I'm assuming the apology[1] from Linus must have come off on complaints raised to the HR department of companies with active contributions to the Linux kernel.

I'm assuming the apology[1] from Linus must have come off on complaints raised to the HR department of companies with active contributions to the Linux kernel. Because this was Linus, this went over relatively smoothly for him, but for another person, this may not have been the case. There is also no telling if the person is interacting in good faith and just doesn't know, in which case the aggression is a bit rude. You can tell people to fuck off without saying that explicitly, and it also allows you to save face in case the situation isn't what you expected it to be. [1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/09/linus-torvalds-apologizes-for-years-of-being-a-jerk-takes-time-off-to-learn-empathy/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/09/linus-torvalds-apolo...