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Comment by steve19 | Hacker News Reader

Reading the full thread it seems everyone walks in eggshells around him, speaking so sweetly to him while he insults them and their work.

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I don't get that feeling at all. The thing that stands out to me is how they are constantly mentioning something along the lines of "we discussed this with him/her on the maliing list", "they said it was okay", ... When Linus from first to last email makes it clear that he does not want any BUG() and discussion about it is moot.

Reminds me of breaking rules as a child and then justifying it by saying that a friends mother said it was okay, or asking my dad about something my mom had already forbidden...

I can see how that is frustrating from his point, when he made it clear multiple times and is basically reiterating it that whole thread, until in the one of them even thinks of a solution.

Yes, I agree. The responses were actually more disturbing than the initial outburst. It sounded very much like what I expect from an abusive relationship.

What I find interesting is that they must at some level realize that it does not work: Torvalds is not going to respect you more, or cut you some slack because you are incredibly polite and careful in your wording. It strikes me as rather dumb. If the entire conversation can be reworded as 'Hey I think it's okay to break the machine in such-and-such a case' - 'No, I fart in your general direction, this fucks up my standards for quality software' - 'Okay', why are both Alexander and Kees trying to be so incredibly polite? It's just a waste of time.

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