this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2024
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Lol surely Linux can't have a CoC or Linus would be out in seconds? I wonder if he gets an explicit exemption.
Yeah, I wonder about this.
There's being blunt, and there's abuse. Linus attacks code, not people. Maybe it's seems like a distinction without a difference, but Linus would say "stop submitting stupid patches," instead of "stop being stupid." Or maybe, "the quality of your patch is dumb" versus "you're dumb." But, I don't follow the LKML so maybe he does ad hominem attacks.
I do know he's mellowed over the years and the CoC was introduced after his daughter called him out about abusive behavior, and he seems to have listened to her. So you may be right: if the CoC had been introduced 20 years ago, maybe he'd have already been kicked out.
My final thought is that there's a bit of "rules for thee, not me." Linux can probably now survive without Linus, but he's still a guiding force and probably the foremost authority on the core kernel, and I have a hard time imagining his lieutenants kicking him out.
Maybe today, but certainly not in the past. I don't doubt that Linus always had the best intentions for the kernel, but he nevertheless told other developers they should be retroactivly aborted. It's hard for me to imagine that this version of Linus and a Linux CoC could've existed at the same time.
But I also get the impression that he did change quite a bit since then, now being blunt instead of abusive as you said. This shouldn't be inherently incompatible with a CoC.
Fair.
I think in asking myself why I've never really held Linus conduct against him; he's this weird 1:1 situation.
He's unfortunately tasked with stewarding a project that runs the planets tech and it's his name on the tin. Which whether he likes it or not at this point, makes his identity wrapped up in the quality of the project. I absolutely don't condone the behavior, but I can understand how people handing you shit sandwiches becomes a personal attack of it's own over time.
It's probably a lesson we'll refuse to learn about not doing this single leader thing again. Time and insularity tend to make bigger assholes of us all.