Systemd Dev Slams FOSS Culture

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!)."

Linux creator Linus Torvalds himself gets a significant share of Poettering's blame, but in general, "the Linux community is dominated by western, white, straight, males in their 30s and 40s these days," he wrote. "I perfectly fit in that pattern, and the rubbish they pour over me is awful. I can only imagine that it is much worse for members of minorities, or people from different cultural backgrounds."

Bottom line, though, is that "open source is awful in many ways, and people should be aware of this," he concluded. "I have no intentions to ever talk about this again on a public forum."

Open source communities are "at their best when diverse opinions come together to drive innovation and achieve common goals," Red Hat spokesperson Stephanie Wonderlick told LinuxInsider.

"While community members may engage in healthy, sometimes spirited dialogue, it is essential that all community members are treated with respect," she added. "Hateful or abusive behavior is unacceptable and cannot be tolerated in any community."

Poettering did not respond to our request for further details.

"Poettering makes some good points, and they're not new -- I'm always a little surprised that civility is still controversial," Linux guru Carla Schroder told LinuxInsider. "I don't blame him for being upset, because he has been the target of some seriously twisted and vicious attacks."

The world of free and open source software is "far from being a meritocracy; it is as political and personality-driven as any other human endeavor," Schroder said.

As for fixing the problem, "it's futile to hope that Linus or anyone else will change their management styles; it would be nice if having rhino hide were not the No. 1 requirement to become a contributor in so many Linux projects," she added. "You don't attract and keep contributors by being abusive, a simple truth that still escapes many."

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Systemd Dev Slams FOSS Culture