back to article Linus Torvalds warns he's in no mood to be polite as Linux 4.2 drags

Linus Torvalds' regular Sunday night missive on the state of kernel development has labelled version 4.2 as a bit of a problem child and warned he “might not react politely” to some developer requests. Announcing the release of release candidate five (rv5), Torvalds says “it's looking like 4.2 might be one of the releases …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "In January 20145"

    Time travel! :o

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Give em' a break

      Obviously someone forgot to type a decimal point...

      1. Simon Sharwood, Reg APAC Editor (Written by Reg staff)

        Re: Give em' a break

        You get ONE LOUSY CHARACTER WRONG and this is what happens ;-)

        Sorted. Thanks for pointing it out.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Give em' a break

          One lousy wrong character was enough destroy Mariner 1 on launch in 1962.

          1. Jim 59

            Re: Give em' a break

            Daresay the Reg would have done a few more checks if they were programming a spaceship.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Happy

              Re: Give em' a break

              Judging from the write-ups on LOHAN, methinks they've done quite a bit more than a few checks on their "spacecraft."

        2. Graham Marsden
          Happy

          @ Simon Sharwood, Reg APAC Editor - Re: Give em' a break

          > You get ONE LOUSY CHARACTER WRONG and this is what happens ;-)

          You must be new here...

    2. Uncle Slacky Silver badge
      Linux

      The year of Linux on the desktop!

      As title...

  2. Chairo
    Coat

    I'm not a nice person and I don't care about you

    Sounds like my previous boss.

    1. Teiwaz

      Re: I'm not a nice person and I don't care about you

      As comparison, people who claim or think they're mad usually aren't.

      It's the bosses that declare they are intelligent* and logical that scare me.

      * and when a boss tells me I am intelligent, I get instantly suspicious someone is trying to manipulate me rather clumsily.

      1. sisk

        Re: I'm not a nice person and I don't care about you

        In Torvald's case I'd call it a pretty good case of self-awareness. He's NOT a nice person. In fact he's a raging arsehole of a project manager. That fact that he freely admits it makes him only slightly better than a raging arsehole who thinks they're popular.

  3. Peter Brooks 1
    Go

    A good time for a rewrite?

    Why not take the opportunity to fix it for good?

    A rewrite in Ada would do the trick.

    All those reliability & security issues gone, and a clean design that's easy for anybody to audit for trapdoors or other malware.

  4. Charles 9

    As I recall, Ada is both more memory-intensive and more processor-intensive, which are minuses for things like embedded systems (less memory and usually underpowered CPUs) and performance-critical applications where the overhead is something to be avoided.

    1. P. Lee

      >As I recall, Ada is both more memory-intensive and more processor-intensive,

      So, do you want it to be stable & resource-hungry or fast & light-weight?

      1. Charles 9

        Different strokes for different folks. Some need the former, some the latter.

  5. kryptylomese

    He cruelly just wants to delay the slaying of Microsoft Windows a little longer.

    1. Khaptain Silver badge

      Nope he is just busy trying out Windows 10, he wants to add a routine in the kernel which mimmicks the W10 start menu, then he could really piss people off.

    2. yossarianuk

      Aside from the desktop that task has already been done.

    3. Supa

      I think Microsoft have that one covered themselves, without the need for outside help.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      >> He cruelly just wants to delay the slaying of Microsoft Windows a little longer.

      At 1.5% desktop share in 20 years, not sure that "slaying" is the right term.

  6. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Trollface

    He "might not react politely"

    Isn't that his normal condition ?

    1. Chika
      Devil

      Re: He "might not react politely"

      Pretty much. And I'm looking forward to his take on the selected targets.

  7. Zog_but_not_the_first
    Trollface

    Shirley...

    He could recommend users to head on over to Windows 10 while this is sorted out.

    Troll icon, obviously.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Shirley...

      "Head over to w10"

      Now that really is just a pure sadism.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Shirley...

      Who's this Shirley? Oh, I think you meant to use surely.

      1. Tom 13

        @AC Re: Shirley...

        You picked a bad day to stop sniffing glue.

      2. Charles 9

        Re: Shirley...

        Someone hasn't seen "Airplane!"...

  8. VinceH
    Coat

    Does this mean 2015 won't be the year of Linux on the desktop?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Does anyone still care about 'the desktop'? Wasn't that some 90s thing?

      1. Chairo
        Angel

        Does anyone still care about 'the desktop'? Wasn't that some 90s thing?

        That's what Microsoft thought, when they designed Windows 8...

  9. kryptylomese

    Thanks for your hackneyed (ignorant) comments regarding Linux on the Desktop - I like a Troll as much as the next man but the reality is that Linux on the Desktop is not just for the obviously more intelligent computer users at home, but also being adopted by more and more companies and governments:-

    http://www.techrepublic.com/article/five-big-names-that-use-linux-on-the-desktop/

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_adopters

    If you are not using Linux on your desktop then I guess you must be one of the less clever home users, or you work for a backward thinking company - sorry to hear that!

