Science Quote by Wietse Venema

There is a very particular kind of pride in refusing to brag, and Venema’s line lands squarely in that tradition. “Almost 50,000 lines of code, comments not included” is a scientist’s deadpan flex: not triumphalist, not apologetic, just a measured data point offered as if it were a lab result. The intent isn’t to worship bigness. It’s to make scale legible in a domain where complexity can hide behind mystical language about “systems” and “infrastructure.”

The subtext is a quiet argument about trust. Postfix is plumbing for the internet: it routes email, touches security, fails noisily when it fails at all. By putting a number on the thing, Venema is acknowledging the uncomfortable reality that reliability often sits on top of sprawling, human-written machinery. Then he sharpens the point with “comments not included,” a phrase that does double duty. On one hand it’s a technical footnote: we’re counting executable logic, not explanation. On the other it’s a sly reminder that readability and institutional memory are separate from functionality, and too often treated as optional.

Context matters: Venema built Postfix partly as a security-conscious alternative to older mail systems. In that world, code size becomes a proxy battle over auditability, attack surface, and maintainability. The line reads like a checksum of responsibility: this is how much is in here; no folklore, no hand-waving. It’s transparency with a wry edge, and it works because it respects the audience enough to let the number do the talking.