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Godwin's Law Invoked in Linus/Gnome Spat

Posted by Zonk on from the can't-the-nazis-stay-out-of-just-one-internet-argument dept.

lisah writes "The flame wars between Linus Torvalds and the GNOME community continue to burn. Responding to Torvalds' recent claim that GNOME 'seems to be developed by interface Nazis' and that its developers believe their 'users are idiots,' a member of the Linux Foundation's Desktop Architects mailing list suggested that Torvalds use GNOME for a month before making such pronouncements. Torvalds, never one to back down from a challenge, simply turned around and submitted patches to GNOME and then told the list, '...let's see what happens to my patches. I guarantee you that they actually improve the code.' After lobbing that over the fence, Torvalds concluded his comments by saying, 'Now the question is, will people take the patches, or will they keep their heads up their arses and claim that configurability is bad, even when it makes things more logical, and code more readable.'" Linux.com and Slashdot are both owned by OSTG.

2 of 828 comments (clear)

  1. things linus is good at by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    First, things Linus is NOT good at:

    1) copyright licenses
    2) copyright assignment
    3) patents
    4) understanding why BitKeeper was a bad idea
    5) open-source politics
    6) user interfaces

    Next, things that Linus IS good at:

    1) kernel development

    The more times he opens his mouth on one of the topics from the first list, the more I believe this is true.

  2. Re:Attitude by Excelsior · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I see your point, but it's not that simple. Like it or not, Gnome is the first thing that many people see on their way to using the software Linus does care about, which is the Linux kernel.

    There is a reason most people see Gnome. Because Gnome is the most successful desktop project for Linux.

    I've dedicated my life to the internals of this hotel, they're aswesome, but once people see the filthy lobby, they run away without even noticing the good stuff!"

    If the approach that KDE takes was superior, distributions would be using it. That's simple survival-of-the-fittest. If a KDE-based distribution was kicking butt and taking names, then other distributions would switch. But it isn't happening.

    If Linux wanted a better desktop, the best way to prove it would be to fork Gnome, implement the things he wants, and see if Linome became a more successful project.