If anything the "highest hacker to user ratio" has diminished since then.
Hardware compatibility was a major issue. Even if hardware was compatible with Linux it often wouldn't work out of the box. Most homes had only a single internet connected device so if you borked your system you had to have friends that would know how to guide you to fix it over the phone or you had to travel to someone else house to check the internet then come back and try what you wrote down. Users who had no patience for this would get filtered out of the userbase.
There are far more mainstream Linux users (and "serious" business users) today than back in the day, but it still has the highest ratio among all modern-day systems. The statement still holds.
That too can be swayed if you define it realistically. The modern Playstation operating system is based on FreeBSD, which isn't entirely pure but feels like fair game considering the BSD license.
Right, so how did the "highest hacker to user ratio" diminish then? You or I are probably misunderstanding something.
If they just meant "the hacker to user ratio" diminished, they should've said that, but it seems like a weird way/phrasing to acknowledge that linux-using-hackers sell to non-hackers (and is a no duh).
Carmack's point was that linux was a good place to get hackers, so it's good for him to target as a business, but maybe it's better to get them on mac now (in 2025). I don't know: I use a mac laptop outside of my office, but I mostly just use it to browse the web and remote to my linux desktop inside my office. I wonder sometimes if it is important to target mac to get smarter users, and so I might believe mac has the "highest hacker to user ratio" now when in 1997 Linux definitely did. Depending on what I'm doing the bsds might be a better focus.
That is, I suspect that Linux might not actually have the "highest hacker to user ratio" anymore, which is what I think the person I am replying to meant as well. I don't know; and I don't have good reasons for believing such a thing that beyond my own experiences, but I'm curious and willing to be convinced, and so I ask questions.
My point was that computing in general hit the mainstream and running Linux became much more accessible and practical. So this influx of people now using computers diluted the ratio. Also non Linux based OS's became much more friendly to hackers or would be hackers.
Hardware compatibility was a major issue. Even if hardware was compatible with Linux it often wouldn't work out of the box. Most homes had only a single internet connected device so if you borked your system you had to have friends that would know how to guide you to fix it over the phone or you had to travel to someone else house to check the internet then come back and try what you wrote down. Users who had no patience for this would get filtered out of the userbase.