If these were isolated incidents, I'd agree with you. We should give Linus the benefit of the doubt because of his substantial contributions to OSS. Unfortunat

If these were isolated incidents, I'd agree with you. We should give Linus the benefit of the doubt because of his substantial contributions to OSS. Unfortunately, this behavior is very well established. To take a few random examples of Linus calling people morons (and mentally diseased, etc) before this: http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gnu-misc-discuss/2007-06/msg00084.html http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gnu-misc-discuss/2007-06/m... https://plus.google.com/102150693225130002912/posts/1vyfmNCYpi5 https://plus.google.com/102150693225130002912/posts/1vyfmNCY... http://yarchive.net/comp/linux/hibernation.html http://yarchive.net/comp/linux/hibernation.html https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/1/12/13 https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/1/12/13 The point at issue here is not whether Linus is right. Of course he's probably right -- he's Linus. The question is whether he's being civil. In the case you're referring to, pirtlj's comment was also out of line (although ironically apt to this whole discussion). Linus however did not have to respond the way he did.