At Open Source Summit Europe in Scotland, Linus Torvalds is meeting with Linux's top 40 or so developers at the Maintainers' Summit. This is his first step back in taking over Linux's reins.
A little over a month ago, Torvalds stepped back from running the Linux development community. In a note to the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML), Torvalds said, "I need to change some of my behavior, and I want to apologize to the people that my personal behavior hurt and possibly drove away from kernel development entirely. I am going to take time off and get some assistance on how to understand people's emotions and respond appropriately."
That time is over. Torvalds is back.
He's a quick study if it only took him a month to learn how to understand people's emotions and respond appropriately.
See also: Linus Torvalds is back at Linux while GNU's Stallman unveils a "kindness" policy
Previously: Linus Torvalds Taking a Break From Linux Kernel Maintainership
More on Linus Torvalds Taking a Break From Linux Kernel Maintainership
Eric S. Raymond Speaks in Regards to the Linux Code of Conduct [Updated]
Related Stories
Linux 4.19-rc4 Released As Linus Temporarily Steps Away From Kernel Maintainership
Linux 4.19-rc4 is out today as the very latest weekly development test kernel for Linux 4.19. It's another fairly routine kernel update at this stage, but more shocking is that Linus Torvalds will be taking a temporary leave from kernel maintainership and Greg Kroah-Hartman will take over the rest of the Linux 4.19 cycle.
Following the recent decision to change the location of the Linux Kernel Summit after Torvalds accidentally booked his flights to the wrong dates/location, plus other discussions happening recently, Linus Torvalds is taking a temporary leave. "I am going to take time off and get some assistance on how to understand people's emotions and respond appropriately," he wrote as part of today's 4.19-rc4 announcement.
So it begins.
Also at ZDNet.
The Linux kernel has adopted a new code of conduct. The link to the code of conduct is here.
It seems Linus Torvalds is also taking a break from being the top kernel maintainer.
The short story is Linus screwing up his scheduling to the Linux maintainers conference which was entirely rescheduled around his mistake. Then he was approached by people who are concerned about his blunt (or some consider rude) comments on the kernel dev mailing list.
I, personally, will miss Linus and I hope he gets things figured out.
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.
[Updated 2018-09-26 20:30:00 to show the CoC is already in effect. --martyb]
[Ed Note: Given Linus Torvalds' recent decision to step down as head of Linux development for a while, and news of an attempt to install a a new CoC (Code of Conduct) on Linux development, I believe it important to communicate this to our community. It does, however, offer an opportunity for more, ummm, fire, flame, and feelings than the usual stories posted here. Let's try and keep things civil and discuss the merits (or lack of same). To quote Sergeant Joe Friday "All we're interested in is the facts, ma'am."
If you are not interested in this, another story will be along before too long... just ignore this one.
As for the code of conduct itself, take a look at: code of conduct and the kernel commit.]
Eric S. Raymond speaks in regards to the Linux CoC:
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @06:49PM (1 child)
n/t
(Score: 4, Funny) by driverless on Monday October 22 2018, @11:05PM
Also, the headline is wrong, it should be:
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @06:50PM (62 children)
As pointed out before, the body of his email announcement about leaving involved 3 non-ASCII punctuation characters, which is impossible to be his doing.
To say that the Linux mailing list frowns upon non-ASCII characters is an understatement on par with "WWII was unpleasant."
So, what do you think? I think the Linux Foundation was captured by the NWO, and they've managed to control Linus slightly by being in control of his income. This break represents a period of negotiation about what they want, and also it represents a kind of ceremony for his rebirth as a minor minion.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @06:53PM (3 children)
The first step in learning how to understand people's emotions and respond appropriately involved using a real word processor.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @06:59PM (1 child)
Bah. I use Compose, <, " and Compose, >, " when I want typographical quotes and am typing somewhere that won't run through LaTeX. Also be aware! You can get typographical single quotes with Compose, <, ' and Compose, >, ', however! HOWEVER! God damn it! Fuck Microsoft Office and Wordpress. Compose, <, ' (aka ‘ or "‘") IS NOT A GODDAMN APOSTROPHE! The apostrophe is generally found in the right side of the keyboard near enter and requires no modifier keys when using a US layout at least. The apostrophe looks like this: '.
