -- software behavior. Condemning the exploits in the URL protocol handlers is specific to that place and time, and not a rebuke of Apple or Mac OS X itself.

But these holes carry a terrible price, and that is the effect they impose on Apple's employees, stockholders, and users. Too many others will face greater derision and deeper suspicion because of what happened.

Ultimately, the responsibility falls on the chief technology officer for those working for him. For the mishandling of this security hole in Mac OS X, Tevanian should resign.

Well written satire

[FortKnox]

Just proof that some of those liberal writers are just riding in that anti-conservative rollercoaster long enough to post stuff that has no business in print. When one article is 'just a little worse' than the next... after 50 articles, you are just writing propaganda.

Re:Well written satire

[notfancy]

I'm not sure that I agree. I tend to think of this spoof as something of a false metaphor. While I understand that the point Pudge tries to make is that, on the surface, Rumsfeld is portrayed in the media as much of a plausible scapegoat as Tevanian could be, to me the consequential dimension of both scenarios is so abysmally different so as to make them incomparable. Even if Tevanian's and Rumsfeld's actions were point by point equivalent, the consequences of a political office are so much more wide-rangin

Re:Well written satire

[pudge]

You have the point backward. I was not criticizing those who are criticizing Rumsfeld, I was criticizing the insane criticisms of Apple.

Re:Well written satire

[notfancy]

Oh.

Boy now I feel stupid.

No argument possible

[ellem]

Now do you think it will happen?

Re:No argument possible

[LordBodak]

>Howard Stern will be the deciding factor in the 2004 election.

Now that's a scary thought.

Unfair metaphor

[zachlipton]

I don't think this is a particularly fair metaphor. There's a huge difference between an unexploited, proof-of-concept security hole in OS X, and actual, real, abuse, torture, and murder. Apple has mismanaged this security hole and will need to regain the public's trust. The problem is not that the seucrity hole exists in the first place, it's how it was handled. However, our government didn't just mismanage the prision abuse (and torture is really what it is), they allowed it to happen in the first place.