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Comment by chatman | Hacker News Reader

Did he not talk about his choice of foul language and need (or lack of need) for discipline, esp. in mailing lists?

This starts to get old. This guy manages a 17 million line low level open source project with more than 1000 contributors each cycle and best thing people can do is bicker about his inappropriate language use on some occasions (which get way more publicity than the usual workflow discussions).

I really wish we'd have a more progressive tone here than a tabloid.

I suspect it is a popular topic because of all the things that Linus is involved with, his use of profanity requires the least amount of technical knowledge or credentials to talk about. If you want to talk about something Linus does, talking about swearing is the lowest hanging fruit by miles.

Of course, the mere existence of a more esoteric topic of conversation shouldn't preclude discussion of whatever social problems exist on the LKML. Just because social problems are, in theory, easier to understand doesn't mean they are easier to solve in practice.

Linux is not a company, they don't have to care about public image. I say they should let their curse machine on.

I'm thankful that he's only Icelandic and not Balkan. Slavic culture commonly incorporates swearing in just about every aspect of life in casual, entertainment, and business settings. We would never hear the end of it from the web tabloids/bloggers of the world.

I only know of him what I read on the Internet, but Wikipedia says he is Finnish. Your original point stands though.

I think you meant "Icelandic" to mean the 'cultural region' (like Balkan). In English you could use "Nordic" instead, and possibly also "Scandinavian" (although "Scandinavian" technically excludes Finland, depending on who you ask).

Do people really think that swear words in and of themselves are the problem?

My understanding wasn't that he used profanity, but he effectively flamed people. Swearing is just another tool in the toolkit as far as chewing someone out is concerned, modulo the ones with obvious gender connotations.

"Flaming" is subjective in my opinion, while profanity isn't. The last curfuffle to me was really just someone overreacting to typical impersonal male culture, then a bunch of men overreacting for the fact a woman tried to disrupt said culture. From there it really just escalated into further melodrama, completely idiotic.

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