The open source community is “quite a sick place to be in,” Red Hat engineer and Systemd developer Lennart Poettering said Monday in a post on Google+.

“The open source community is full of [assh*les], and I probably more than most others am one of their most favorite targets,” Poettering added. “I get hate mail for hacking on open source. People have started multiple ‘petitions’ …. asking me to stop working. Recently, people started collecting Bitcoins to hire a hitman for me (this really happened!).”

Full article here:
Systemd Dev Slams FOSS Culture (LinuxInsider.com)

We are just happy to see that someone is finally shedding some light on the very pervasive problem of online bullies that hang out in Linux and open source software communities. And they don’t just attack developers, they also go after inexperienced users that ask simple questions about how to do something. Not all forums allow this sort of behavior, but enough do that it has caused many people to want nothing to do with Linux, or with a particular piece of software.

There’s also a lot of passive-aggressive behavior in such forums – for example, a user asks how to perform some task and is told to go read a man page or to f*cking Google it. People who respond in that way are no less bullies than the sort that outright attack other participants, and should have sledge hammers applied to their keyboards! These people are a scourge on the open source and Linux communities, and are probably the major reason that Linux is not as popular as Windows or OS X. No new user wants to be talked down to, or treated in a condescending manner by some asshole who thinks he is superior to everyone else in a group.

I do realize that this is not a problem in Linux and open source communities alone; I’ve seen similar behavior on other forums that have nothing to do with those. But for some odd reason, communities based around Linux and open source software seem to attract a higher percentage of these types. Here’s a hint: If someone asks a question and you don’t feel like actually helping them, then DON’T TYPE ANYTHING! Move on to the next thread, or go do something more productive, or watch TV for a while, or do ANYTHING else, but KEEP YOUR DAMN FINGERS OFF THE KEYBOARD!