5 ms·

Devils advocate. He did realize (eventually) how toxic it was and has taken steps to better himself

afr0ck 5y ago
People are overly sensitive. Linus was cool and very friendly and nice person most of the time on the mailing lists. Very very rarely he writes those furious replies, but honestly, it was very fun. I just don't understand why people are so much butt-hurt.
- rnd0 5y ago
  It's literally a different generation; and people appear to bruise a lot more easily at this point in time. So yes, your first sentence answers your last one. :)
- Tor3 5y ago
  The little interaction I had with Linus was friendly and technical (the only direct contact I had with him was a short email conversation where I provided some details about tape SCSI APIs. If there was more I don't rememember it). Anyway, I followed the Linux mailing list from when it started and for many years, and I read everything (including all the patches up to around kernel 2.3.51, if memory serves). I never saw anything I reacted negatively too, from his side. Quite the opposite.
  - Tor3 5y ago
    Can't edit.. that "too" in the last sentence should be "to" of course. Hopefully nobody got confused.
- wolverine876 5y ago
  Linus strongly disagreed with your comment, and even took a leave of absence to fix the problem.
AussieWog93 5y ago
Devil's Devil's Advocate (God's Advocate?): his strictness, while perceived as some as aggressive/toxic, is the main reason why the Linux kernel code is high quality. Contrast with many other open-source projects which allow the product to suffer rather than offending the contributors.
- flomo 5y ago
  Yep, I remember comments like "You know Linux is good shit because Linus won't tolerate bad patches." There was a "mailing list alpha male" culture back then which inspired a lot of people to join up. Maybe some people didn't like it, but in Linux's case, the cult of personality attracted a lot of followers. Modern Linux dev is mostly a 8x5 job now, so that mercurial king stuff became really tired.

People are overly sensitive. Linus was cool and very friendly and nice person most of the time on the mailing lists. Very very rarely he writes those furious replies, but honestly, it was very fun. I just don't understand why people are so much butt-hurt.

rnd0 5y ago
It's literally a different generation; and people appear to bruise a lot more easily at this point in time. So yes, your first sentence answers your last one. :)
Tor3 5y ago
The little interaction I had with Linus was friendly and technical (the only direct contact I had with him was a short email conversation where I provided some details about tape SCSI APIs. If there was more I don't rememember it). Anyway, I followed the Linux mailing list from when it started and for many years, and I read everything (including all the patches up to around kernel 2.3.51, if memory serves). I never saw anything I reacted negatively too, from his side. Quite the opposite.
- Tor3 5y ago
  Can't edit.. that "too" in the last sentence should be "to" of course. Hopefully nobody got confused.
wolverine876 5y ago
Linus strongly disagreed with your comment, and even took a leave of absence to fix the problem.

AussieWog93 5y ago

Devil's Devil's Advocate (God's Advocate?): his strictness, while perceived as some as aggressive/toxic, is the main reason why the Linux kernel code is high quality. Contrast with many other open-source projects which allow the product to suffer rather than offending the contributors.

flomo 5y ago
Yep, I remember comments like "You know Linux is good shit because Linus won't tolerate bad patches." There was a "mailing list alpha male" culture back then which inspired a lot of people to join up. Maybe some people didn't like it, but in Linux's case, the cult of personality attracted a lot of followers. Modern Linux dev is mostly a 8x5 job now, so that mercurial king stuff became really tired.