Nigel,
Of the 193 member states that make up the ITU on the planet, and the 191 that permit Amateur Radio; not all of of them are able to run the latest and fastest technology; nor do they necessarily have the ability to import it. Next, I personally didn't ask Bart to engage in "fiddling with legacy code," he OFFERED to solve an issue with a script running via the current Linux kernel.
In fact, I developed that script for Linux with the help of Brian and PE1CHL - after determining it was probably easier to simply use the routing built into the Linux Kernel than install a *NOS program on top. I then had to do alot of learning about AMPR so I did not "break" others ability to connect to me. I then went through months of testing until I was sure the script functions without causing security issues or breaking others use of AMPRNet. Further, I worked on the firewall scripts so a station's 44GW didn't have to be directly connected to their Internet-facing interface. Basically, I'm saying that I didn't quit or decide to lobby for a board position, I worked at solving what I perceived as the issue needing a solution; that's what most people try to do. After I inquired more about Bart's proposed solution and offered to re-write my entire station router script, he stated he did not want to contribute any more time to the problem. Now he reappears lobbying for a board position in lieu of working to fix his perceived "issues" with ARDC - citing old technology and old ideas; all one can be left to assume is he want's to disamble AMPRNet for the 190 other states on the planet, control 44/8 and ARDC - still not offering anything to the software, processes or services within AMPR until he has control; basically, a HSMM Radio coup.
I'm not sure if your grasp of the situation came from observing only the April 2014 chat, the archives or directly from conversation with Bart; but it is true that some users operate versions of router NOS that run on DOS; but others use Cisco, Linux Kernel, Microtik, etc - and they all work together; there's no need to take over AMPR to "fix" the "situation."
-KB3VWG