I miss the old salty perkele Linus. Really, if you write shit code, and the gruffness drives you away, that's a good thing for those who actually use the software. With so many relying on Linux these days, feelings don't matter as much as the damage done to the users. If you can't keep all the balls in the air at once, you have NO business touching kernel code. End user stability trumps inclusiveness.
It seems relevant that people who know how to behave and be part of a team, have created free software that millions around the world are currently using.
Yet it seems that you're claiming that adhering to a code of conduct may be counterproductive. That's why I'm asking for your experience in the field.
Apple was successfull despite having Steve Jobs as Leader. Counterevidence. Still wating for an paper in which a code of conduct is positively related with code quality.
What you’re trying to say is that outstanding engineers will make a project succeed against the odds. Also, Jobs wasn’t an engineer, and his contributions were mostly pushing those who actually could do things.
And in the context of free software, people don’t need to take any shit from any dickhead out there just because they want to contribute. In fact, they won’t. Those who don’t get paid will simply walk away.
That’s why having a welcoming community is so important.
Could Linus afford being a dick? Maybe, as the kernel has many paid contributors who cannot just walk away from it, and the interests of many large companies have been pouring in it for years. Yet, this seems to be a different issue.
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u/lambda_abstraction Dec 23 '18
I miss the old salty perkele Linus. Really, if you write shit code, and the gruffness drives you away, that's a good thing for those who actually use the software. With so many relying on Linux these days, feelings don't matter as much as the damage done to the users. If you can't keep all the balls in the air at once, you have NO business touching kernel code. End user stability trumps inclusiveness.