Förra veckan införde Linux en så kallade "Code of Conduct" (CoC), uppförandekod, för utvecklarna av Linux och sedan dess har det stormat lite i Linux-världen. I samband med att Linux CoC presenterades så valde Linux skapare Linus Torvalds själv att pausa sitt arbete med Linux-kärnan och uppgav att han skulle söka professionell hjälp för att ta tag i relationsproblem till andra människor som han anser sig ha.

Nu har Linux skapare själv uttalat sig i ett öppet brev till BBC om Linux CoC och där skriver han bland annat att han initialt inte var intresserad av att vara med i diskussionerna runt en uppförandekod för Linux. Bland annat för att han inte ansåg att det handlade om diskussioner utan snarare att folk mest skrek på varandra:

"That's actually the reason I for the longest time did not want to be involved with the whole CoC discussion in the first place. That whole subject seems to very easily just devolve and become unproductive. And I found a lot of the people who pushed for a CoC and criticised me for cursing to be hypocritical and pointless. I could easily point you to various tweet storms by people who criticise my 'white cis male' behaviour, while at the same time cursing more than I ever do.

So that's my excuse for dismissing a lot of the politically correct concerns for years. I felt it wasn't worth it. Anybody who uses the words 'white cis male privilege' was simply not worth my time even talking to, I felt.

And I'm still not apologising for my gender or the colour of my skin, or the fact that I happen to have the common sexual orientation.

What changed? Maybe it was me, but I was also made very aware of some of the behaviour of the 'other' side in the discussion."
Vidare kommenterar Torvalds även sitt personliga beteenden och framtiden efter han fått professionell hjälp för detta:
"Am I turning into some cuddly people person? I'll admit that sounds very unlikely. I still care about the technology, and I'm still not exactly the most empathetic person. But I'm hoping I can at least 'fake it until I make it'. Part of that 'faking it' is definitely going to be a filter on my outgoing emails, but as mentioned, I'm actively also trying to find a professional therapist to talk to as well.

Will everybody be happy? No. People who don't like my blunt behaviour even when I'm not being actively nasty about it will just see that as 'look, nothing changed'. I'm trying to get rid of my outbursts, and be more polite about things, but technically wrong is still technically wrong, and I won't start accepting bad code just to make people feel better about themselves."
Hela Torvalds öppna brev kan vara intressant att läsa och det hittas på länken nedan. Vill ni läsa lite utförligare om debatten gällande Linux Code of Conduct så har Lulz.com en bra, men rätt lång, sammanfattning här.