Linus Torvalds Dropped Christmas F-Bomb on Kernel Developer
Linux creator Linus Torvalds went on a tirade in the Linux kernel mailing list targeting Red Hat's Mauro Carvalho Chehab, one of kernel maintainers who blamed an application for breakage in the Linux kernel 3.8 RC1.
Torvalds chimed in just before Christmas with expletives and a public reprimand that Linux never blames user programs for breakage. "How hard can this be to understand?" Torvalds wrote.
In a response to a note of Chehab, which suggested that "pulseaudio/tumbleweed has some serious bugs and/or regressions", Torvalds wrote: "Shut up, Mauro. And I don't _ever_ want to hear that kind of obvious garbage and idiocy from a kernel maintainer again. Seriously."
Another taste from his post: "We particularly don't break user space with TOTAL CRAP. I'm angry, because your whole email was so _horribly_ wrong, and the patch that broke things was so obviously crap. The whole patch is incredibly broken shit. It adds an insane error code (ENOENT), and then because it's so insane, it adds a few places to fix it up ("ret == -ENOENT ? -EINVAL : ret"). The fact that you then try to make *excuses* for breaking user space, and blaming some external program that *used* to work, is just shameful. It's not how we work. Fix your f*cking "compliance tool", because it is obviously broken. And fix your approach to kernel programming."
In a follow up post, Torvalds said that he was "upset" and "very upset".
You can read Torvald's post in its entirety here, including the parts we could not print here.
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Wolfgang Gruener is an experienced professional in digital strategy and content, specializing in web strategy, content architecture, user experience, and applying AI in content operations within the insurtech industry. His previous roles include Director, Digital Strategy and Content Experience at American Eagle, Managing Editor at TG Daily, and contributing to publications like Tom's Guide and Tom's Hardware.
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batkerson Good for Linus Torvalds! A kernel should never break, only throw a meaningful error message. Period. Early in my programming career, a professor drilled it into me the following: a monkey should be able to type gibberish into any program and the program should not break. This is even more important for a kernel, even if an outside developer does program crap. Linus's goal is to maintain the quality of the kernel and of the product, and bravo for Linus! And shame on Mauro Chehab. . .maybe he'll learn this lesson!Reply -
RealBeast alibabadaAt least he don't accuse you of holding it wrong...Probably because he actually understands what he is saying, unlike the quote you refer to. :)Reply
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tului Someone dropping "f" bombs(what are we six years old?) isn't really newsworthy. People say fuck, it's not that big of a deal.Reply -
hate machine Someone sure is saddle chapped and rump frustrated.Reply
Tom's the Authority on Tech. Is this even news?
Will it make my pentium go faster and can it run Crysis? -
cookoy No application should be able to break the kernel. Likewise, no user should be able to break a well written application.Reply