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by RyanZAG 3911 days ago
>> Then Linus made a joke about Greg being big and squishing people

> Not fucking cool. Violence, whether it be physical intimidation, verbal threats or verbal abuse is not acceptable. Keep it professional on the mailing lists.

WHAT?

Thanks for injecting some actual facts into this. I was actually hoodwinked by that blogpost into thinking something was wrong here, but upon reading the actual conversation it's clear that this Sarah started any and all problems herself. Well, there goes my sympathy in this case.

Goes to show you should never believe anything without actually checking the source.

3 comments

I think she was responding to this line:

> You may need to learn to shout at people.

That is, after all, the last line before her reply, according to this view of the thread:

https://lkml.org/lkml/2013/7/23/107

It's unfortunate that her response lists physical intimidation before verbal abuse, but I don't think she "started any and all problems herself." Her point is still valid.

The response from Ingo Molnar may also be worth a read:

https://lkml.org/lkml/2013/7/19/331

>it's clear that this Sarah started any and all problems herself

How so?

She created a false narrative that Linus was encouraging "physical intimidation and violence". She purposefully took a joke out of context to push her agenda. She seems to be trying to create a situation where it impossible to disagree with her, else you're some kind of "abuser", whether it be a racist or misogynist. Why? I don't know but I wouldn't be surprised if she was seeking a position of power where she could govern the moral rules over a large project and assimilate everyone into her monoculture by calling everyone who disobeyed her rules racist or sexist or what-have-you.
Whoah... Step back a bit. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that the joke was taken out of context. Going from that to knowing what her motivations are is a huge stretch. Isn't it possible that she sincerely believed (even if you disagree) that changes were necessary and would be beneficial?

The stuff you mentioned above is a really flimsy basis for accusing her of an agenda of trying to impose a monoculture, however you may couch that accusation in words like "seems to be trying" and "I don't know but I wouldn't be surprised if".

You're extrapolating from a single email. Linus and many other LKML devs frequently berate and belittle contributors with personal attacks. They're not hard to find, in fact he's famous for them. Sharp was responding to the long history of contributor abuse, and it happened to be in that particular series of emails.
Famous in the same way that 24/7 news can turn a anthill into a mountain.

If you were to read through Torvalds complete LKML log, likely a very small percentage would be harsh. And they in turn would be preceded by someone that should know better violating how kernel development is supposed to be done.

Torvalds have asfaik never woken up, put on his slippers, rolled a die, and started going after someone without cause.