The fact that so many people have popped up here to defend or justify Linus's behavior terrifies me. There is no excuse for being mean. Period. Full stop. This

The fact that so many people have popped up here to defend or justify Linus's behavior terrifies me. There is no excuse for being mean. Period. Full stop. This is basic human courtesy - they teach it in grade school. It doesn't matter if you're famous, or if you lead a project with tons of users and contributors, or you're nobody - anything that you can yell at people, you can also tell them politely. And you can argue about the technicalities of what constitutes "professionalism" or "abusive speech" all you want - the fact is, what Linus said was mean, and nobody should have to be on the receiving end of that. It doesn't matter if it's said in public or private, or whether the person he was talking to did something "stupid" (and haven't we all, at some point?) - nobody should have to be treated that way. And if you think otherwise, well, I hope I never have to work with you.