Thank you.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @07:12PM
misc:typo is best.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @02:45PM
Pretty sure he could already do annoyance, irritation, and anger.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Spamalope on Monday October 22 2018, @06:55PM
I'm afraid something like that is plausible given what's happened to other projects. Bleh
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @07:11PM (32 children)
Meh, Linus could very easily crowd fund his future income. Maybe he is being influenced badly, maybe not, but what you have so far is the most tenuous connection. Why announce anything if he was being compromised? You think non-ascii characters are his canary? If I was going to blackmail someone I wouldn't start a shitstorm about professional courtesy, things would continue on as normal.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @07:21PM (31 children)
Inserting the CoC into a technical project has proven by-the-by to be a very successful way of setting up arbitrary control over a project under the guise of professionalism and courtesy.
The CoC that was thrust into the Linux repo was taken from a rabidly feminist source, and it replaced an awesome, practical, virtuous statement about the importance of technical excellence.
Frankly, I just really think you don't know much about what's been happening. I do.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @07:58PM (27 children)
I fully understand your worries but do not agree with them. Please, list all the projects you've seen get taken over and include links if you can, I am a fan of evidence and have simply not seen anything so far that makes CoCs so dangerous.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @08:06PM (17 children)
Why does something spread when it has no obvious benefit?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @08:56PM (16 children)
You assume that it's meant to benefit free software or to benefit an identity group (such as women). Demonstrably, they fail at improving free software. They also fail at getting the female (or which ever identity group) programmers to precipitate out of the æther.
Look at it a bit differently. If you were somebody with some experience with COINTELPRO operations and you wanted to insert some nasty code into key software projects that are otherwise inaccessible due to being outside of corporate control...? Perhaps there is a benefit to be found here for the Five Eyes. Fortunately, there is also a glut of useful idiots in the petty bourgeoisie with more ego than ability to code.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @09:12PM (15 children)
I see, so no useful information just more tinfoil paranoia. Your argument is similar to VIM dude, so how reasonable does "we shouldn't have government because that makes it possible for a small group of people to pass laws that restrict my freedom." So sure, yeah that is possible and does happen, but anarchy is a much worse system. Personally I like laws against murder and theft.
Now back to your paranoia, you do realize that it wouldn't be very hard for intelligence agencies to compromise a FOSS project if they wanted to? CoC is not necessary to do that. Also, it is more likely they would try and target someone individually and intercept their traffic to serve them compromised code. Aside from all of that, it would be quite easy to not get torpedoed by a CoC by simply abiding by the terms. Not a very effective method to take over something.
So again, link to some actual stories where you believe the CoC was used to subvert a project.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @09:20PM (14 children)
Also, last I checked, lots of people were thieving and murdering despite your beloved laws against theft and murder.
I'm not saying I agree with Mr. VIM, but your comment here makes your position look really weak.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @11:37PM (13 children)
No it doesn't, you have simply made up your mind already that CoCs are the antichrist. Without some type of rules to refer to it is impossible to manage a group.
Your assertion that bad things happen anyway is what makes your argument incredibly weak. So better to do nothing huh?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @12:09AM (1 child)
I've read Mr. VIM's ideas (who the fuck hasn't by now?), and that's not at all what he/she/they/xe is saying.
It's incredible that this is what you think Mr. VIM's position is. You're either lying or a dummy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @12:52AM
He doesn't get it, yet. He will.
(Score: 1) by NPC-131072 on Tuesday October 23 2018, @12:34AM (8 children)
Group think good. Orange man bad.
(Score: 3, Funny) by HiThere on Tuesday October 23 2018, @12:47AM
Well, I can agree with "Orange man bad". William was really destructive to Ireland.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 1, Touché) by NPC-131073 on Tuesday October 23 2018, @01:12AM (6 children)
Orange man good.
Unemployment is at a 16 year low.
No more taxes on corporations.
You have TDS.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Pav on Tuesday October 23 2018, @01:25AM (5 children)
Great... The orange man has started a Monopoly game.
