Linux Founder Linus Torvalds Chooses Poor Words on Open Source Diversity

The open source world has become politically charged once again in recent days as another leading figure made, then apparently regretted, sensitive remarks about diversity and “niceness.” This time, they came from none other than Linus Torvalds, the founder of Linux and a key kernel developer.

Torvalds has acquired a reputation over the years as a masterful programmer who is also painfully blunt. This image—which, in the interests of keeping this site family-friendly, we’ll link to instead of posting directly—encapsulates his approach to conflict.

That strategy has seemed to serve Torvalds, and the open source community he helps lead, well as a programmer. The development of the Linux kernel, one of the largest and most complex software projects in the world, whose contributors come from myriad different countries and speak a variety of distinct languages natively, chugs happily along—certainly better than, say, the Hurd kernel overseen by the more politically correct GNU folks, whose failure to mature into a stable operating system was a major impetus for Torvalds to start writing Linux in the early 1990s.

Last week, though, Torvalds faced heat for remarks he made at a New Zealand developer conference. Diversity-related considerations are “just details and not really important” in open source development, he said. Instead, “the most important part of open source is that people are allowed to do what they are good at.”

A few days later, seeming to regret the way he had come across, Torvalds sought to clarify part of his message. The new statement was not an apology, but a more politically correct articulation of Torvalds’s views regarding the importance of prioritizing programming skills over everything else within the open source realm. Still, it appeared to be an effort to mollify critics, and maybe reflected a tiny bit of contrition.

Chances are the controversy Torvalds recently generated will pass easily enough into oblivion. That’s what usually happens when politically sensitive issues arise in the open source world. But this is still a reminder of just how sensitive issues of diversity and equity are within this space, as they should be. While the decentralized nature of open source development presents great opportunities for helping, for instance, people whose native languages receive short shrift from proprietary developers, there’s good evidence that some groups — especially women, but perhaps others as well, whose marginalization has not yet been quantified — remain underrepresented in the open source world.

That might not have a serious impact on Torvalds’s ability to meet Linux kernel development goals. But it certainly reflects poorly on the open source community and its ethos of sharing and, well, openness.