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Great attitude. Linus has had plenty of heated moments on the mailing lists, but 1) he's often right and 2) his venom is usually reserved for experienced devel

by efuquen 12y ago

Great attitude. Linus has had plenty of heated moments on the mailing lists, but 1) he's often right and 2) his venom is usually reserved for experienced developers that really should know better. Glad to him being so open and accepting with newbie kernel hackers.

chimeracoder 12y ago
> Linus has had plenty of heated moments on the mailing lists, but 1) he's often right and 2) his venom is usually reserved for experienced developers that really should know better Also, his gain attention specifically because they're available, whereas most companies don't make all their internal emails visible to the public (which Linux does). One of the few uncensored corpora of emails that we have is the Enron Corpus[0] - if you look through them, you'll see a lot of profanity, vitriol, etc. that helps put Linus's rants in perspective. Also, the "Linus rants" are rather cherry-picked - they make the rounds here periodically (sometimes years after the emails were originally sent), but that's not to say that it's representative of a typical email that one is likely to receive from Linus. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron_Corpus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron_Corpus
- autarch 12y ago
  I think you're overestimating how often that sort of vitriol happens in a workplace. I've been a developer for 16 years now and I've had very strong opinions about development for a long time. I can't remember the last time I made things personal, especially over email. I think Linus's behavior is often reprehensible. He gets a pass from many because of who he is, which is sad.
  - ivanca 12y ago
    No, it is not. Who you are should matter, we don't want to stop a major advance in tech just because the one who will lead its creation may be a prick.
    - codingdave 12y ago
      You've turned the logic around. The statement being made is more like: "It isn't OK to be a prick just because you created a major advance in tech."
  - sheepmullet 12y ago
    Linux is over 20 years old at this point. How many "reprehensible" rants has Linus had over these 20 years? Maybe 20-30? So ~1-2 rants per year. Does that really justify the statement "Linus's behavior is often reprehensible"? I've seen dozens of developers let go over "cultural fit" over the years. I've seen dozens more laid off so a few suits could make a bit more money. Developers with bills to pay and families to take care of. In my opinion, going on a rant, however mean, once or twice a year is not even comparable.
- dasil003 12y ago
  Enron is probably exceptional due to the fact that they essentially created an out of control shark tank of type-A roid-raging traders who ended up running the asylum.
- davvid 12y ago
  Another factor is that Linus' colorful rants are the only ones that people hear about. There's a sampling bias there. No one ever talks about the "uninteresting" day-to-day stuff.

by efuquen 12y ago

chimeracoder 12y ago

> Linus has had plenty of heated moments on the mailing lists, but 1) he's often right and 2) his venom is usually reserved for experienced developers that really should know better Also, his gain attention specifically because they're available, whereas most companies don't make all their internal emails visible to the public (which Linux does). One of the few uncensored corpora of emails that we have is the Enron Corpus[0] - if you look through them, you'll see a lot of profanity, vitriol, etc. that helps put Linus's rants in perspective. Also, the "Linus rants" are rather cherry-picked - they make the rounds here periodically (sometimes years after the emails were originally sent), but that's not to say that it's representative of a typical email that one is likely to receive from Linus. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron_Corpus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron_Corpus

autarch 12y ago
I think you're overestimating how often that sort of vitriol happens in a workplace. I've been a developer for 16 years now and I've had very strong opinions about development for a long time. I can't remember the last time I made things personal, especially over email. I think Linus's behavior is often reprehensible. He gets a pass from many because of who he is, which is sad.
- ivanca 12y ago
  No, it is not. Who you are should matter, we don't want to stop a major advance in tech just because the one who will lead its creation may be a prick.
  - codingdave 12y ago
    You've turned the logic around. The statement being made is more like: "It isn't OK to be a prick just because you created a major advance in tech."
- sheepmullet 12y ago
  Linux is over 20 years old at this point. How many "reprehensible" rants has Linus had over these 20 years? Maybe 20-30? So ~1-2 rants per year. Does that really justify the statement "Linus's behavior is often reprehensible"? I've seen dozens of developers let go over "cultural fit" over the years. I've seen dozens more laid off so a few suits could make a bit more money. Developers with bills to pay and families to take care of. In my opinion, going on a rant, however mean, once or twice a year is not even comparable.
dasil003 12y ago
Enron is probably exceptional due to the fact that they essentially created an out of control shark tank of type-A roid-raging traders who ended up running the asylum.
davvid 12y ago
Another factor is that Linus' colorful rants are the only ones that people hear about. There's a sampling bias there. No one ever talks about the "uninteresting" day-to-day stuff.