Monopoly was a game originally designed to show what happens with a low tax and low regulation (against monopolies etc...) environment. If people hadn't worked this out from the recent examples (ie. the great depression, and the long depression before that) the game would ALWAYS demonstrate inherent instability. Basically you get snowballing wealth and excitement (for some players) like the roaring 20's, and the "winner" of the game is just the last person to realise the economy has collapsed.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @02:42AM (4 children)
At the start of the game, you are sleeping on dirt roads. By the end of the game, you are living in luxurious hotels. I guess you're always free to go back to sleeping in the dirt.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by fritsd on Tuesday October 23 2018, @04:20AM (3 children)
FTFY.
It *could* be you who wins.
Then again, it *could* also be one of the other 7 billion who wins, with you sleeping on dirt roads. What are the odds???? mm.. complicated..
The winner will always claim it's due to the winner's skill that he/she won.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @02:48PM
I used to play with my neighbor's kids. I'm undefeated and won about 40 games in a row, I'm just lucky like that.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @03:07PM (1 child)
Then you didn't understand the parents. If there's nobody left but you on the board, who's going stay in all your hotels? Where will you get continuing rent moneys from? The last player standing has nothing because he has nobody left to offer it to.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday October 24 2018, @07:08PM
So true. I love staying at Trump hotels. They're luxurious like nothing you've seen in your entire life. But, that's not why I built them!!! trumphotels.com [trumphotels.com]
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday October 23 2018, @02:50PM (1 child)
If the group can't hold together without the CoC, then how did it last 27 years so far?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @05:06PM
Without any real group management except Linus screaming at people.
Dysfunctional families still survive but they aren't great for the kid's wellbeing.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Bot on Monday October 22 2018, @11:09PM (8 children)
I fully understand you and the guy who modded you insightful have been abducted by aliens and just returned to this planet but I'll just let you know about an obscure project called debian
2014 CoC adopted
2015 Jessie out with systemd as the only practical option, stops de facto being the universal operating system.
I'd link this project to you, but I fear it will soon be renamed DebJanet, so that same sex couples don't feel left out.
Seriously, fuck this sh!t. If somebody maintains chauvinist retrograde paternalistic toxic forks point me to it so I can stay free of the Politically Correct fascism.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @11:39PM (7 children)
Systemd had nothing to do with a code of conduct, the crazy levels in this thread are too damn high!
I give up, you conservatives are just too fucking dumb and crazy.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday October 23 2018, @12:53AM (4 children)
I've never understood what advantage systemd was supposed to have, but in Debian's case I think it was probably to be able to use the same software as Red Hat. But it's also true that it was forced through really quickly, and I've never seen it reasonably justified. So I suspect that there's SOME sneaky thing about it. Perhaps it was really pushed sub-rosa by the NSA. Perhaps pothering developed a mind control ray. -- something
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @02:07AM (3 children)
Same here, but systemd was not pushed through using some CoC "backdoor". It was pushed through the front door as nearly everyone sat there screaming. So I still don't buy the hysteria around the CoC like it is going to subvert the actual software.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @07:57AM
CoC is the fever after you have suffered a violent anal rape. If you project is adopting CoC, it is already too late.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @09:32AM (1 child)
1. Infiltrate $target_group
2. Get $target_group to accept innocuous looking CoC
3. Threaten $key_members of $target_group with exposure of their little peccadillos which run afoul of the CoC
4. Gain Puppetmaster control of $target_group through $key_members
5. Profit.
The game is to establish potential control mechanisms, and we're not talking about dealing with the Boy Scouts here, or are you all still thinking that the people behind these CoCs are the muppetoids that visibly and noisily espouse them?
Do you really think the sort of muppetoid that bleats about CoCs being necessary in coding projects actually cares about either coding or the project?, they're just the risibly obvious little wind-up infective agents, keys wound tight then let loose, infecting and weakening the system...any system, they don't care.
Why yes, my hat is most assuredly tin-foiley and shiny..double lined for reasons I'd love to tell you all about, but which might bother the DSMA a bit..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @05:13PM
I read the thing. You are a crazy nerd raging fool. Most/all of the board AND Linus agreed the CoC was a good move. They even amended some of the vague phrasing.
