Re: [ 00/19] 3.10.1-stable review

Sarah Sharp
2013-07-18T15:48:14Z

On Thu, Jul 18, 2013 at 02:42:16AM +0200, Thomas Gleixner wrote:
> If you can point me to a single instance of Linus "abusing" someone
> who is not one of his trusted persons, who really should be able to
> deal with that, or someone who did not provoke him to go into rant
> mode, then I'm all on your side.

Not that I think this link will sway you, and this thread *should*
really die down so we can discuss this at KS instead:

https://plus.google.com/+LinusTorvalds/posts/1vyfmNCYpi5

"So here's a plea: if you have anything to do with security in a distro,
and think that my kids (replace "my kids" with "sales people on the
road" if you think your main customers are businesses) need to have the
root password to access some wireless network, or to be able to print
out a paper, or to change the date-and-time settings, please just kill
yourself now. The world will be a better place."

Linus asked someone to go kill themselves. That someone was anyone
involved in distro security, specifically OpenSuse. I think that
qualifies as "not one of his trusted persons". I'll leave it up to you
whether you think that statement was justified or civil.

I don't think someone in a position of power should be encouraging
developers to commit suicide, even if they did make a mistake. The
Portland open source community has already had to deal with two
developer suicides this year (Igal Koshevoy and Matthew):

http://stumptownsyndicate.org/2013/04/09/goodbye-igal/

I personally don't want to be responsible for anyone else contemplating
suicide, even because of an obviously sarcastic "joke". I don't joke
about suicide. I would appreciate it if other developers refrained from
joking about it as well.

Sarah Sharp