Big time Linux kernel dev Sarah Sharp quits due to personal attacks by other Linux kernel devs

[GoodBytes]

Sarah Sharp a fairly big Linux Kernel developer who has been working in the Linux kernel community for many years, and works at Intel, has called quits due to continuous harsh personal attacks and profanity she was getting by other Linux kernel developers, despite important contributions.

 

She says that she could no longer work within a developer culture that required overworked maintainers to be rude and brusque in order to get the job done.

She says:

My current work on userspace graphics enabling may require me to send an occasional quirks kernel patch, but I know I will spend at least a day dreading the potential toxic background radiation of interacting with the kernel community before I send anything,

Why she didn't name call anyone, it is known that Linus Torvalds, Linux Creator has been undeniably the most visible in the media in being very vocal about what he thinks, using harsh languages, and using profanity publicly, and even using public humiliation and finger pointing on people and companies.

She adds:

Sadly, the behavioral changes I would like to see in the Linux kernel community are unlikely to happen any time soon. Many senior Linux kernel developers stand by the right of maintainers to be technically and personally brutal. Even if they are very nice people in person, they do not want to see the Linux kernel communication style change.

Source: http://www.networkworld.com/article/2988850/opensource-subnet/linux-kernel-dev-sarah-sharp-quits-citing-brutal-communications-style.html

[Dabombinable]

And this is why we can't have a nice OS. One of the reasons for the disarray of Linux is the tendency for the community to be toxic.

[sof006]

Sounds like a very immature environment, hope she moves to a big time company with some kind of protection against this abuse.

[dom1310df]

Men! Who'd have them? There's no need for this sort of behaviour.

[GoodBytes]

Sounds like a very immature environment, hope she moves to a big time company with some kind of protection against this abuse.

Well she works at Intel, so she definitely has a nice job. And congrats to her to make it there, it's not a company that is easy to get in, at least to my knowledge.

[Enderman]

[Misanthrope]

And this is why we can't have a nice OS. One of the reasons for the disarray of Linux is the tendency for the community to be toxic.

 

It's a tendency for communities that are completely unmoderated though: Remember that Linux it's free (as in Freedom) and as such the development of it is not without is nasty consequences. There's no HR department or resource at all for a bad individual in a leading position.

[Egad]

Sarah personally though has a history of looking for drama where there is none at least within the Linux community.  Her initial run in with Linus (T not S) and other folks came from her jumping into the middle of a mailing list conversation.  Ingo, Linus, and Greg KH were talking pull requests and a joke was made about submitting pulls to Greg since he's nice.  Linus then jokes Greg might be too nice and also that Greg is a giant human so he might accidentally squish someone due to his size and not realize it.

 

At this point Sarah jumps in screaming how it is not okay to advocate physical violence, despite the fact due to the use of emoticons by some folks, etc it was pretty clear this was just poking fun at Greg for being a giant human being, not saying Greg was going to come to your house and throw you through a wall for having low quality code.  Even more interesting, Sarah is the first member of the conversation to use profanity in this conversation, despite her claims the swearing needs to go away.  She comes in with how it is not fucking acceptable to threaten physical violence and so on and so forth.  She immediately goes to Twitter and attempts to jump onto the #adainitiative hashtag to get attention about installing a code of conduct.  

 

It doesn't really go anywhere, no one else rallies to her, and now after that fell flat she's leaving Linux.  Frankly with some egg on her face in terms of professional conduct in this case.

[GoodBytes]

It's a tendency for communities that are completely unmoderated though: Remember that Linux it's free (as in Freedom) and as such the development of it is not without is nasty consequences. There's no HR department or resource at all for a bad individual in a leading position.

It doesn't matter. Basic respect is a thing. We all have that, but clearly the Linux community doesn't have that.

Insulting people doesn't help anyone, especially publicly. Being nice, helpful, respectful, is how you teach someone or make yourself heard and listened to show case your view on why something should be done in a certain way or not.

