Sigh. Always the same complaint.. A couple of thoughts:
1. He is expected to comment or answer questions like this ALL THE TIME. People only have so much patience. Don't believe me? Go to a poor country as a tourist and see how quickly your tone changes when poor people constantly approach you. Or ask a good looking young woman how it is for her when she goes out.
2. Life is tough, deal with it. This expectation that everything has to be nice and safe and friendly all the time lead, amongst other things, to the NSA mess we have right now, as Schneier pointed out recently [1]. We want EVEN MORE safety. And you want everyone to be nice. Well, what do you prefer? Some tough love from a guy like Linus, or friendly words that neither help you improve your knowledge (in this case) or, worse, someone that pretends that you are doing alright when, in fact, you aren't.
3. If this kind of communication helps to weed out people that are incompetent more successfully than other methods, then isn't it acceptable?
Finally, and this is a little bit of an unnecessary tounge in cheek comment, I recommend you go watch an old Sergio Leone western. And then reflect what a guy like Clint Eastwood would have to say about your comment. Not, much, I suppose. ;)
Any manager of a high profile/pressurised project has to answer 'stupid' questions all the time. That doesn't mean they all react like children. In my opinion managers tend to earn more respect when they don't.
Linus has earned the respect of the tech community for other reasons, but that doesn't mean you have to defend everything he does.
The point is, if his goal is to truly make him understand, he can achieve that goal MUCH faster if he doesn't hurt the ego of the person he is having an argument with. When your intelligence is insulted, you will spend a lot more time defending yourself rather then accepting a point.
This is true on a micro, per-interaction scale. On a macro scale, it can be more beneficial in the long run for people's egos to be hurt when they're wrong. For someone like Torvalds, the macro scale of interaction matters a lot.
You're basically supporting the "everyone's a winner" mindset. Sure, on a micro scale, tell the kid they were a winner for participating, guide them, and for that particular interaction everyone comes out ahead. On the macro scale, it's better to feel the sting of being wrong so you can learn from it.
1. He is expected to comment or answer questions like this ALL THE TIME. People only have so much patience. Don't believe me? Go to a poor country as a tourist and see how quickly your tone changes when poor people constantly approach you. Or ask a good looking young woman how it is for her when she goes out.
2. Life is tough, deal with it. This expectation that everything has to be nice and safe and friendly all the time lead, amongst other things, to the NSA mess we have right now, as Schneier pointed out recently [1]. We want EVEN MORE safety. And you want everyone to be nice. Well, what do you prefer? Some tough love from a guy like Linus, or friendly words that neither help you improve your knowledge (in this case) or, worse, someone that pretends that you are doing alright when, in fact, you aren't.
3. If this kind of communication helps to weed out people that are incompetent more successfully than other methods, then isn't it acceptable?
Finally, and this is a little bit of an unnecessary tounge in cheek comment, I recommend you go watch an old Sergio Leone western. And then reflect what a guy like Clint Eastwood would have to say about your comment. Not, much, I suppose. ;)