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Who?

Github: Sage Sharp

Project: Linux xHCI (USB 3.0) Host Controller Driver

Date: 10/05/2015

Why?

In their blog post, we see that there were many different factors that led them to disengage from the Linux Kernel and their project.

I am no longer a part of the Linux kernel community.

One of the first things that prompted this was the sexism and homophobic jokes made by members of the community that they worked with. Combined with the fact there was no real enforcement to police this kind of behavior, was problematic.

I did not want to work professionally with people who were allowed to get away with subtle sexist or homophobic jokes. I feel powerless in a community that had a “Code of Conflict” without a specific list of behaviors to avoid and a community with no teeth to enforce it.

Next was the lack of personal respect from the community.

I finally realized that I could no longer contribute to a community where I was technically respected, but I could not ask for personal respect.

Which sadly, according to them, is a common practice among maintainers.

I could not work with people who helpfully encouraged newcomers to send patches, and then argued that maintainers should be allowed to spew whatever vile words they needed to in order to maintain radical emotional honesty.

Later on they continue to reinforce this point by bringing up the culture of the community.

The focus on technical excellence, in combination with overloaded maintainers, and people with different cultural and social norms, means that Linux kernel maintainers are often blunt, rude, or brutal to get their job done. Top Linux kernel developers often yell at each other in order to correct each other’s behavior.

This style of communication was too much, and was another one of the reasons they left. Rather than constructive criticsm, it was just personal atttacks.

That’s not a communication style that works for me. I need communication that is technically brutal but personally respectful. I need people to correct my behavior when I’m doing something wrong (either technically or socially) without tearing me down as a person.

But these weren’t necessairly the straws broke that broke the camel’s back, instead it was them giving up trying to change these things they acknowledged. They’re drained from this uphill battle.

’m posting this because I grieve for the community that I no longer want to be a part of. I’m posting this because I feel sad every time someone thanks me for standing up for better community norms, because I have essentially given up trying to change the Linux kernel community. Cultural change is a slow, painful process, and I no longer have the mental energy to be an active part of that cultural change in the kernel.