you know, while i don't talk to people like that (and especially not in public), i have considerable sympathy for linus's position there. it is clearly a deeply held philosophical belief of his that kernel changes should not break working userspace code, and here is someone who is evidently a long-standing kernel maintainer trying to blame a user app for breaking against a technically bad kernel patch.
i'm betting he made that mail public very deliberately, as a way of telling the world at large that as kernel dictator he would not tolerate his "staff" treating users like that.
Doesn't that defeat the purpose of having a public list?
I think a big reason it's on the public list is because it should be. Linux is Linus' baby, he has every right to yell at someone for doing pretty much anything. And in this case, it was deserved. If you're going to break the first commandment of Linux development (don't break userspace), and blame the userspace for breaking, you should be reprimanded.
i'm betting he made that mail public very deliberately, as a way of telling the world at large that as kernel dictator he would not tolerate his "staff" treating users like that.