I wonder how critical the HN community would have been if the exchange was with a female programmer? If you read the exchange, you'll see other commenters defending Linus' blunt responses. Linus was harsher than David or Steve, he called the pull requester a moron.
In that pull request Linus actually explains quite extensively why he doesn't accept it.
Many people also white knight Linus.
This isn't a boy/girl thing. We are an industry that often prides itself on being hurtful to people we disagree with.
It's my opinion that it's possible to have a strong opinion and strength of conviction without being purposefully rude.
This is a completely different thing to what happened here.
"Btw, Joseph, you're a quality example of why I detest the github interface. For some reason, github has attracted people who have zero taste, don't care about commit logs, and can't be bothered.
The fact that I have higher standards then makes people like you make snarky comments, thinking that you are cool.
You're a moron.
Linus"