[whydee]

I call bullshit on that entire argument. Assholes will be assholes no matter what the context, and while I don't know Linus personally nor have I worked with him, I can spot his in-defense-of-being-an-asshole argument from a mile away. That's all it is. That entire text can be summarized as "I like to be an asshole sometimes, deal with it or leave".

The people who curse and yell and throw angry hissy fits are the exact same people who infuse work environments with the fake politeness, the lying, the office politics and backstabbing, the passive aggressiveness, and the buzzwords when forced to operate in a professional environment.

If his self-description really is accurate ("I'm not polite, and I get upset easily"), then telling other people "deal with it" is just an asshole move to do, nothing more nothing less. He could stand to become a better person by figuring out why he gets upset so easily and finding ways to either mitigate or work around that deficiency. Because however effective he may be right now, he would be even more effective then.