4 ms·

Man, I wouldn't tolerate an email like that from anybody. It's right up there with some of the most abusive management I've ever known. Linus might be "a great

by kabdib 12y ago

Man, I wouldn't tolerate an email like that from anybody. It's right up there with some of the most abusive management I've ever known. Linus might be "a great guy" or "just Linus being Linus" but email like this has no place in a cooperative environment.

Pacabel 12y ago
It really isn't that big of a deal, even though it does come off as immature. A professional would handle it like this: 1) He or she wouldn't choose to use such phrasing himself or herself, but also won't shy away from being firm and asking hard questions if they need to be asked. 2) If somebody else chooses such wording, the professional will engage his or her thick skin and ignore it, instead focusing on the parts that actually matter. It's resolving the problem at hand that's truly important, not wasting energy getting worked up over phrasing that somebody chose to use when describing the problem.
- kabdib 12y ago
  The actual bug report was pretty decent. This email, not so much.
- vfclists 12y ago
  Linus is afflicted with a mild form of Tourette's!
gooseyard 12y ago
It's easy to forget that these people are not employees of Linus Torvalds; they are members of a volunteer army.
ayrx 12y ago
How the hell is this abusive? Notice how he isn't cursing at any one person? Notice how he points out exactly what gcc is doing wrong? Notice how he made a bug report to get the problem fixed? Notice how no one in that email thread had any problems with his tone?
- RexRollman 12y ago
  Correct. There is a difference between curing in the course of talking and cursing at someone.
  - lamontcg 12y ago
    "...your compiler is pure and utter shit." That is throwing the guy he's responding to and the whole GCC compiler team under the bus with a very thinly veiled personal attack. If he was just hurling insults at the code, I could defend him, but that would look more like: "What the 4.9.0 compiler is doing to my scheduler is fucking insane. It can't be spilling constants like this because we can get hit by an interrupt while the stack is insane and then we'll be screwed. And this other shit is worse and just has to fucking go." Less pointing at the other devs and screaming that they're incompetent and more pointing at the code and screaming that its going to hose the shit out of the scheduler.

by kabdib 12y ago

Pacabel 12y ago

It really isn't that big of a deal, even though it does come off as immature. A professional would handle it like this: 1) He or she wouldn't choose to use such phrasing himself or herself, but also won't shy away from being firm and asking hard questions if they need to be asked. 2) If somebody else chooses such wording, the professional will engage his or her thick skin and ignore it, instead focusing on the parts that actually matter. It's resolving the problem at hand that's truly important, not wasting energy getting worked up over phrasing that somebody chose to use when describing the problem.

kabdib 12y ago
The actual bug report was pretty decent. This email, not so much.
vfclists 12y ago
Linus is afflicted with a mild form of Tourette's!

gooseyard 12y ago

It's easy to forget that these people are not employees of Linus Torvalds; they are members of a volunteer army.

ayrx 12y ago

How the hell is this abusive? Notice how he isn't cursing at any one person? Notice how he points out exactly what gcc is doing wrong? Notice how he made a bug report to get the problem fixed? Notice how no one in that email thread had any problems with his tone?

RexRollman 12y ago
Correct. There is a difference between curing in the course of talking and cursing at someone.
- lamontcg 12y ago
  "...your compiler is pure and utter shit." That is throwing the guy he's responding to and the whole GCC compiler team under the bus with a very thinly veiled personal attack. If he was just hurling insults at the code, I could defend him, but that would look more like: "What the 4.9.0 compiler is doing to my scheduler is fucking insane. It can't be spilling constants like this because we can get hit by an interrupt while the stack is insane and then we'll be screwed. And this other shit is worse and just has to fucking go." Less pointing at the other devs and screaming that they're incompetent and more pointing at the code and screaming that its going to hose the shit out of the scheduler.