Not really sure why the submitter wants to bring up an unfortunate thread from ten years ago which nobody comes out of particularly well.
Just let it be water under the bridge.
We do not break userspace (2012)
11–20 of 49 posts
Re: We do not break userspace (2012)
#12i love this style. being able to honestly describe shit as shit is pretty good.
Re: We do not break userspace (2012)
#13Linus is such an asshole. It's not even cute or funny. He's just an ass.
Re: We do not break userspace (2012)
#14I miss Linus.
Re: We do not break userspace (2012)
#15The reply to Linus: https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/12/23/87
Whoa, that's actually pretty classy. I myself could never maintain that level of cool in the face of an all caps yellfest.
No matter how right or wrong either party is, it takes some serious levelheadedness to respond like that.
Re: We do not break userspace (2012)
#16Linus is such an asshole. It's not even cute or funny. He's just an ass.
The question is, if his attitude has had an impact on the longevity and success of his projects.
Re: We do not break userspace (2012)
#17Linus is such an asshole. It's not even cute or funny. He's just an ass.
The question is, if his attitude has had an impact on the longevity and success of his projects.
I think his attitude of quality and direct feedback is good and definitely contributed to the success of his projects.
But even so, why can't we still call him out on his callous and offense delivery? There are better ways of saying what he said in his post.
You don't have to be an asshole to be direct. You can still be respectful.
Re: We do not break userspace (2012)
#18The reply to Linus: https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/12/23/87
Whoa, that's actually pretty classy. I myself could never maintain that level of cool in the face of an all caps yellfest. No matter how right or wrong either party is, it takes some serious levelheadedness to respond like that.
One of the first rule of written communication for me: never send an email when angry. You can write it as a sort of catharsis but then just delete it and wait a few minutes/hours/days to cool down. You will realize what is important. And for the guy being yelled at here, it was being the maintainer of one of the coolest project on earth.
Just to be clear this is not a justification of Linus' behavior. I just believe that responding to inappropriate behavior with inappropriate behavior is a lose/lose proposition.
Re: We do not break userspace (2012)
#19This isn't really relevant to bring up in 2022. But this thread always brings a huge grin to my face.
I'm probably one of the few that really likes watching the "Steve Jobs" level of product quality, just blast across the internet at all expenses. Because it helps me feel better about what passes for quality in a lot of my day to day.
It brings me hope to see that level of passion over reliability. There's a time and place for that, but yeah, things happen.
(Unfortunately I have to flag this post for relevance, because 10-year old threads are not exactly meeting the quality for content we want on HN!)
Re: We do not break userspace (2012)
#20> And fix your approach to kernel programming.
At times I've admired Linus's tendency to not sugar coat things. Sometimes things need to be said bluntly. In this case, however, despite being correct, his message would have been stronger without all of the personal insults.
While the maintainer submitted a patch that was clearly the wrong approach, it's a bit ironic that the one who needed to fix their approach to kernel programming was actually Linus. I can't imagine how awful it must have felt to be at the receiving end of feedback like that.
I'm glad that there is now a Code of Conduct and that Linus has started to work on fixing his approach.