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Amazing the submissive tone, and lack of confidence in that message. Compared to the holier than thou attitude Linus presents himself in these days. I would hav

Amazing the submissive tone, and lack of confidence in that message. Compared to the holier than thou attitude Linus presents himself in these days. I would have never guessed he wrote that.

chubot 10y ago
I don't think it's lack of confidence. It's just a realistic acknowledgement that it's a small start and in fact was unlikely to be useful. But he wanted feedback on how to make it useful. I think Linus is just a practical person who is good at assessing reality. He doesn't get caught up in grand visions without action. I don't think he is holier than thou now either. He's just busy and forcefully trying to get contributors to come to grips with things he has learned by experience on his project. I've never really heard Linus preach about other people's projects, except where he intends to do better like svn. His advice is limited to the kernel as far as I can tell, and it's perfectly rational for him to be opinionated about that, because he has skin in the game. In contrast, Stallman will preach about other projects -- in fact that is his main purpose. So I can see why people would call him holier than thou, but I don't see it with Linus. I do appreciate Stallman to a great degree too.
- X86BSD 10y ago
  Good at assessing reality?? The same Linus that fundementally did not believe in source code management for what 20? Years because it made developers "soft"!?
  - conistonwater 10y ago
    He (a) changed his mind, (b) wrote git.
    - X86BSD 10y ago
      How he reconciled (b) with his generational ignorance of SCM would be interesting to hear from him. (a) better late than never!
  - chubot 10y ago
    Did the kernel work for those 20 years? Are git and bitkeeper fundamentally different than his options at the time? I would consider the possibility that he knows something that you don't.
- cheiVia0 10y ago
  > So I can see why people would call [Stallman] holier than thou Well he is a saint... https://stallman.org/saint.html https://stallman.org/saint.html
xapata 10y ago
You might infer that the tone he uses in some emails is for a specific purpose, not because he isn't aware of how to be polite.

Amazing the submissive tone, and lack of confidence in that message. Compared to the holier than thou attitude Linus presents himself in these days. I would have never guessed he wrote that.

chubot 10y ago

I don't think it's lack of confidence. It's just a realistic acknowledgement that it's a small start and in fact was unlikely to be useful. But he wanted feedback on how to make it useful. I think Linus is just a practical person who is good at assessing reality. He doesn't get caught up in grand visions without action. I don't think he is holier than thou now either. He's just busy and forcefully trying to get contributors to come to grips with things he has learned by experience on his project. I've never really heard Linus preach about other people's projects, except where he intends to do better like svn. His advice is limited to the kernel as far as I can tell, and it's perfectly rational for him to be opinionated about that, because he has skin in the game. In contrast, Stallman will preach about other projects -- in fact that is his main purpose. So I can see why people would call him holier than thou, but I don't see it with Linus. I do appreciate Stallman to a great degree too.

X86BSD 10y ago
Good at assessing reality?? The same Linus that fundementally did not believe in source code management for what 20? Years because it made developers "soft"!?
- conistonwater 10y ago
  He (a) changed his mind, (b) wrote git.
  - X86BSD 10y ago
    How he reconciled (b) with his generational ignorance of SCM would be interesting to hear from him. (a) better late than never!
- chubot 10y ago
  Did the kernel work for those 20 years? Are git and bitkeeper fundamentally different than his options at the time? I would consider the possibility that he knows something that you don't.
cheiVia0 10y ago
> So I can see why people would call [Stallman] holier than thou Well he is a saint... https://stallman.org/saint.html https://stallman.org/saint.html

xapata 10y ago

You might infer that the tone he uses in some emails is for a specific purpose, not because he isn't aware of how to be polite.