Toxic tech communities — we really need to talk about this

Source Domain: korben.info

There’s something we don’t talk about enough in the tech world, yet everyone sees it: A large chunk of the communities around free software, Linux, dev… etc. have become genuinely hostile places. Closed clubs, populated almost exclusively by guys, who spend their time telling everyone else they’re total losers, that they’re asking noob questions, or that they’re not typing on their keyboard the right way – and that’s just the start. Yes, I’m talking about that famous bearded Linux guy who looks down on you because you use Ubuntu instead of Arch that you compiled by hand.

And the worst part is that all of this is documented, quantified, and even acknowledged by the big names in the field themselves! You’ll see…

Take Linus Torvalds for example. He’s the creator of Linux, and for years he publicly insulted developers on the kernel mailing list, throwing it in their faces that their code was a disgrace and so on. In September 2018, he finally laid things bare in an
apology email
where he wrote in black and white that his attacks were “unprofessional and unjustified,” and that he wanted to apologize to the people his behavior had hurt and, I quote, “possibly drove away from kernel development entirely.” He even took a break to get help understanding his own emotions. If even the guy at the top of the pyramid admits he drove off contributors with his contempt, you can imagine the atmosphere festering below…

And three years earlier, in 2015, a major kernel developer had already slammed the door on her way out. Sarah Sharp, the one who maintained the USB 3.0 driver, was far from a beginner. In her post
Closing a door
, she explains that she can no longer contribute to a community where she was respected for her skills but never respected as a person.

Verbal violence, sexist and homophobic jokes – that’s what she had to put up with. And in 2015, unfortunately, she was truly crying in the wilderness. Nobody listened to her, and it took until 2018 and Mr. Torvalds’…

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