How New, Polite Linus Torvalds Points Out Bad Kernel Code (phoronix.com)

Linus Torvalds "has shown already for the new Linux 4.20~5.0 cycle he isn't relaxing his standards but is communicating better when it comes to bringing up coding," reports Phoronix, adding "So far it looks like Linus' brief retreat is paying off with still addressing code quality issues -- and not blatantly accepting new code into the kernel as some feared -- but in doing so in a professional manner compared to his past manner of exclaiming himself over capitalized sentences and profanity that at time put him at odds with some in the Linux kernel community."

AmiMoJo quotes their report: Last Saturday he took issue with the HID pull request and its introduction of the BigBen game controller driver that was introduced: the developer enabled this new driver by default. Linus Torvalds has always frowned upon random new drivers being enabled by default in the kernel configuration driver. [H]e still voiced his opinion over this driver's default "Y" build configuration, but did so in a more professional manner than he has done in the past:

We do *not* enable new random drivers by default. And we most *definitely* don't do it when they are odd-ball ones that most people have never heard of.

Yet the new "BigBen Interactive" driver that was added this merge window did exactly that.

Just don't do it.

Yes, yes, every developer always thinks that _their_ driver is so special and so magically important that it should be enabled by default. But no. When we have thousands of drivers, we don't randomly pick one new driver to be enabled by default just because some developer thinks it is special. It's not.... Please don't do things like this.
Phoronix also describes another "kernel oops" testing Torvalds' patience, in which Linus responded tactfully that "What makes me *very* unhappy about this is that if I'm right, I think it means that code was literally not tested at all by anybody who didn't have one of the entries in that list."

Comments

Re:What is important

[DogDude]

Sometimes you have to be a prick to someone for them to get it.

No, you don't. If you're too dull to figure out how to communicate effectively without being an asshole, then that's YOUR problem.

Re:Neutered

[gweihir]

I don't think so. I think he will just learn to be cutting and harsh in a polite way. It is not that hard to utterly destroy somebody while staying perfectly polite and seemingly not even getting personal at all.

In fact, Linus demonstrated here that he can do this. (Yes, AmiMoJo is not only an SJW, but also deeply stupid...)

Try this

[markdavis]

No over-the-top belittling or cursing. But it still unnecessarily long/repetitive, contains multiple bolds/underlines, belittles a user/team, and is impolite. So while it is an improvement, couldn't he have just said something like:

"The BigBen Interactive driver was merged with the driver enabled. We generally do not enable new drivers by default, especially those that are more obscure. Please refrain from enabling new drivers to help keep the kernel more robust and stable. Thanks!"

Re: Oy vey

[Millennium]

I don't know, I find the sobbing and screeching of incels and Nazis to be quite a catchy little tune.

Re: "What makes me *very* unhappy..."

[Millennium]

Literally nobody anywhere used the "echoes" parentheses before the Nazis did. And the few decent people who picked them up from the Nazis unknowingly reacted with horror when they realized they'd essentially been doing random Nazi-saluting in public without realizing it, and stopped. Because that's what a decent person does: you leave stuff the Nazis have ruined to the Nazis, so that the unmask-and-ostracize folks have the tools they need to do the unmasking part.

Re: I can actually hear him gritting his teeth

[Zero__Kelvin]

Shut the fuck up you moron

Re:I can actually hear him gritting his teeth

[Idimmu Xul]

i'm hoping you're a fantastic troll, because the alternative is you actually have to live with yourself.