[GoodBytes]

Sarah personally though has a history of looking for drama where there is none at least within the Linux community.  Her initial run in with Linus (T not S) and other folks came from her jumping into the middle of a mailing list conversation.  Ingo, Linus, and Greg KH were talking pull requests and a joke was made about submitting pulls to Greg since he's nice.  Linus then jokes Greg might be too nice and also that Greg is a giant human so he might accidentally squish someone due to his size and not realize it.

 

At this point Sarah jumps in screaming how it is not okay to advocate physical violence, despite the fact due to the use of emoticons by some folks, etc it was pretty clear this was just poking fun at Greg for being a giant human being, not saying Greg was going to come to your house and throw you through a wall for having low quality code.  Even more interesting, Sarah is the first member of the conversation to use profanity in this conversation, despite her claims the swearing needs to go away.  She comes in with how it is not fucking acceptable to threat physical violence and so on and so forth.  She immediately goes to Twitter and attempts to jump onto the #adainitiative hashtag to get attention about installing a code of conduct.  

 

It doesn't really go anywhere, no one else rallies to her, and now after that fell flat she's leaving Linux.  Frankly with some egg on her face in terms of professional conduct in this case.

Seeing on how high profile Linux community members, and how the Linux (outside of nice well supported distros) community act, I highly doubt what you are saying is true. That sounds like a cover up story more than anything.

[Misanthrope]

It doesn't matter. Basic respect is a thing. We all have that, but clearly the Linux community doesn't have that.

Insulting people doesn't help anyone, especially publicly. Being nice, helpful, respectful, is how you teach someone or make yourself heard and listened to show case your view on why something should be done in a certain way or not.

 

You say "Basic respect is a thing" yet you wield the title of "Moderator". What would you think would happen if LTT had no moderators at all? Complete anarchy just doesn't works there has to be some sort of accountability on any group activity or environment. Appealing to people's common decency is like trying to stop a riot by asking people nicely to stop.

[Egad]

@GoodBytes

 

https://lkml.org/lkml/2013/7/23/107

 

Given all the comments about developer's living in mom's basement, etc if someone takes that as anything else than a joking tone doing some self mockery of the Linux user neckbeard stereotype, not much you can do for them.  Nothing directed at Sarah or said in a serious tone.

 

Also of interest:

 

https://lkml.org/lkml/2013/7/24/142

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

It doesn't matter. Basic respect is a thing. We all have that, but clearly the Linux community doesn't have that.

Insulting people doesn't help anyone, especially publicly. Being nice, helpful, respectful, is how you teach someone or make yourself heard and listened to show case your view on why something should be done in a certain way or not.

I could have expected this kind of bias from you. 

 

Sharp brought this on herself.  She's the one that started the whole thing. 

 

Where were you when Robert Parks was being tossed around a bit at MS and ended up with a boss who did nothing but criticize him to the point where he too quit?  Or wasn't that newsworthy because it shows how bad things can be at Microsoft?

 

http://uk.businessinsider.com/microsoft-employee-quits-after-four-months-2015-9?r=US&IR=T

[GoodBytes]

I could have expected this kind of bias from you. 

 

Sharp brought this on herself.  She's the one that started the whole thing.

Perhaps. But as mentioned in the article, and myself, when you have this image that support what she is saying, it doesn't help. Maybe the community should be working on that.

 

Where were you when Robert Parks was being tossed around a bit at MS and ended up with a boss who did nothing but criticize him to the point where he too quit?  Or wasn't that newsworthy because it shows how bad things can be at Microsoft?

 

http://uk.businessinsider.com/microsoft-employee-quits-after-four-months-2015-9?r=US&IR=T

I don't pay attention of Business Insider UK. However, you are welcomed to post the news. You can also drop me a PM me, as a news tip, and I'll report it if someone doesn't do it before me, and news worthy (that is news worthy), and give you a shout out.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

I don't pay attention of Business Insider UK. However, you are welcomed to post the news.

I didn't post it because it just isn't newsworthy.  This kind of news only produces threads that turn into either attacks against a company/community or flamefests.

