These are the things that matter most to Linus

Jan 16, 2015 10:06 GMT  ·  By

Linux.conf.au 2015 is a conference that took place in Auckland, New Zealand, and that just ended. One of the speakers there was Linus Torvalds and he said some very interesting things, especially about this perceived "abrasive" tone in the mailing lists.

Linus Torvalds has very clear opinions and never pulls any punches. He says what he thinks and he happened more than once to use a strong language in order to make sure that the people he was talking to really understood what they've done or how they are wrong. It's not an easy place to be, at the end of Linus' tirade, and some people got their feelings hurt.

In retrospect, this might feel like something that matters very little, but the same issue was raised during the Q&A for the keynote of Linus Torvalds, at the Linux.conf.au 2015 conference, or LCA 2015 for short. His response might enlighten some people and might upset others, and it might also put this thing to rest.

Linus Torvalds is not mean, he's just passionate

One of the things people often say about him, after reading his posts or his comments, is that he's a mean person. That might be true, but we don't really know him. It's more likely that he really cares about the kernel and everything else revolving around this subject, so he will make some harsh statements that are usually true, but not to everyone's liking.

According to an article published on arstechnica.com, Linus answered a question exactly about this subject and his response couldn't have been clearer. "I'm not a nice person, and I don't care about you. I care about the technology and the kernel—that's what's important to me." Even if there is no video for this (should be up pretty soon), it's been tweeted quite a lot.

There is no doubt that Linus Torvalds is a very influential person, even if he doesn't want to be. Users and developers look up to him, for the most part, so the things he says will be analyzed and dissected in detail. The fact that he doesn't really care much about what people think about him should render other comments about him moot.