5 ms·

Back in 2009, I saw something similar was when a user reported a bug to Ubuntu regarding Pulseaudio[0]. Basically the error messages was: $ pulseaudio W:

• homebrewer 2y ago
  What "reputation"? He's disliked by a very loud minority, the rest of us don't care. I will take someone like Poettering who's actively solving decades-long problems over a useless "professional" any day of the week. He's effective because of his bullish personality.
  • Daviey 2y ago
    Either you know about his "reputation" or you don't. Those that have never interacted with him don't care, I agree (I mean, why would they?). But those that have, i'd suggest is a minority that can tolerate him.. but ho-hum, neither of have statistics on this so we'll never know. When I met and had discussions with him in 2007 he was mild and seemed to be constructive, i'd suggest his "bullish personality" became more prevalent with time.
    • majewsky 2y ago
      I met him once in 2012 and ate dinner with him and Kay Sievers. I agree to your observation about "mild" and "constructive", and will extend by saying that he appeared to me as someone fiercely focused on technical challenges. Therefore the "please don't waste my time" bit further up the thread appears to me totally in character for him. Lennart is really similar to Linus pre-2018 in that regard.
  • speed_spread 2y ago
    There's no correlation between effectiveness and rudeness. Some people are effective _despite_ being assholes.
    • consteval 2y ago
      No, there's a strong correlation between leadership and being bullish. Because in order to get what YOU want done YOU have to advocate for yourself - other people won't advocate for you. Being stubborn is a type of advocacy. People will claim it's unprofessional, and it is. The problem is that when other's are also unprofessional you can't convince them by being professional. If you look at who moves up the social ladder fastest and retains their power the longest, they are typically hard-headed people. The have an almost unreasonable amount of confidence in themselves, and in many ways they are delusional. However, I would argue such a personality is better than being timid. Ultimately, past the computers and the programs we are humans, and human effects come into play. Success is not just measured by correctness; it's measured by perception.
      • mistrial9 2y ago
        there is no simple way to dissect these inter-related statements, but from my point of view, no. Plenty of people here have dealt with serial abusers, which is being defended as "ends justify the means" above
        • consteval 2y ago
          To be clear there's a far, far gap between being abusive and being bullish. It's quite immature of you to make that leap and use that to paint me as pro-abuse to discredit my argument. You could instead provide a real argument, not "well what you say is used to defend abusers!" Yes, and famously Hitler wanted economic strength for his country. I guess wanting economic strength makes you Hitler? ... wait no, definitely not. I don't have patience for these weak types of arguments. Saying nothing at all is free and easy, I would look into that more if I were you. Seems more your pace.
  • toyg 2y ago
    > Poettering who's actively solving decades-long problems He's doing that only because it's his job: his employer has an agenda (i.e. steering Linux fast enough and disruptively enough at a low level, so that serious competitors cannot arise), and he's implementing that agenda without a care in the world. Would I personally take such a ruthless mercenary over more community-minded folks? No.
• pbhjpbhj 2y ago
  Based only on your post I'm confused. You better a person for including "weird shit" in an error message. But the on a pubic forum tell them "fuck you". On the basis of profanity alone, your action seems far worse than their's?
  • Daviey 2y ago
    This is a community, not an end user facing error message for a product for the public used by millions of people. I can use profanity in my communication, but I would never put foul language in an error.. same as I wouldn't in documentation or a formal letter. Just imagine a pop-up dialogue box on Windows or OSX showing an error with "Weird Shit!" in it. Could you?
    • beeboobaa3 2y ago
      I can, and it'd be pretty funny. Better than "Something went wrong!". Why does it upset you so?
      • Daviey 2y ago
        It wasn't me that raised the original bug, but a user. I didn't say it upsets me, but I do consider it unprofessional for a product. So tell me, why would it be "funny"? Are you, or have you ever been responsible for content end users might see?
        • serf 2y ago
          I don't think it's funny , but I do feel it's entirely more palatable than "WOOPS SOMETHING WENT WRONG <cute_dog_picture.jpg>" scheme that Amazon and other dotcoms use. Regardless, the Lennart tirade added into the anecdote really just convinces me that the anecdote is there purely for axe-grinding.
        • beeboobaa3 2y ago
          Because it's practically identical to "Something went wrong!" but different and unexpected, which makes it funny. I don't know. Can you really explain what exactly makes something funny? > Are you, or have you ever been responsible for content end users might see? Yes. I don't do such things because of curmudgeons like yourself. But as a user I wouldn't mind at all, and think it's funny.
• sgarland 2y ago
  The larger WTF here is a developer thinking that Linux having audio problems is weird.
• snapcaster 2y ago
  This seems so fragile and prudish. I can't imagine having any other reaction beyond chuckling and moving on