Let me respond as somebody who was the target of one of Zed's rants. When Zed gets into one of his little rantboxes, he absolutely refuses to listen to the other side. He's very often right, but he's not comprehensively right, which is to say, he makes good points and he makes shitty points, and he frequently refuses to acknowledge his errors. Furthermore, he's got a holier-than-thou stance in which Zed is on the cause of Good and Sanity and the person he's decided to rant against is scum.

The man is incredibly immature when he gets into those states. He ignores all evidence going against him, doesn't listen to his debaters, and proceeds as if everybody on the planet other than him is shit-filled. I think he's very bright but do wish he'd learn to act his age.

While you sit and fuss over his words and his public outbursts, I wonder what open source software you have written that has half the impact that his work has?

People's having done certain things doesn't exempt them from being judged. Did Zed stop from insulting DHH during his whole Rails rant? Because I'm pretty sure Rails is used more than anything Zed may have added on to it. I'm not blaming Zed for attacking DHH, but the whole "I did shit" defense is paltry and lame.

Is it because he says things that hit at the core of their insecurities? Or is it simple jealousy?

A lot of smug pricks like to use that word, "insecurities", as if every time somebody gets pissed off at them for being a blowhard it's due to insecurity. Myself, I don't write for open source, I'm not a huge fan of the open source community, I'm not much of a programmer at all. I just think he's a prick.

I may be a jealous person, but let's be honest, I'm jealous of people who are far more successful than Zed. He's a minor Internet celebrity at best. I reserve my jealousies for 37signals-level celebrities at the least.