The problem is often Linus is right. He wrote the first version of git which is used by a world of programmers today. I'm sure a ton of smart but subtly less sm

The problem is often Linus is right. He wrote the first version of git which is used by a world of programmers today. I'm sure a ton of smart but subtly less smart programmers would have had a lot of different opinions on its design. Had he compromised from his thoughts in this design, git wouldn't be where it is now. Same can be said for the linux kernel. In a way he is a bit like Steve Jobs, and if he were to compromise, or tried to be nicer or less reactive, the results of projects would be technically lesser. Many people who don't like Linus' personality still use the linux kernel and git most of the time. They don't realize that the very reasons they disagree with him were at the roots of how he managed to get out such tools as the kernel and git. In the discussion referred, Linus is opposing the fact that Mac OS X filesystem was "silently" changing uppercase characters in a filename to lowercase? Behind the back of the user. Now this is a bad design, but if you are not allergic to it as much as Linus is, then you would probably be OK with it. Then numerous technical mediocrities would creep in over time. He is reactive to issues he sees, and this is part of why what he does is at least technically superior.