“I'm basically giving myself a permanent vacation from being BDFL”

As a personnal note, you could feel that guido was already in this mood for a while from the tone of the last year tickets and mails.

It's amazing he managed to not explode at somebody. I know i would have if our roles had been reversed in some exchanges we had.

Good writers, comedians or directors know when to quit at the top their carreer.

I think he is quitting before the situation was too taxing and that is wise and courageous. Espacially since it's been more than 2 decades of service.

Plus he is leaving his baby.

That's an amazing move.

>It's amazing he managed to not explode at somebody.

Like a certain other BDFL occasionally does?

Don’t know why you are being downvoted. Linus’s tirades and diatribes are famous for how brutally personal they get. I still maintain that they are a waste of time and he would be a more effective leader if he limited his responses to “this is a bad idea” or “this isn’t done right” instead of writing pages long personal attacks on other members of the project.

Any example of being brutally personal? There's plenty where he attacks someone's work and mentions their position in the community but I don't think I've ever seen him get personal, like insulting their looks or background.

There's nothing personal there, it's a generic insult. Unless Linus know's about the persons breastfeeding history of course.

My understanding is that the person being derided here isn't even a kernel developer.

This is laughable. What would you consider a "personal" insult?

Something personal to an individual, insulting their looks, background, family, etc.

If you call me a dickhead it's not a personal insult, call me fat it's getting there and when it's that [redacted] event when I was drunk a few weeks ago it's personal.

Anyone that find that Linus spray as "brutally personal" needs a cup of cement.

Since the people that enjoy arguing semantics and splitting hairs love a good "word definitions" argument, let's take a quick look at "personal". Merriam-Webster suggests "of, relating to, or affecting a particular person".

So, let's ask ourselves, is the term "dickhead" personal? Does it relate to a particular person? I don't see it relating to anything else, so I'm going to go with "yes" on that one.

But I could be missing something. What do you think it relates to?