I reviewed some of the controversies and what i saw were asdholes wanting to not be called out for being assholes. Cry me a river, this is like all the bigots crying hard about being called racist and imagining that "the left" is coming to get them. Go be crazy somewhere else, or at least gather some evidence if you wanna cry foul.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @08:21AM
Oh no, you don't give up. What you did is actually smarten up.
Bit is not a conservative, bot is a troll. What the internet-old wisdom says you don't do with trolls?
(Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday October 25 2018, @09:15PM
I am not saying systemd caused the CoC, or that the CoC caused systemd. I am saying that debian adopted the coc and went to shit in 12 months, symptom, or better, proof, the too early adoption of systemd as the exclusive init system in obvious contrast with the motto of the project itself and without a solid majority to back it up.
In my personal model of the world, it's apparent that both coc and systemd are the spawn of satan but I am not pushing this vision on others when simple logic suffices.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by c0lo on Monday October 22 2018, @08:05PM (2 children)
So true, feminism is out of control.
Look, only a few days ago a mother of three killed the father in a US zoo [usnews.com].
And you won't believe what happened next! The only reaction was [telegraph.co.uk]
I say, better keep an eye on Linus, you never know... now you have him, next the zookeepers may be devastated by the lost of him!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @08:13PM (1 child)
No matter the species.
Dude probably thought "You can't bite a lady back".
(Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday October 25 2018, @09:15PM
Lion come on don't be a pussy... o wait.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @07:39PM (16 children)
It was obviously an attempt of hostile takeover:
Linus was somehow forced to step away for a while. There are offers sometimes that cannot be refused. (Income? Maybe. He has bills to pay, family to support.) He managed to come back. Good. Otherwise the majority of developers would leave and take the [tar]ball with them. It remains to be seen what (if any) the conspirators managed to steal, and how exactly they should be dealt with in the future.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @08:22PM (13 children)
You are obviously paranoid. But so are a lot of people, making complications appear when the actual explanations given already make sense to the facts.
Now if you're saying that some of the longer-term developers / trusted advisors appear to have convinced Linus that his suggestion of missing developers' conference was not going to be good for the community for more than just technical reasons, and Linus realizing he was feeling good about stepping out on it because of other issues, and Linus finally seemed to be convinced that his insensitivity was not good for the project and actually drives people who want to contribute away, and that he wanted to take some time off to learn ways he might manage the herd without resorting to all-caps profanities.... then I'd say you're spot on. Because that's basically what he said in his email. If you don't get that, go back and re-read it.
And I look forward to his needing to continue to explain that for years to come in the face of such conspiracy theories as this.
And that, folks, is why you have live-in-person dev conferences. So shit like this stays in in-person hallway conversations and doesn't spin completely out of control.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @08:32PM (12 children)
You haven't explained that bit.
Why was it necessary to replace the reasonable technical-excellence-statement with a rambling, fluffy feminists manifesto?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @09:17PM (11 children)
I already did. Paranoia on the part of the finder.
For the other, the tone of your question already reveals that you are not likely to understand the real-world answers. I don't feel obligated to bother to explain.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @09:23PM
It's not the case that one person's paranoia caused Linus to do something very uncharacteristic.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @09:23PM (9 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @09:47PM (8 children)
No, the question isn't inconvenient. It's trivial and unworthy of consideration.
But OK. I'll give you one back that's a little better.... Let's assume for the sake of argument say that this is correct - someone else rather than Linus penned the email. (Rather than an equally plausible maybe Linus composed this email this one time on a word processor and C/P'd rather than typing directly into an email client reply form. Considering it is actually a bigger matter than the usual kernel management.) But no, instead he relied on someone else to compose it for him.... What exactly do you think that proves?
