Linus Torvalds Promises Profanity Over Linux 3.10-rc5

hypnosec writes "Linus Torvalds has released Linux 3.10-rc5, and he is certainly not happy with the changes merged last week. Rc5 is bigger than rc4 and has code scattered across its entire code base because it addresses many outstanding problems. In the release announcement, Torvalds noted, 'I wish I could say that things are calming down, but I'd be lying. rc5 is noticeably bigger than rc4, both in number of commits and in files changed (although rc4 actually had more lines changed, so there's that).' Torvalds has warned that he is going to start cursing again, and said, 'I'm going to call you guys out on, and try to come up with new ways to insult you, your mother, and your deceased pet hamster.'"

Comments

Profanity?

[Anonymous Coward]

Calm and measured explanations of just what the coders are doing wrong would be ever so much more helpful. If all Linus is going to do is mouth off then perhaps it's time he just STFU and GTFO.

Re:Profanity?

[Anonymous Coward]

He did explained, which is "donâ(TM)t stop sending him non-critical stuff, he is going to start cursing again."

Obviously, people have not gotten his memo for the last 10 kernel releases- we've been hearing about this complaint since 3.0.

He is pissed because he has to waste time going thru the code for every single commit that should not go into a RC build.

At this point there's really only 2 things he can do- deny the commits, or/and swear at the dev. What else can he do, fire them?

Re:Profanity?

[Anonymous Coward]

Your post artfully demonstrates that which I have always held true.

People who are not afraid to curse are capable of having a much stronger control over their language of choice, than those who refuse to curse for some arbitrary reason.

Re:Profanity?

[Anonymous Psychopath]

Calm and measured explanations of just what the coders are doing wrong would be ever so much more helpful. If all Linus is going to do is mouth off then perhaps it's time he just STFU and GTFO.

I think he should take your advice. Clearly his methods have been unsuccessful.

Re:Profanity?

[Nivag064]

You obviously don't appreciate his sense of humour.

If you think he puts other people down, he can do worse to himself. I remember reading emails years ago when he released a kernel update saying in very picturesque language that he stuffed up the previous release.

He has also found being polite, can be worse for people.

I wish I was good enough for him to insult me! However, I am not a kernel hacker, so fat chance.

If someone sends a patch which is terrible from an unknown, he is likely just to ignore it, but a good patch that did the job would go into the kernel with no fuss. If someone competent sends in a patch he doesn't like, with something he thinks is really bad, he will say so in no uncertain terms.

I have been reading what he has written and seeing videos of him, from time to time for over 20 years, so I understand where he is coming from and have immense respect for him.

He is neither a smarmy politician or a hypocritical religious evangelist - he is extremely honest, competent, & caring. Don't judge him by such superficial considerations that you seem to use.

Re:Profanity?

[Anonymous Coward]

Calm and measured explanations of just what the coders are doing wrong would be ever so much more helpful.

Bull mother-fucking pussy. There is not one fucking shred of evidence to support that claim, and you sure as hell haven't written a single good line of code.

You can write an algorithm ten ways, all of which accomplish the task. Objectively, they all work.

But at least 9 of them are going to be fucking ugly and cause problems down the line. It is good for someone to tell you sooner that something you wrote is fucked up than to discover that later.

It's like writing material for stand-up or sketch comedy. All your jokes might have all the elements of humor, they "work" in that sense. But some asshole has to say, "no, that's fucking garbage, it's not good enough," and he has to do that for 95% of what you wrote. Otherwise you won't find out until you're standing in front of an audience and they're booing your ass off stage.

Re:Profanity?

[epyT-R]

Being blunt and direct is the only way to fight the catty, passive aggressive behavior seen in modern social interaction. If anything, to people like linus, saying dumb things and then hiding behind your feelings when called out on it is dickish.

Re:Profanity?

[Kjella]

Calm and measured explanations of just what the coders are doing wrong would be ever so much more helpful. If all Linus is going to do is mouth off then perhaps it's time he just STFU and GTFO.

