[kaens]

Friend, the only reason things seemed simple in the 80s is because the people on the receiving end of the "absolute freedom" stick, regardless of whether or not the people swinging it were aware of their swings, didn't have means to be heard by hundreds of thousands of people easily.

For computing specifically, you can add in that you basically had to be an economically privileged person who was likely on the spectrum to get really into it -- in an era where ASD and related disorders were not as well understood or diagnosed. You can also add it just being a smaller community.

Both RMS and linus had years and years of people expressing that they were acting in a problematic ways. Linus owned up to it eventually, even though there are arguments to be made for the utility of brashness.

RMS is mostly getting stuck in hyperfocused linguistic semantics, and probably doesn't really get how to not do that. Whether or not people making such a screech about this particular instance is appropriate is it's own question, but to me it is very much a "throwing up of hands" for a lot of people involved with the FSF.

[hudsonwillis]

Yeah the Internet changed everything. I just hope Linus could stick to his style without being stuck in these things, but if that really becomes the case I would seriously consider retiring from my job on kernel.

[kaens]

I am, no lie, quite concerned about the future of linux without someone really willing to be very stern (even cuss up a storm sometimes) about issues like pushing patches that break userspace or just quite bad code in general once linus is gone.

I'm fine with people telling him to stop being super harsh on the semi-reg, but there are actually gates that need kept in kernelland and one of the jobs of a gatekeeper is to tell people "no", sternly sometimes, and with explanation sometimes.