Answer: Nothing whatsoever. As much as you might wish for there to be something else there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @11:08PM (7 children)
Also, why would he write it in some other word processor and then copy it? We're talking about Linus Torvalds here. That would be unusual.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @12:22AM (6 children)
So you're saying that was a usual message from him? A not usual message might be composed unusually. Welcome to tautology 101. Specially crafted for people who don't understand much, or are deliberately trolling, take your pick.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @01:13AM (5 children)
What circumstances led to the need for unusual composition by the originator of Linux, a man who maintains his own Emacs-like text editor, and who has explicit opinions of taste on such composition, and who is surrounded by people who use Emacs or vim, and who all loathe non-ASCII text in the body of an email?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @02:33AM (4 children)
No, you can go back and answer my question now: What does it matter? The answer is still it doesn't. I've answered that you have paranoia. What's your answer to mine?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @08:34AM (3 children)
It matters because Linus Torvalds matters. You must be from that school that think facts are oppressive. Instead the bad feeling of paranoia must be cured.
What does it matter was answered in your parent post - what circumstances led to such an odd behavior? Oh right, you don't believe that circumstances may lead to something - that's all useless.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @10:41AM (2 children)
But the behavior isn't odd at all in the real world. Not in the slightest. Neither the trivia of how the message was composed - and it is trivia - nor even if everything you noted is correct and someone else wrote those words. It Doesn't Matter.
What does matter is that they went out from Linus Torvalds and he has done or said nothing to retract them, contradict them, or shade them. You don't need a grand "his arm was twisted" or "someone's got something on him" conspiracy. Everything that's happened from Linus' end can be explained exactly by what he sent out. Here's another dirt-simple possibility for you: he asked someone for help in composing the message for really obvious reasons. Or he copied/pasted something someone else wrote that expressed what he was trying to say. That also happens in the real world.
As a side note I'd note this: If Linus Torvalds matters *that* much to Linux development - Linux just can't exist without Linus - then Linux is surely doomed. I think what we've seen over the last month is that he doesn't matter quite that much.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @01:02PM (1 child)
That's an interesting question you've brought up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @03:01PM
No, it's not really an interesting question. Because it doesn't matter.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday October 22 2018, @09:33PM (1 child)
It would be pretty hilarious if They tried to mess with his wife, and she just kicked the asses of whoever came for her. She is apparently "a six-time Finnish national karate champion."
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Monday October 22 2018, @10:01PM
I don't know if karate would help her. Now, Jiu Jitsu and bullet ballet could do the trick. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNrSNcaYiZg [youtube.com]
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @08:28PM
I think if you take the first letter of every paragraph of his email and run it through a cipher I picked at random with his birth year as the seed you get individual first letters of words (HISIACF) which can spell the sentence "Help! I'm Stuck In A Coding Factory" - if you allow each of those words to be in different Western languages.
Yeah, that totally proves it!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @08:58PM (4 children)
take off your tinfoil hat, conspiracy theorist, and grow the fuck up.
Linus was an immature dick. At some point in his life, he realized that he was an immature dick, and was hurting people he didn't want to hurt. Such realisations happen sometimes, it's called growing up.
This had nothing to do with obscure forces pulling the strings of the Linux Foundation, or aliens, or lizard people. It's called real life. And real life isn't a fucking movie or video game.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @09:06PM (2 children)
If it were common for somebody like Trump to mistakenly type a tweet with a valid use of Arabic spelling here and there, then I'd agree with you.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @02:46AM (1 child)
You mean "covfefe" isn't valid Arabic?
(Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday October 25 2018, @09:17PM
HE CRIED FOR HELP AND YOU DIDN'T LISTEN.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @12:48PM
He matured suddenly at 48 years old? I don't buy it.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Bot on Monday October 22 2018, @10:44PM
> impossible to be his doing
Or, a kind of canary. Remember when the truecrypt guys announced retirement and suggested people to use Microsoft's solution instead? That kind of heads up.
First the Catholics gets a backup pope, then the Orthodox split, now Torvalds and LKML. Interesting times.
Soon Poettering will ask Linus to relinquish control of the kernel to systemd (you're surrounded, Linus, keep those hands away from the git push button)
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by theluggage on Monday October 22 2018, @07:37PM (3 children)
It doesn't take an uber-hacker like Linus a month to re-implement the "Moodwatch" system that Eudora featured 18 years ago [metafilter.com].