Mostly he's talking to seasoned veterans at kernel development who damn well know what the rules are, they just choose to bend them. They're always pushing and he's the one who has to push back, measured explanations is as useless as explaining to boys that trying to sneak a peek into the girl's locker room is wrong. Of course they knew that but they did it anyway and a "please don't do that" won't discourage anyone from trying again. Even if he rejects the patches unless he talks back he becomes the wall people throw crap at to see what sticks. Usually The I'd call developers who should know better behaving in ways that are destructive to the project a management problem, but he's the project manager so his way of resolving it is to give people a well-deserved ass chewing on the LKML. Don't knock it if it works...

Re:Profanity?

[PPH]

Expletives are like rim shots. They work well to emphasize a certain point. Trouble is; some people are stuck playing drum solos.

Re: Profanity?

[Merls the Sneaky]

People who make these sorts of arguments against using profanity only convey "I will use and ad hominem to dissuade its use because I personally do not like profanity".

Re: Profanity?

[Archangel Michael]

The F Bomb is utterly meaningless when used for every other word. It makes little people seem bigger, but only in their own eyes and the eyes of small people. To artfully use vocabulary to disrespect others is actually not easy, which is why simple people resort to using F-Bomb. It is right up there with calling people "Racist" (or similar) because they are losing a political argument.

Re:profanity

[UnknowingFool]

Am I the only one that sees the dead hamster thing as a joke? Linus is not happy but he also seems to be making light of the situation. As for businesses choosing MS over Linux, I suppose you don't wander into many server rooms. I know in ones I've been in, there are as many or more Linux servers than Windows servers.

Re:profanity

[Anonymous Coward]

Business owners aren't reading the linux kernel mailing list.

Here is my message to Linus

[dugancent]

Grow up.

Re:Here is my message to Linus

[Anonymous Coward]

Mine is "Thanks!"

Re:profanity

[93 Escort Wagon]

Oh come on. Did people shun Microsoft when Ballmer did the Sweaty Monkey Dance or threaten to "fucking kill Google"?

No one of consequence cares when Linus Torcalds acts like a petulant child - if they have an interest in Linux, they're more concerned about support availability and duration.

Re:Yay; Linus the motivator

[UnknowingFool]

You understand what "release candidate" is right? A release candidate is not a time for adding new enhancements. It should be for streamlining and tightening the code for release. The fact that RC5 is bigger than RC4 means that people either were not doing their jobs in the previous 3 releases or that the code submitted earlier was so crappy that it needs more work. Release candidates should get smaller than the previous not larger.

Well...

[SirLurksAlot]

Everyone has to have a hobby, right?

Seriously though, who the hell cares if the RC is bigger than the one before it, or whether the changes are scattered everywhere? If there were any number of concerns that needed to be addressed before the next release then it wasn't ready to go in the first place. Just test the hell out of everything, make sure nothing is broken, and make sure that each change was necessary and correct. In short calm your tits and keep coding.

Re:Well...

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think you understand how software engineering works, Computer science maybe, but software engineering, clearly not. Or maybe you just didn't read TFA.

The problem isn't that the release is too broken, nor that a lot of critical fixes are needed. It's that devs are committing excessive non-critical stuff. At this point in the release cycle, ONLY critical stuff should be committed.

Linus has every right to be a bit angered. He's done so effectively, in a way that will get the devs attention (hopefully) and he's made a joke out of it. If that has no effect, he has every right to become MORE than a bit angered.

Re:Well...

[toopok4k3]

The thing is, those belong to the next kernel version at RC state. Not as RC fixes. People are screwing up by not following the proper process.

Re:profanity

[Anonymous Coward]

Am I the only one that sees the dead hamster thing as a joke? Linus is not happy but he also seems to be making light of the situation. As for businesses choosing MS over Linux, I suppose you don't wander into many server rooms. I know in ones I've been in, there are as many or more Linux servers than Windows servers.

This varies greatly, but I work for an international software company that just discontinued our Linux server product because of the overwhelming demand from Windows Server customers in comparison (growing over Linux). I know, just another anecdotal data point, but when you talk about seeing "as many or more Linux servers than Windows servers" I think you have a very particular and not necessarily representative type of server rooms you visit.

Re:profanity

[psergiu]

Business also choose microsoft because microsoft has a special budget line for "greasing" key factors at those businesses.