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Men and women express aggression in different ways. While they can both be toxic, female aggression is more acceptable at this time. Linus was forceful at tim

Men and women express aggression in different ways. While they can both be toxic, female aggression is more acceptable at this time. Linus was forceful at times, but his focus was on the work, not on trying to make people feel bad. Be critical all you want, but his achievement is amazing.

Mtinie 8y ago
> Linus was forceful at times, but his focus was on the work, not on trying to make people feel bad. It may have started this way when he began one of his emails, but even he admits the attacks often went from “let me critique your contribution” to “here’s why your contribution sucks and beyond that here’s why I think you suck as a contributor”.
- SamReidHughes 8y ago
  Being all patronizing and snooty about somebody making a total noob of themselves can be a lot worse!
  - Mtinie 8y ago
    I’m not sure I follow. You can absolutely be critical of the idea and the implementation, without being patronizing.
    - SamReidHughes 8y ago
      You also often need to tell people they need to improve themselves. To criticize the person, not just the code.
dralley 8y ago
I think this is understating it bit. He did mostly focus on technical aspects, but he did also occasionally say things like "whoever wrote this should be retroactively aborted", which is going waaaaaay too far and is going to make someone feel bad, period.
- tomohawk 8y ago
  So, what would you do? Would you rather have Linux, or would you rather that noone ever get their feelings hurt by harsh comments? Perhaps he should have been given the boot years ago for saying such things, but would we have Linux today? I really don't think that that is a false choice. You and I did not create Linux - Linus did. You and I did not keep it going despite the massive flock of ducks constantly pecking. Perhaps if we achieve something similar, we can judge. Sometimes you have to take the bad with the good. Linux now has a whole community, likely calling for a different leadership style. I hope Linus is able to make that transition.
  - Mtinie 8y ago
    Did Linux suck the air out of other, competing projects throughout its history? If so we can’t possibly consider what was or wasn’t lost.
    - mmirate 8y ago
      If it did, then good riddance. Linux is barely able to attract hardware vendors to write less-than-afterthought drivers as it is; let alone with, say, even more non-Unix OS flavors as distraction. Things like Redox and Haiku may be interesting theoretical constructs, but without the ability to use Linux (or BSD) device-drivers, they're not generally useful to the free software community and we can only hope they don't draw too many resources away from more useful pursuits.
  - wyclif 8y ago
    Would you rather have Linux, or would you rather that noone ever get their feelings hurt by harsh comments? Sounds like a false dilemma or externalized either/or to me. It's not as if Linux could not have existed had Linus learned 20 years ago to dial down his abrasiveness.

Mtinie 8y ago

> Linus was forceful at times, but his focus was on the work, not on trying to make people feel bad. It may have started this way when he began one of his emails, but even he admits the attacks often went from “let me critique your contribution” to “here’s why your contribution sucks and beyond that here’s why I think you suck as a contributor”.

SamReidHughes 8y ago
Being all patronizing and snooty about somebody making a total noob of themselves can be a lot worse!
- Mtinie 8y ago
  I’m not sure I follow. You can absolutely be critical of the idea and the implementation, without being patronizing.
  - SamReidHughes 8y ago
    You also often need to tell people they need to improve themselves. To criticize the person, not just the code.

dralley 8y ago

I think this is understating it bit. He did mostly focus on technical aspects, but he did also occasionally say things like "whoever wrote this should be retroactively aborted", which is going waaaaaay too far and is going to make someone feel bad, period.

tomohawk 8y ago
So, what would you do? Would you rather have Linux, or would you rather that noone ever get their feelings hurt by harsh comments? Perhaps he should have been given the boot years ago for saying such things, but would we have Linux today? I really don't think that that is a false choice. You and I did not create Linux - Linus did. You and I did not keep it going despite the massive flock of ducks constantly pecking. Perhaps if we achieve something similar, we can judge. Sometimes you have to take the bad with the good. Linux now has a whole community, likely calling for a different leadership style. I hope Linus is able to make that transition.
- Mtinie 8y ago
  Did Linux suck the air out of other, competing projects throughout its history? If so we can’t possibly consider what was or wasn’t lost.
  - mmirate 8y ago
    If it did, then good riddance. Linux is barely able to attract hardware vendors to write less-than-afterthought drivers as it is; let alone with, say, even more non-Unix OS flavors as distraction. Things like Redox and Haiku may be interesting theoretical constructs, but without the ability to use Linux (or BSD) device-drivers, they're not generally useful to the free software community and we can only hope they don't draw too many resources away from more useful pursuits.
- wyclif 8y ago
  Would you rather have Linux, or would you rather that noone ever get their feelings hurt by harsh comments? Sounds like a false dilemma or externalized either/or to me. It's not as if Linux could not have existed had Linus learned 20 years ago to dial down his abrasiveness.