> The only line I'd remove or finesse is "Yeah, this is complete garbage." Otherwise, I think this is a great example of how to convey anger without personally attacking anyone.

The basic principle that I think Linus is trying to follow is, "criticize the <subject matter>, not the person" (whether you're criticizing someone's ideas, someone's work, or someone's behavior). Linus isn't saying that Eric is complete garbage, he's saying that a specifically quoted statement is complete garbage for reasons that he expands on later.

I have seen things like this interpreted as personal attacks before, even though they don't actually parse out that way logically, but for someone (like me) who has to learn these rules instead of instinctively knowing them by feel, this is an easy mistake to make.