    1. VinceH
      Facepalm

      MISSING

      One sense of humour.

      Last seen on a bus heading South. Please contact kryptylomese if found.

    2. TheOtherHobbes

      >more intelligent computer users

      Are they like more intelligent bosses?

      1. Dazed and Confused
        Coat

        intelligent ...

        >>more intelligent computer users

        >Are they like more intelligent bosses?

        Sure no one has ever found enough samples for a valid comparison.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Linux on the Desktop: for the intelligent computer user!

      Can't understand why kryptylomese is accused of lacking a sense of humour after a gem like that.

      1. kryptylomese

        The "Linux on the Desktop" comment ranks with "Does it run Crysis" both done to death and now neither can be considered comedy gold surely?

        1. Chika
          Happy

          The "Linux on the Desktop" comment ranks with "Does it run Crysis" both done to death and now neither can be considered comedy gold surely?

          Depends on the timing.

    4. Wommit
      Unhappy

      "If you are not using Linux on your desktop then I guess you must be one of the less clever home users, or you work for a backward thinking company - sorry to hear that!"

      Or you / your business uses software that hasn't been ported onto Linux because there isn't enough of a market there.

      Grow up!

      1. kryptylomese

        "Or you / your business uses software that hasn't been ported onto Linux because there isn't enough of a market there"

        Be constructive and name the software then - you know, like a grown up....

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      And some fairly high profile ones that got there, realized their mistake, and are headed back to windows

      http://www.neowin.net/news/munich-germany-realizes-that-deploying-linux-was-a-disaster-going-back-to-windows

      Bet the tax payers loved that little experiment...

      1. kryptylomese

        "And some fairly high profile ones that got there, realized their mistake, and are headed back to windows"

        Nope, sorry pitiful Windows user - they stayed with Linux

        http://www.heise.de/open/meldung/Linux-in-Muenchen-Stadtrat-verteidigt-LiMux-gegen-Buergermeister-2262506.html

  10. Snow Wombat
    Trollface

    Could be worse...

    Could be the FreeBSD community and a certain blue haired bridge troll who is shitting up the place.

    You could be fighting over the "code of Conduct" and how best to ensure that nobody's fee fees are hurt, and how best to keep the blue haired troll supplied with cake and meth.

  11. People's Poet

    Governments adopting Linux on the Desktop

    The Elbonian government for one!

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Linux on the Desktop

    Well.....the only desktop that matters to me is MY desktop. Fedora 22/XFCE is perfectly fine here (two machines), and for traveling my netbook is wonderful on PClinuxOS/MATE.

    ....and this sort of arrangement has been fine for me since Red Hat's retail edition version 5.2....that was in 1999.

    What's the argument about?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Linux on the Desktop

      My desktop is better than your desktop.

      I have Arch linux, running the latest 4.1 kernel... It also has some new fangled flingflangzibbidygidgits. so THERE!

      I could go on to list my hardware, which is also more awesome, but I wouldn't want to bore you.

  13. Stevie

    Bah!

    Dear me, if I am busy on a project and the Scope Creeps mail me I just ignore them until I have the product released to Test.

    If people get upset by that I have a mailbot respond with "Too busy with Project Millstone to reply right now" to all mailings.

  14. sisk

    Torvalds is NEVER in the mood to be polite. Judging from what I've seen of his interactions with the rest of the dev team and some of his public appearances I'm not sure the man even knows HOW to be polite.

  15. Spaceman Spiff

    If I were Linus, I would behave much as he does. I don't tolerate idiots, and I know what I am doing!

  16. CFWhitman

    Desktop Linux for the normal user

    Of course my use of Linux on the desktop is not unexpected. I am a computer tech, and using Linux is not unusual for computer techs.

    What gets me recently is the other people I know who are using Linux.

    My brother, who is not interested in computers beyond using them as a means to do what he wants, asked me to replace Windows 8.1 with Linux on a low cost laptop he had bought a year earlier. He still has another machine with Windows 8.1. However, he had used machines that were more than six years old at my house running Linux and he said they ran faster than any computer at his house. His year old machine was indeed painfully slow, partly due to the low hardware specs (not really enough for a modern Windows) and partly to do with the shovelware included in the installation. I switched it over to Linux and he is much happier with it. I sometimes ask him how it is working because since I switched it over, he never brings it up, but he says that it is working fine.

    I also installed Linux on a laptop for a woman I know who didn't want to have to deal with the after effects of malware that had infected her computer (that is, the computer didn't work right even after the malware had been removed). She says that she doesn't mind having to learn some new ways of doing things because at least she doesn't have as many problems with the laptop. It's funny, but the new ways of doing things are mostly about using Google Play rather than iTunes.

    I've also given away written off laptops (always more than five years old, generally six to eight) with fresh Linux installations to nephews and nieces, and they have little trouble picking up Linux (kids are flexible). They're happy to have the machines available.

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