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday October 22 2018, @10:42PM (2 children)
Real question -- how long should it take? Seems like you could come up with some kind of class containing *basic* training on how to do this, at least for the mores of the last, say, 20 years, rather than relying entirely on a person's innate observational skills and trial-and-error. If not, how the hell do we expect that we'll be able to train AI [theguardian.com] to do this?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @11:12PM (1 child)
Time to practice.
You need time to go out and _practice_ these skills. Learn by demonstration, learn by doing. You need to have some dinners with groups of people. You need to attend events that aren't yours. You need to socialize with people you don't know, and you also need to practice _conflict_ with people that you don't know, which is something that others often strive to avoid. You need to let things sink in, and resume practicing. All of this is done over time. Self-reflection over the day before you go to sleep.
I'd honestly be surprised if anyone could develop any significant social skills in under six months, probably closer to a year.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @01:21AM
Linus is pretty fucking smart. I bet he could do it in less than a month if he wanted to.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday October 22 2018, @07:57PM (13 children)
I could very easily imagine a situation where Linus isn't very involved in the nitty-gritty anymore, but still setting overall direction and settling disputes between the top contributors. I could also imagine him turning things over to, say, Alan Cox, and still occasionally chipping in patches and being an informal advisor.
That all said, I can't help but notice that when he's chewed someone out on LKML and it turned into enough of a big public kerfuffle that I've gone through and read the context, the person he chewed out usually deserved it.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @08:00PM (9 children)
There almost always is middle ground sure, but just because someone deserves some correcting does not mean you have to go nuclear about it. Do you agree with the practice of chopping of the hands of thieves? Seems a little overboard to me, but you could make the argument that it is a good deterrent to theft.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @08:06PM
Maybe harsh words are the middle ground, somewhere between doing nothing and chopping off the hands of contributors who submit bad code.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday October 22 2018, @08:26PM
There's a big difference between telling somebody off and "going nuclear". Things Linus hasn't done in these situations include but aren't limited to:
- Flat-out kicking them off the project permanently.
- Trying to get them fired.
- Threatening violence against themselves or people close to them.
- Egging their home.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @08:27PM
"but you could make the argument that it is a good deterrent to theft."
It's unfortunately also a good incentive to frame someone.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Entropy on Monday October 22 2018, @09:35PM (5 children)
There's no middle ground with SJWs. They accept no reason, no logic, and no discussion. Kicking a white male off the project for his porn habits that had absolutely nothing to do with the kernel? Completely in line with their thinking..but only if it's a white male.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @11:46PM (4 children)
Yes there is, I did some research as I never cared overly much about the CoC outrage. I found someone hammering on Coraline(?) or whatever her name is and they linked to a thread. In her own words she stated that she doesn't care about personal views as long as they aren't publicly connected to the project. There is 100% middle ground, just not with the white male persecution complex jackasses such as yourself.
This is a watershed moment for the US, you regressive xenophobic assholes are finally being forced to have some responsibility for your actions. Cover it up with all the "meritocracy" and "code doesn't care" bullshit you want, the truth is that you're hateful childish little shits that don't want to take responsibility for anything. The internet ruined you by enabling and normalizing anonymous shit posting. Now communities are pushing back by trying to bring normal human civilization into some small corners of the net, and you can only whinge about it.
Grow up you child.
(Score: 1, Touché) by NPC-131072 on Tuesday October 23 2018, @12:41AM (2 children)
Did you just assume ze's gender and race? Literally shaking right now!
(Score: 1) by NPC-131073 on Tuesday October 23 2018, @01:09AM (1 child)
I sexually identify as an Apache Attack Copter.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @02:12AM
You know copters take it up the exhaust pipe from the armored division right?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @01:56AM
Racism, sexism, presuming both race and gender, ageism, ableism, the list goes on. The depth and level of your gross and wide-ranging bigotry and prejudice, all exhibited in this post, is literally beyond counting.
Check your privilege!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by krishnoid on Monday October 22 2018, @10:56PM (1 child)
How often has this happened? Is there an archive of 'Stuff Linus said' that people can use to evaluate the frequency and insensitivity of his behavior for ourselves? I'd suspect it would be a small fraction of the emails he sends, and even then would stay mostly content-rich and less ad-hominem.
