http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3977141&cid=442916...
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3977141&cid=442909...
To me Linus is kinda like Wagner, I do like and enjoy his work, but as a person he is not someone I'd aspire to emulate.
(Nitpick: Do you mean Richard Wagner or someone called Vagner I’ve never heard of?)
If she did that, I'd definitely say it is a stupid/bad idea because X, Y, Z and move along. She just lacks context/knowledge why it is a stupid idea. If she is dimwitted to a point that she doesn't understand even when it's explained, I'd try to find a new wife.
Note: meant Wagner, and it's fixed.
I am now poorer for the time wasted replying to your post.
Edit: Just saw your reply to the OP: "If she is dimwitted to a point that she doesn't understand even when it's explained, I'd try to find a new wife."
Words fail me.
Also the wife in question is a theoretical construct, not an actual human being, that was for purpose of mental experiment made 'extremely dumb'. He isn't saying his or any other wife/parter was dumb, he made a thought experiment to demonstrate his point. Try to not be so obtuse.
I feel sorry for her and you haven't even found her yet.
Precisely, but that is the for the person themselves to feel and not to be told. If you get off on telling people they are lesser beings than you then there is something intrinsically wrong with your impulse control; it's called learning, and the day the world makes that a shameful thing is the day we all return to the middle ages.
N.B, this was specifically related to he/she having to feel dumb for even thinking it. Doing something when you have no expertise in that field is an entirely different kettle of fish. It seems in this case he/she would have been insulted for contemplating the idea inside the boundaries of his/her own mind..
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wagner#Racism_and_anti...
edit: hrm, that rather seems your point in linking them.
I'd agree there are degrees of someone being a dick. There is also the matter of it being done in different context, it's different to be a asshole in public is different that in semi-privacy of a mailing list.
Another thing to note, that both commenters didn't go into foreign language swear mode :) and called Linus a devil's cunthead. They pointed out he is behaving as douchebag.
If the response is 'context', then it should also be pointed out that we only ever see the slimmest speck of his emails from the list and we never see them in the context in which they're presented. As someone else in the thread mentioned, we don't see the many messages where he doesn't behave this way; we don't see the actual personality that is seen when working with him.
It's true we might miss some of the context by not being there, that said, from his previous discussions you can draw a lot of observation that help clarify the current context.
Point of the messages was that him acting "unprofessional" will actually cause the same behavior he is trying to avoid by acting "unprofessional".
The other comment spends the first half in character assassination and really gives us no particular reason to consider that author particularly versed in how to behave professionally.
The thing is, if you stop and actually read how Torvalds presents himself, it's not just spewing forth expletives. There is a lot of consideration and thought behind what he says. It's just that this hoopla erupts because occasionally an uptight person makes a complete meal of things by publicising one of these comments out of the greater context. It's pretty much textbook yellow journalism.