Some people really appreciate the blunt communications style. Some people don't. I personally believe one should be able to appreciate all communications styles, because it provides you access to more information. Ignoring something smart because one got bad feelings from how it was said strikes me as rather puerile.
> I personally believe one should be able to appreciate all communications styles
Wut? Some communication styles are just "harassment", including Linus'. One can put up with it, but appreciation? BS. Linus is worse than Kalanick.
It is about culture. He comes from a background where people say what they think without trying to make it sound nice.
Many times i think in my mind about something: this is just stupid. He says it out loud. That is the difference.
If one can see behind the rude attitude, there is plenty to learn.
I like people like Linus that say directly and without filters what they think, if some work is crap they say it, if someone needs to be insulted they do it, and sometimes is useful (look at NVIDIA for example, since Torvalds insult they improved Linux support).
And these kind of people tends to be more appreciated than those who are politically correct, for example just look at Trump.
I'm always confused by people who defend Linus style because it isn't just blunt but often plain insulting for no apparent reason at all.
There are many problems with this. Apart from antagonizing people as already mentioned, if someone is constantly screaming they lose the ability to modulate how serious they actually are. You can rarely tell whether Linus is legitimately upset because he seems almost always upset. It's better to default to politeness if only because if you're actually upset at least I know that I need to pay attention.