(Score: 1) by maggotbrain on Tuesday October 23 2018, @02:35AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @01:31PM
We have already seen who will get the reins full time, GKH. And he is sadly a close buddy of the XDG and systemd clowns that are turning Linux userspace into a mess.
Expect the same kind of mess to creep into the kernel once Torvalds officially hands over the commit rights.
(Score: -1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @09:25PM (3 children)
I guess SN is the last place I should expect the average user to understand the concept of community. Too many paranoid androids round these parts.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @09:39PM (1 child)
We understand that you've read the COINTELPRO disinformation techniques and are putting them into practice.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @11:50PM
You're head is so far up your ass you take a simple truthful assessment as some intelligence style op? That is the problem with you paranoids, identity politics to the extreme and thus anything that doesn't go along with your beliefs must be explained away. No need to think, just be angry!
I guess time will tell, but I doubt that will have any bearing on your outlook unless your fears are confirmed. Funny that you meritocrats so often reject facts and debate.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @11:37PM
is a lie.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @09:36PM
Linus is back, and he's badder than ever!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Gaaark on Monday October 22 2018, @10:13PM (1 child)
Ask him if the Linux kernel just got hijacked and see if he does a "No it hasn't" while nodding.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @11:22PM
Truth to be told, Linux is a valuable property now to monetize. Wikipedia writes [wikipedia.org]:
The community should not be paranoid about the events, but it warrants to be vigilant. Anybody remembers CDDB/Gracenote [wikipedia.org]?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 22 2018, @11:33PM (4 children)
Fuck people and their emotions
Either put out quality code, or gtfo..
(Score: 2) by mrpg on Tuesday October 23 2018, @02:17AM (1 child)
Teach a robot to program and all your problems wil be solved.
And tell your mom to hug you more.
There's good and bad code, we agree on that.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @02:26AM
Where I work, a robot does does the majority of the programming (coding).
The difficult thing is to develop the set of rules telling the robot what to do. Turning a relay on or off may take dozens of pages of detailed conditions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @05:11AM
But it's so easy to manipulate people through their emotions. Isn't that the goal here?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @05:59PM
So whiny little bitches should stop posting their whiny bitchy rants in public?
Sounds good to me, you start!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @02:19AM (6 children)
I just don't care. It's not personal, it's about getting a job done.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday October 23 2018, @07:38AM (3 children)
Even where machines do most of the work, those machines are operated by and created by humans.
Robert Pirsig uses the following argument to prove that such a thing as Quality really exists: imagine a world without Quality. It would be much like Soviet Communism.
Now I ask you to imagine a workplace in which people's emotions had no bearing whatsoever. I assert even _you_ would not wish to work there.
Even in the military, which arguably is the most accomplishment-focussed organization in existence, there was always been a strong focus on the feelings of its troops. Otherwise it would have no need to award medals to them.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @02:30PM (2 children)
What do you do when you are siting in a meeting and people are crying (yes sobbing and crying) because their code was pulled or changed because it was found to be potentially flawed? Put it back in to make them feel better? Give them another 3 months to find their problems and correct them at fifty thousand dollar a day over run?
Working on code that lives depend on, the first time people died I was sick for days until it was shown no to have been my fault and don't want anyone to have to go through that. There are more people involved than just the ones building the system.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday October 23 2018, @04:07PM (1 child)
-ted.
I regard the ability not to get depressed over one's bad code being discovered as a very basic qualification for any coding job.
Surely there is some happy compromise?
Consider that the employee who reports bad code to the one who wrote it should be required to do so respectfully.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @04:56PM
The case in point (happened twenty years ago), the code in question was found and fixed during a build and the original author was not notified and became upset when it was discovered that they were not listed as author. It wasn't about depression, but taking it as a personal attack that they weren't good enough. The company had been recently chewed out by a customer for, uh, substandard quality (another org meeting where people started crying).
(Score: 1) by nobodyknowsimageek on Tuesday October 23 2018, @08:12AM (1 child)
You realize you just outed yourself as a sociopath?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @03:18PM
It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it.