I haven't been a Squid developer since 2006. I'm defending it in the same way I would defend Apache, or BIND, or MySQL; and I'm doing so as a Linux/UNIX/Open Source old-timer that remembers what it was like before these projects existed, and realizes how much the developers of these projects have given us over the years. It is an institution for a reason (or a lot of reasons), and the people who built it and currently maintain it are deserving of a modicum of respect. And the software is deserving of an honest assessment of its flaws and strengths, rather than unbacked assertions of being "god-awful" or "1975 technology".