Linus is a jerk, but a honest and quite reasonable one. He is the anti-Dunning-Kruger [1] personification, in my opinion.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
Linus Torvalds as a _person_ is a JERK because he's ranting about his life-work in an email list?
I don't think Linus is a jerk just for being passionate about his work. His job is to be extremely critical of the code he reviews. Yes, he gets angry and uses swear words quite liberally but it's his style.
Definition of jerk
1 a : an annoyingly stupid or foolish person
was acting like a jerk
a selfish jerk