I think there's a huge distinction you're missing here. As a volunteer teacher or facilitator, you've made a personal commitment to a group of individual people

I think there's a huge distinction you're missing here. As a volunteer teacher or facilitator, you've made a personal commitment to a group of individual people. I think there's a difference between that and sharing code with the faceless hordes of the internet. Personal interactions differ strongly online vs in person. It would be quite unusual for a large group of people to start screaming at you in person but this happens commonly on web forums etc., as was described in TFA. If Linus is truly a volunteer, then he owes me and the rest of us nothing beyond what he's done already. I haven't sent him any money and have no relationship or agreement with him; he owes me nothing. The chaos will resolve itself and the world will go on. In this case there's nothing to prevent someone else from forming the code and moving forward with it, until they also tire of the abuse this poor fellow experienced.