I agree, fairness over politeness. I would say honesty over politeness as well. That isn't to say you shouldn't be polite; just realize that sometimes your decisions are going to hurt people no matter how nicely you put it.

I think this is a good point. I don't want people to be needlessly polite, I want them to be truthful in a manner that is also respectful.

But, comparing anyone to de Raadt is easy :D

Granted, Jobs was not always a nice person behind closed doors. However, at least during his Apple 2.0 days, he did NOT trash the people working for him in public the way Linus habitually does.

Another difference is that a lot of people working for Jobs (again, at least during the Apple 2.0 days) made f* you money for their efforts. There are engineers making a living working on Linux, but not on that scale, I think.