There are different kinds of specifications. The kind that is discussed in the thread are standards, not specific hardware or software specs.
There is no x86 standard, only the Intel spec of their implementation. Then others decided they wanted to be compatible with that, and mostly followed it. This is totally different than e.g. HTML specs, where a browser who follows the specs blindly is near useless in practice, thanks to reality.
Linus Torvalds said: "Specs are a basis for _talking_about_ things. But
they are _not_ a basis for implementing software."
'spec' == standard
There are different kinds of specifications. The kind that is discussed in the thread are standards, not specific hardware or software specs.
There is no x86 standard, only the Intel spec of their implementation. Then others decided they wanted to be compatible with that, and mostly followed it. This is totally different than e.g. HTML specs, where a browser who follows the specs blindly is near useless in practice, thanks to reality.
Linus Torvalds said:
And this is his main point I think.