Comment: It's the very first question, any idea as to who asked the first question, talk about being ambushed! A classic, generate some controversy at the conference and then only report on that. I wonder did anything of a technical nature occur at the conference.
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transcript starts from 10.00:-
Q : Morning, so Linux, nice easy question to start with (laughter). Over the years there have been various people including myself who have either reduced their involvement in the kernel community or stepped away from it entirely due to the tone on LKM and especially your contribution to that. Why do you continue to argue that being really unpleasant to people is good leadership.
A : Part of it, fair question, that's not actually my real argument. My real argument is that people are different and I'm a really unpleasant person (laughter). I mean that's what it really boils down to. Some people think I'm nice and some people are then shocked when they learn different. And I'm not a nice person and I don't care about you - really seriously (laughter). I care about the technology and I care about the kernel and I really think that a lot of projects in the Open Source community sometimes care about non-technical things too much. And the reason I say that is that the only thing we can actually agree on ever tend to be technical issues. And if we start making a big deal about non-technical issues - that are important - don't get me wrong. I'm not saying they're not important, I'm saying whenever we start making non-technical issues primary issues - that just guarantees we'll never agree - right. And
.. I'm not trying to really make excuses, I'm more trying to explain that this is where I come from.
And I appreciate the diversity in Open Source, but to me that diversity is not about gender, it's not about skin color, it's about - people are different. And people are different in what they are interested in. People are different in what they're good at. Skin color and gender and all these issues that get brought up as really important things - those are details. What is great about Open Source is that some people are unpleasant but they're technically really good - right. Some people are pleasant and like bring other people in and I think that's one of maybe the most important of Open Source - is that you can do what you're good at. So when you look at bringing in minorities, bringing in females, bringing in people who don't speak English. My argument has been and is, that we should look for people who are good at being the people who can be between other people - right. There are a lots of good kernel developers who are great at working with people. And they may not ever be great technically - and that doesn't matter - because we all have strengths. And this is my argument - and I refuse to change - well no - that sounds bad (comment "s'not quite true" laughter). It's not that I refuse to change, it's that I don't think I want to try to bow down to what other people think.
My personal personality is pretty abrasive, I love arguing. Appearing at the Museum of Technology I spent the whole time just arguing with people (laughter). And if you're that kind of personality - when you are on LKM - you will argue. And I know they're are other kernel developers that are like me. And I know they're are other kernel developers who are not like me - and that's all wonderful. That was a really long answer to a really simple question. But the fact is - that's how I feel.
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Keynote: Linus Torvalds Linux.conf.au 2015 -- Auckland, New Zealand
