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Linus Chews Up Kernel Maintainer For Introducing Userspace Bug
An anonymous reader points out just how thick a skin it takes to be a kernel developer sometimes, linking to a chain of emails on the Linux Kernel Mailing List in which Linus lets loose on a kernel developer for introducing a change that breaks userspace apps (in this case, PulseAudio). "Shut up, Mauro. And I don't _ever_ want to hear that kind of obvious garbage and idiocy from a kernel maintainer again. Seriously. I'd wait for Rafael's patch to go through you, but I have another error report in my mailbox of all KDE media applications being broken
by v3.8-rc1, and I bet it's the same kernel bug. And you've shown
yourself to not be competent in this issue, so I'll apply it directly
and immediately myself. WE DO NOT BREAK USERSPACE! Seriously. How hard is this rule to understand? We particularly don't
break user space with TOTAL CRAP. I'm angry, because your whole email
was so _horribly_ wrong, and the patch that broke things was so
obviously crap. ... The fact that you then try to make *excuses* for breaking user space,
and blaming some external program that *used* to work, is just
shameful. It's not how we work," writes Linus, and that's just the part we can print. Maybe it's a good thing, but there's certainly no handholding when it comes to changes to the heart of Linux.
Being a Kernel Developer is a lot like being a Navy Seal or construction worker - You gotta be tough and know your role. This means no whining about swear words or racist or sexist phrases, and if you have a vagina between your legs, you'd better back it up with more balls than your cocked compadres. You get knocked to the floor and you suck it up and keep chargin'. If you can't handle that, then perhaps you should go work for an FTD or Baskin-Robbins store, the men are trying to get work done.
This shit is deep, not for timid and politically correct finger-wagging sissyboys. Linus is a benevolent dictator and acting in the best interests of the movement -- and that Latino or Dago, Morono or whatever his name was, was lucky that Linus didn't kick his ass, because Linus hates ethnic minorities. He sees daily what they are doing to his beloved homeland and regrets that he has to work with them. And if there's one thing you don't do, it's break Linus' fucking userspace, because kernel developers are held to a much higher standard than Microsoft's flea-bitten army of stinky H1-B monkies. This isn't a fucking game. This is a new era of computing as we know it.
After all these years, could we please get this right? His name is Linux Torvalds, it's the operating system that's called Linus! You know, like the kid on Peanuts?
Sheesh...
If thou see a fair woman pay court to her, for thus thou wilt obtain love
b) Linus was the only childish one getting all pantytied and emotional.
WRONG! If the other weren't pantytied and emotional, he would have done the right thing immediately instead of making childish excuses. You are biased. Both of them were pantytied and emotional. I am biased too, but only because I am biased towards the facts, and the fact is that Linus was the only guy with a leg to stand on in that conversation.
You are also clearly not well-versed enough in the English language to participate on Slashdot. Nobody said that it was a part of Linus' staff. The statement was that if he was part of his staff (i.e. if this were a corporate situation) then Linus would just fire him, and put someone who didn't argue with him about kernel commits in his place. The next guy in line gets the position, everyone moves up hopefully, and everyone competent and responsible benefits while the problem is shuffled out. Instead, when he failed to take the point the first time, Linus flame-broiled him to sort him out. The next step is having your commit access revoked, which some people would do immediately at the first conflict that can't be resolved with "don't do that".
It seems to be a complicated issue.
But it isn't. The other party returned an impossible error value which broke something that metric assloads of people are using.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"