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posted by chromas on Thursday September 20 2018, @03:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the Code-of-Conduct+Kindness dept.

The New Yorker has its own story about Linus Torvalds temporarily stepping down from his post as maintainer of the Linux kernel:

After Years of Abusive E-mails, the Creator of Linux Steps Aside (archive)

Torvalds's decision to step aside came after The New Yorker asked him a series of questions about his conduct for a story on complaints about his abusive behavior discouraging women from working as Linux-kernel programmers. In a response to The New Yorker, Torvalds said, "I am very proud of the Linux code that I invented and the impact it has had on the world. I am not, however, always proud of my inability to communicate well with others—this is a lifelong struggle for me. To anyone whose feelings I have hurt, I am deeply sorry."

[...] Linux's élite developers, who are overwhelmingly male, tend to share their leader's aggressive self-confidence. There are very few women among the most prolific contributors, though the foundation and researchers estimate that roughly ten per cent of all Linux coders are women. "Everyone in tech knows about it, but Linus gets a pass," Megan Squire, a computer-science professor at Elon University, told me, referring to Torvalds's abusive behavior. "He's built up this cult of personality, this cult of importance."

For a research project, Squire used e-mails from Torvalds to train a computer to recognize insults. According to Squire's tabulations, more than a thousand of the twenty-one thousand e-mails Torvalds sent in a four-year period used the word "crap." "Slut," "bitch," and "bastard" were employed much less frequently during that period. Squire told me that she found few examples of gender bias. "He is an equal-opportunity abuser," she said. Squire added, though, that for non-male programmers the hostility and public humiliation is more isolating. Over time, many women programmers leave the community. "Women throw in the towel first," she told me. "They say, 'Why do I need to put up with this?' "

[...] Many women who contribute to Linux point to another open-source project, Python, as a guide for Linux as its faces its #MeToo moment.

Two Linux kernel developers turned diversity consultants are quoted in the story: Sage Sharp and Valerie Aurora. The New Yorker points out that the Linux Foundation's ten-member Technical Advisory Board will hear behavioral complaints, and all of the members are male.

Meanwhile, many people in the Linux community are upset about the move to adopt a Code of Conduct (CoC). Some of that discussion is taking place on the GitHub commit page for the CoC.


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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @06:25PM (10 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @06:25PM (#737641)

    I'm amused, all you squealing pigs probably have made a bunch of references to "pointy haired boss" and other such amusing metaphors to complain about your shitty bosses. But now your identity politics has you screaming bloody murder defending the same kind of person. At least he's a useful asshole, but it isn't like society, civility, and the newfangled term professionalism are really new concepts.

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  • (Score: 4, Touché) by LoRdTAW on Thursday September 20 2018, @07:05PM (1 child)

    by LoRdTAW (3755) on Thursday September 20 2018, @07:05PM (#737666) Journal

    Pointy haired boss in an open source project? lol.

    • (Score: 4, Touché) by fliptop on Thursday September 20 2018, @11:21PM

      by fliptop (1666) on Thursday September 20 2018, @11:21PM (#737845) Journal

      Pointy haired boss in an open source project?

      Maybe, if it's his beard.

      --
      Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Thursday September 20 2018, @07:54PM (6 children)

    by tangomargarine (667) on Thursday September 20 2018, @07:54PM (#737690)

    I'm amused, all you squealing pigs probably have made a bunch of references to "pointy haired boss" and other such amusing metaphors to complain about your shitty bosses. But now your identity politics has you screaming bloody murder defending the same kind of person.

    I'm sorry, are you saying that Linus is a PHB? This statement is laughable on so many levels.

    The whole joke with the Pointy-Haired Boss is that all he knows how to do is manage (and even that is rather dubious).
    In contrast, Linus is being criticized over his management style by people who say he doesn't know how to manage people, and he's the guy who originally wrote the fucking Linux kernel. So he's about as far from "boss who doesn't know how to do the work" as you can possibly get.

    your identity politics has you screaming bloody murder

    I can't speak for everybody here, but it sounds like a good proportion of us would rather all this political agitation in software development just went away so we can get back to actually doing useful work (see last 2 links in summary). Meritocracy etc.

    all you squealing pigs

    Well I've found one squealing pig, at least -- you clearly have no idea what you're talking about.

