At the time the email was written, Linus was 30.
> Linus is quite patronizing in practically all of his e-mails
Maybe so, but -- for me at least -- Linus has earned more of a right to be patronising than ESR has.
Linus earned his stripes; 30, 20 or 10 years old, the man delivered a world-class piece of software.
Patronizing him is just pulling non-existent rank so ESR doesn't feel like a fish out of water. Remember, while Linus oversaw the hottest piece of Unix software to come in decades, Eric Raymond was making a living off of "seniority" and "lore".
Eric Raymond is the spokesperson of an "in-crowd" whose membership he didn't earn.
I don't see what your point is. I clearly didn't mean that he was literally a child.