Solving the Wrong Problem (Score 2)

This is not going to work because the real problem is about time. It takes significantly longer to be nice and show patience than it does to be mean and to the point. Someone with Linus' responsibilities just isn't ever going to feel like they have the time to be nice to everybody. If you want to improve peoples' attitudes in something as huge as the kernel community, than you need to change the heirachical structure to something with a lot more depth. Linus shouldn't be dealing with 2/3 of the people he is currently dealing with. If he isn't directly interacting with them, then they won't be getting offended by him either. Those people should be interacting solely with developers with less responsibility and therefore more time to be nice.