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About this quote

What does it mean?
Torvalds expresses strong criticism of competitors in the operating system space.
In plain terms
He thinks some rival groups are not doing a good job.
What can you take from it?
Technical disagreements can lead to harsh language.

Where it applies

  • technical debates
  • open source discussions
  • product critiques

Putting it to work

  • keep criticism technical
  • avoid personal attacks

Questions to consider

  • When is harsh criticism useful?
  • How do you handle technical disagreements?

Another view

Harsh language can alienate potential collaborators.

More from Linus Torvalds

  1. EFI is this other Intel brain-damage (the first one being ACPI).

    Permalink to quote #50

  2. ...even if the Hurd didn't depend on Linux code (and as far as I know, it does, but since I think they have their design heads firmly up their *sses anyway wit…

    Permalink to quote #52

  3. I will, in fact, claim that the difference between a bad programmer and a good one is whether he considers his code or his data structures more important. Bad …

    Permalink to quote #49

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