4 ms·

Linus' version is intimidating. But that's why it is very effective. Case in point, we people on hacker news would have never even read his rant if the language

Linus' version is intimidating. But that's why it is very effective. Case in point, we people on hacker news would have never even read his rant if the language was mild. So in some way it sticks better. You really DO NOT WANT to step on his toes again (and everyone else reading it, too), so in the end Linus' wins. Also, it's sad, but after so many years on the internet I don't consider his language to be abusive. It's aggressive yes, but clearly there went much though into it. If I'm honest, i find it kind of amusing. But maybe that's just me.

jasonlotito 11y ago
> You really DO NOT WANT to step on his toes again (and everyone else reading it, too), so in the end Linus' wins. And yet it keeps happening, frequent enough that it's something everyone knows about. If anything, he's not optimizing his own responses based on actual performance. He's doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. And he's not even being efficient with it. And, well, pretty sure he ruins his own performance by getting all enraged like that.
- lagadu 11y ago
  > He's doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. And he's not even being efficient with it. It seems his results are just fine, why would he expect different results? I say this supported by the slightly arguable premise that the Linux kernel is a good example of a big success in software development.
enneff 11y ago
> You really DO NOT WANT to step on his toes again (and everyone else reading it, too), so in the end Linus' wins. But the person who wrote the code still argued with him. They're still making the same points that they would have made whether Linus were polite or not. Linus is the lead for the kernel project, so at the end of the day he wins regardless.

4 ms·

Linus' version is intimidating. But that's why it is very effective. Case in point, we people on hacker news would have never even read his rant if the language

by zubspace 11y ago

jasonlotito 11y ago
> You really DO NOT WANT to step on his toes again (and everyone else reading it, too), so in the end Linus' wins. And yet it keeps happening, frequent enough that it's something everyone knows about. If anything, he's not optimizing his own responses based on actual performance. He's doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. And he's not even being efficient with it. And, well, pretty sure he ruins his own performance by getting all enraged like that.
- lagadu 11y ago
  > He's doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. And he's not even being efficient with it. It seems his results are just fine, why would he expect different results? I say this supported by the slightly arguable premise that the Linux kernel is a good example of a big success in software development.
enneff 11y ago
> You really DO NOT WANT to step on his toes again (and everyone else reading it, too), so in the end Linus' wins. But the person who wrote the code still argued with him. They're still making the same points that they would have made whether Linus were polite or not. Linus is the lead for the kernel project, so at the end of the day he wins regardless.