[patrickjp93]

She was practically my mentor when I was working with GCC. God damn it. I may have an ego, but I know who can code and who can't. This is a big, unfortunate loss.

[LAwLz]

It doesn't matter. Basic respect is a thing. We all have that, but clearly the Linux community doesn't have that.

"Respect should be earned"

-Linus Torvalds

 

 

Sarah has been doing shit for a long time now. I am glad she is leaving because it seems she cares more about bullying people and talking shit than actually writing code. She gets offended by jokes or insults that aren't even directed at her.

 

 

Seeing on how high profile Linux community members, and how the Linux (outside of nice well supported distros) community act, I highly doubt what you are saying is true. That sounds like a cover up story more than anything.

It is not a cover up story. All the mails from the mailing list can be found on public websites. For example here is the mail where he jokes about Greg being a giant and Sarah freaks out calling it "advocating for physical intimidation and violence".

Indigo = Ingo Molnar

Blue = Steven Rostedt

Green = Linus Torvalds

Pink = Sarah Sharp

 

On Fri, 12 Jul 2013 18:17:08 +0200, Ingo Molnar <mingo <at> kernel.org> wrote:

> * Linus Torvalds <torvalds <at> linux-foundation.org> wrote:

>

> > On Fri, Jul 12, 2013 at 8:47 AM, Steven Rostedt <rostedt <at> goodmis.org> wrote:

> > >

> > > I tend to hold things off after -rc4 because you scare me more than Greg

> > > does ;-)

> >

> > Have you guys *seen* Greg? The guy is a freakish giant. He *should*

> > scare you. He might squish you without ever even noticing.

>

> Greg might be a giant and he might squish people without ever even

> noticing, but that's just a grave, deadly physical threat no real kernel

> hacker ever feels threatened by. (Not much can hurt us deep in our dark

> basements after all, except maybe earthquakes, gamma ray eruptions and Mom

> trying to clean up around the computers.)

>

> So Greg, if you want it all to change, create some _real_ threat: be frank

> with contributors and sometimes swear a bit. That will cut your mailqueue

> in half, promise!

On Fri, 12 Jul 2013 08:22:27 -0700, Linus wrote:

> Greg, the reason you get a lot of stable patches seems to be that you

> make it easy to act as a door-mat. Clearly at least some people say "I

> know this patch isn't important enough to send to Linus, but I know Greg

> will silently accept it after the fact, so I'll just wait and mark it

> for stable".

>

> You may need to learn to shout at people.

Seriously, guys? Is this what we need in order to get improve -stable?

Linus Torvalds is advocating for physical intimidation and violence.

Ingo Molnar and Linus are advocating for verbal abuse.

Not *fucking* cool. Violence, whether it be physical intimidation,

verbal threats or verbal abuse is not acceptable. Keep it professional

on the mailing lists.

Let's discuss this at Kernel Summit where we can at least yell at each

other in person. Yeah, just try yelling at me about this. I'll roar

right back, louder, for all the people who lose their voice when they

get yelled at by top maintainers. I won't be the nice girl anymore.

Sarah Sharp

After that they went on to talk about cookies and brownies for a few emails (even Sarah jokes around) and then she does a 180 and starts bitching about how "I'm not going to put up with that shit any more", calls Linus an abuser and so on.

 

Sarah should get a job as a magician instead, because she can create drama out of thin air!

 

 

I didn't post it because it just isn't newsworthy.  This kind of news only produces threads that turn into either attacks against a company/community or flamefests.

I am pretty sure that's exactly what GoodBytes wants.

[EChondo]

I've never heard about this woman so I came into this thread, read why she was quiting, and went "This isn't the whole story. There's something she isn't telling, right?".

 

And sure enough, a couple posts down someone reveals that she's batshit crazy.

 

So, after seeing all this about this woman in a span of 10 minutes, I'm glad she left because I know I wouldn't want her as my co-worker.

[patrickjp93]

Sounds like a very immature environment, hope she moves to a big time company with some kind of protection against this abuse.

