4 ms·

>"He gets a free card to be rude and you get a free card to not like him" No, he doesn't. If your boss or your client would talk to you in that tone you would

>"He gets a free card to be rude and you get a free card to not like him" No, he doesn't. If your boss or your client would talk to you in that tone you would call it verbal abuse. There is no such thing as a jerk free card, you can always be one but that doesn't mean is excusable. "I am yet to see him abusing anyone. Verbal abuse mentioned is just swearing in aggressive tone of voice." This is not the first time that we see this kind of emails from Linus so it is not exactly a new thing. I don't know where are you from that this is considered OK. I am a Venezuelan living in Canada and in both countries this is considered abusive, so it is not only in USA.

mistermann 13y ago
> If your boss or your client would talk to you in that tone you would call it verbal abuse. Are you referring to the email we just read? Because I find nothing at all offensive or inappropriate about it. A forceful dressing down to be sure, but not disrespectful. I think this line is important: I'm not polite, and I get upset easily but generally don't hold a grudge
scotty79 13y ago
If my boss was rude I'd wait up a bit to see if he'll last longer at his job than I could put up with. I wouldn't like him. I wouldn't do any favors for him. Boss is part of the job. If you don't like that part of the job you'll like the job less. If you like it little enough you overcome your inertia and leave job. If my client was rude and I wasn't ok with him I'd stop responding to him. That's the beauty of freelancing. You don't have to work for people whoose behavior doesn't suit you. In my opinion swearing doesn't make you a jerk but jerks don't get free pass. They offend some people and get less respect and cooperation from them. That's the social price. No law necessary. Abuse at workplace is much wider subject. First thing is that there has to be relation of power. Linus has no power over people who he swears at. They can freely choose to never interact with Linus again at any point in time at no loss to themseves or their loved ones. Heck, they can even take all the stuff Linus did, copy it and work on that instead.
joshguthrie 13y ago
Linus is not your boss. Nobody is forcing you to contribute to the kernel. If you want to, he's the "benevolent dictator". If you don't agree, "fork it and go your own way" as someone else said. It may look like masochism, but people who work with a "benevolent dictator" know what they are in for. We don't need to be "protected" and if you don't like it, just don't come, the same way I'm not going to play with soccer players because I don't play soccer.
- pmelendez 13y ago
  > "Linus is not your boss." From Dictionary.com, a boss is: 3. a person who makes decisions, exercises authority, dominates, etc.: My grandfather was the boss in his family. So, for the people who is working on the linux kernel project, Linus is indeed their boss.
  - scotty79 13y ago
    Linus exercises authority over his project. He decides which contribution to take in and which to leave out. He is a boss of linux. But not the boss of people who contibute because he has no authority over them to exercise.

mistermann 13y ago

> If your boss or your client would talk to you in that tone you would call it verbal abuse. Are you referring to the email we just read? Because I find nothing at all offensive or inappropriate about it. A forceful dressing down to be sure, but not disrespectful. I think this line is important: I'm not polite, and I get upset easily but generally don't hold a grudge

scotty79 13y ago

If my boss was rude I'd wait up a bit to see if he'll last longer at his job than I could put up with. I wouldn't like him. I wouldn't do any favors for him. Boss is part of the job. If you don't like that part of the job you'll like the job less. If you like it little enough you overcome your inertia and leave job. If my client was rude and I wasn't ok with him I'd stop responding to him. That's the beauty of freelancing. You don't have to work for people whoose behavior doesn't suit you. In my opinion swearing doesn't make you a jerk but jerks don't get free pass. They offend some people and get less respect and cooperation from them. That's the social price. No law necessary. Abuse at workplace is much wider subject. First thing is that there has to be relation of power. Linus has no power over people who he swears at. They can freely choose to never interact with Linus again at any point in time at no loss to themseves or their loved ones. Heck, they can even take all the stuff Linus did, copy it and work on that instead.

joshguthrie 13y ago

Linus is not your boss. Nobody is forcing you to contribute to the kernel. If you want to, he's the "benevolent dictator". If you don't agree, "fork it and go your own way" as someone else said. It may look like masochism, but people who work with a "benevolent dictator" know what they are in for. We don't need to be "protected" and if you don't like it, just don't come, the same way I'm not going to play with soccer players because I don't play soccer.

pmelendez 13y ago
> "Linus is not your boss." From Dictionary.com, a boss is: 3. a person who makes decisions, exercises authority, dominates, etc.: My grandfather was the boss in his family. So, for the people who is working on the linux kernel project, Linus is indeed their boss.
- scotty79 13y ago
  Linus exercises authority over his project. He decides which contribution to take in and which to leave out. He is a boss of linux. But not the boss of people who contibute because he has no authority over them to exercise.