There's an argument in there somewhere, behind the repetition of anecdotes, but I'm damned if I can figure out what it is. The idea that somehow people developing on laptops is bad because now the server has to support that development environment is absurd on its face, particularly given the amount of sheer crap that comes in a modern e.g. NetBeans install so that you can simulate the Java environment on your J2EE box on your workstation.
He rants about GNU make a lot, but there's a very simple reason why I, for example, write GNU makefiles and not standardized ones; GNU make is more useful.
I had this problem too. It sounded like he was upset that software written for Linux and assuming Linux tools doesn't run on his pristine server. It sounded like he wanted everything to compile on his old Digital Tru64 Unix Alpha box. I hate to say it, but I'm pretty sure that the world has continued to move on and evolve. Yes, people will start using libraries you don't have. Yes, people will stop writing workaround for old technologies. Yes, people will tend to write for their own environment first. No, it is not necessarily a bad thing.
It sounds like a guy who doesn't want to change, and I have a lot of trouble mustering sympathy for that. Oh, and I think he wants a pony too.
No ... i don't want a pony ;) I just want to be able to to compile code on Solaris, Linux, one of the BSD without having to make vast adaptions (or hope that someone else made it). It isn't even about libraries. Of course, you need libraries. It's about compliance to standards, and that Linux shouldn't invent it's own standard and instead work with the established standard bodies. Linux isn't the centre of the universe.
Obviously you didn't understand the point of the article. It's not about hating Linux or GNU ... it's just about the ability to use open source software outside the Linux Community without ending to throw out all this Linuxisms and GNUisms
At the end you can see it as the plea, that portability isn't just an afterthought ... and given the state of some makefiles and hard coded things in some open source developments you get the impression that it's a not-thought-about it at all.
PS: I'm from the Opensolaris side of the unix universe.
He rants about GNU make a lot, but there's a very simple reason why I, for example, write GNU makefiles and not standardized ones; GNU make is more useful.