She works for Intel. Read the article  :angry:

[BuckGup]

I am very confused. Is she crazy or are other people crazy? T

[patrickjp93]

"Respect should be earned"

-Linus Torvalds

 

 

Sarah has been doing shit for a long time now. I am glad she is leaving because it seems she cares more about bullying people and talking shit than actually writing code. She gets offended by jokes or insults that aren't even directed at her.

 

 

It is not a cover up story. All the mails from the mailing list can be found on public websites. For example here is the mail where he jokes about Greg being a giant and Sarah freaks out calling it "advocating for physical intimidation and violence".

Indigo = Ingo Molnar

Blue = Steven Rostedt

Green = Linus Torvalds

Pink = Sarah Sharp

 

On Fri, 12 Jul 2013 18:17:08 +0200, Ingo Molnar <mingo <at> kernel.org> wrote:

> * Linus Torvalds <torvalds <at> linux-foundation.org> wrote:

>

> > On Fri, Jul 12, 2013 at 8:47 AM, Steven Rostedt <rostedt <at> goodmis.org> wrote:

> > >

> > > I tend to hold things off after -rc4 because you scare me more than Greg

> > > does ;-)

> >

> > Have you guys *seen* Greg? The guy is a freakish giant. He *should*

> > scare you. He might squish you without ever even noticing.

>

> Greg might be a giant and he might squish people without ever even

> noticing, but that's just a grave, deadly physical threat no real kernel

> hacker ever feels threatened by. (Not much can hurt us deep in our dark

> basements after all, except maybe earthquakes, gamma ray eruptions and Mom

> trying to clean up around the computers.)

>

> So Greg, if you want it all to change, create some _real_ threat: be frank

> with contributors and sometimes swear a bit. That will cut your mailqueue

> in half, promise!

On Fri, 12 Jul 2013 08:22:27 -0700, Linus wrote:

> Greg, the reason you get a lot of stable patches seems to be that you

> make it easy to act as a door-mat. Clearly at least some people say "I

> know this patch isn't important enough to send to Linus, but I know Greg

> will silently accept it after the fact, so I'll just wait and mark it

> for stable".

>

> You may need to learn to shout at people.

Seriously, guys? Is this what we need in order to get improve -stable?

Linus Torvalds is advocating for physical intimidation and violence.

Ingo Molnar and Linus are advocating for verbal abuse.

Not *fucking* cool. Violence, whether it be physical intimidation,

verbal threats or verbal abuse is not acceptable. Keep it professional

on the mailing lists.

Let's discuss this at Kernel Summit where we can at least yell at each

other in person. Yeah, just try yelling at me about this. I'll roar

right back, louder, for all the people who lose their voice when they

get yelled at by top maintainers. I won't be the nice girl anymore.

Sarah Sharp

After that they went on to talk about cookies and brownies for a few emails (even Sarah jokes around) and then she does a 180 and starts bitching about how "I'm not going to put up with that shit any more", calls Linus an abuser and so on.

 

Sarah should get a job as a magician instead, because she can create drama out of thin air!

 

 

I am pretty sure that's exactly what GoodBytes wants.

You must be joking. 1/5 of the current kernel is her code.

[jaggysnake57]

I didn't post it because it just isn't newsworthy.  This kind of news only produces threads that turn into either attacks against a company/community or flamefests.

 

so you maon at him for not posting then say you didnt because its not news worthy.....thats hilarious!

[ThomasD]

Seeing on how high profile Linux community members, and how the Linux (outside of nice well supported distros) community act, I highly doubt what you are saying is true. That sounds like a cover up story more than anything.

Is it really appropriate for a mod to be calling a contributor a liar?

[GoodBytes]

I didn't say he is lying. I am saying I doubt what he read.

[Prysin]

You must be joking. 1/5 of the current kernel is her code.

just because you have done something, doesnt mean you have been productive as of late.

 

it can take a day to build the framework of a house, if you got the right tools at your disposal.

It can still take years to plug the holes and insulate it if you do not keep the pace up.