    --
    "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
    • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @08:22PM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @08:22PM (#737716)

      Thanks for proving the point. There comes a time when being unnecessarily offensive takes a toll. The age of the Wild West Internet is gone, it has now become a part of regular society instead of the playground dominated by little lost boys.

      The PHB example was stretching it, but if you'd open your mind for 2 seconds you might understand the comparison. Some people put up with the abuse because they are used to it and it is just part of working on the Linux kernel, others applaud the "telling it like it is" aspect because of their superiority/inferiority complexes that are so common amongst coders. However these days coding has a much larger base and as with all aspects of civilization most people won't tolerate shitty behavior for long. Gone are the days where people will "suck it up", the small niche community you were used to is gone and you no longer have the social support to be an asshole.

      So let us see, you want the political agitation to stop? Then stop being an asshole, it is a much easier solution. Linus even admits that he came from a broken family and just "doesn't care" about whether someone is offended. Well he is free to not care and has done so for a very long time. Other people are free TO care and it seems that you are in the minority. The world constantly changes, don't be the dinosaur.

      Grow the fuck up, learn how to be civil and if someone comes at you with baseless or overblown accusations then call them out. This isn't rocket science and you can no longer act like a total shut-in if you want to work on community projects.

      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Thursday September 20 2018, @08:47PM (3 children)

        by tangomargarine (667) on Thursday September 20 2018, @08:47PM (#737725)

        It's a bit amusing how much effort social types put into coming in and "fixing" our problems for us.

        "Your community would just be so much better if you accepted these rules!"
        "Not interested; go away."
        "You're not being inclusive! You're being mean to people!"
        "So you personally feel excluded? What have you contributed to this project?"
        "Um...er...well nothing, but you're being mean!"
        "Thanks so much for your concern. Now shoo."

        There comes a time when being unnecessarily offensive takes a toll.

        Yes, and whether it's necessary or not is a subjective statement. That one fairly recent [theregister.co.uk] scuffle, Linus chewed out the guy because he'd been telling him to knock off certain behavior for years, yet he still persisted in doing it and calling it other people's faults. At a certain point you realize they just won't listen, so you chew them out and jettison them.

        Being polite and easy to get along with is great, but not when you want to get technical issues solved. To get stuff done, sometimes you have to be a bit rude.

        --
        "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
        • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @10:07PM (2 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @10:07PM (#737773)

          I'm not trying to fix anything, I'm just explaining reality to you. You are free to fork the project and go all nerd-rage on people you don't like. Apparently the Technical Advisory Board thinks the CoC is necessary yet here we have you and others throwing a total hissy fit over some pretty tame stuff. Hiding behind "get stuff done" is the most laughable and childish response possible. Takes more effort to frown than to smile buddy!

          So hypocrisy on SN, always a treat.

          • (Score: 5, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Friday September 21 2018, @02:25PM (1 child)

            by tangomargarine (667) on Friday September 21 2018, @02:25PM (#738124)

            You are free to fork the project and go all nerd-rage

            This is the same stupidity as systemd. If you think there's a problem, why don't you fork it, instead of trying to hostile takeover our original version we're happy with?

            Apparently the Technical Advisory Board thinks the CoC is necessary

            Yeah, funny how that keeps happening instead of a referendum. Cf. Debian.

            yet here we have you and others throwing a total hissy

            How dare we disagree with you

            Hiding behind "get stuff done" is pragmatism

            FTFY

            --
            "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
            • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 21 2018, @04:52PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 21 2018, @04:52PM (#738222)

              It isnt "yours", there is no hostile takeover, you are being a total baby throwing a tantrum. Identity politics is your thing? Ok then Mr. Persecution complex.

      • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday September 20 2018, @11:28PM

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 20 2018, @11:28PM (#737850) Journal

        Fuck regular society.

  • (Score: 4, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday September 21 2018, @11:02AM

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Friday September 21 2018, @11:02AM (#738042) Homepage Journal

    It's not out of the ordinary is why. Your boss being a dick is par for the course. Mine is and I'm self-employed.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.